هيدا زمانك

«هيدا زمانك»

خالد صاغية

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لكلّ الذين رمتهم الشركات العملاقة في الطرقات، هيدا زمانك.

لكلّ الذين قذفت بهم العولمة خارج قراهم ودكاكينهم الصغيرة، ليقطعوا آلاف الأميال ويعملوا في خدمة السيّد الأبيض، هيدا زمانك.

لكلّ الذين يجرّون أطفالهم مرغمين للعمل في مشاغل العرق، هيدا زمانك.لكلّ الذين اجتاحت الصواريخ الذكيّة بيوتهم الصغيرة، هيدا زمانك.

لكلّ الذين أُطلق اسم التخلّف على عاداتهم وتقاليدهم وأغانيهم وآلهتهم وحبّهم لأبنائهم وللخبز الذي تعجنه أيديهم، هيدا زمانك.

لكلّ الذين استُخدِموا وقوداً لتحفيز النموّ وجذب الاستثمارات وخدمة الدَّين العام، هيدا زمانك.

لكلّ الذين يخضعون للابتزاز اليوميّ ليتمكّنوا من دخول مستشفى أو مدرسة، هيدا زمانك.

لكلّ الذين يحملون أحلاماً لا تتّسع لها الأسرّة، وحبّاً يفيض عن حاجات البشر، هيدا زمانك

...

أكثر من أيّ زمان... هيدا زمانك.

The Power of Now - By: Eckhart Tolle

Well this one is a bit difficult..

So, It happened that i saw this book in many bookstores and many sites on the net, and the title as well as the comments on the cover [ and honestly the picture on the cover ] looked compelling enough .... but that's pretty much it.

The book should have been called : "the Power of Absolute Meaningless Bullshit-ness" [ and the last 'ness' is just to make it sound smarter as the original one tries ] !!!

This book attempts to take from the heritage of eastern philosophies [ which i deeply admire, by the way, and believe in many of their themes ] and mix it with some of the thoughts from Freud [The approach to Ego] and Schopenhauer [the struggle against immortality]. I honestly dont know if, and don't think that it is, intentionally.. but the result of the mixture is a piece of un-imaginable idiotic dimensions..

I honestly didn't read more than 3-4 chapters, but as a publisher once said "Lady, When I'm eating an apple, I don't need to swallow it completely to know that it is rotten!"..

So here are some of the statements from the book:

• Time is an illusion.. [ well you could agree to that somehow, but not like he means it]
• The past and the future can bring no pleasure or sadness and dont exist .. there is only the now ..
• Have the past and the future ever been felt or brought good or bad feelings
• You need to disconnect from the mind
• You need to fight and completely remove the ego.. it shouldn't make any difference to you if you are right or wrong [ !!!! ]
• Your mind cant understand what i'm saying .. only you can understand ..

I don't know what type of life is he trying to preach ... one with no past and no future [ he says that this is how you avoid pain bodies (?) ] .. one where the mind is minimized .. one with no ego .. with no right or wrong .... i think even one with no feelings .... He definitely erased memories [ past doesn't exist ] and hopes [ future doesn't exist ] ........ He mentioned this in the introduction ..... he's preaching the life of animals and plants !!!!!!!!!!!!!!

There are so many logical contradictions and huge vagueness in most of the arguments he presents.. but i don't think that a book of this calibre actually deserves that type of discussion.

A very fine example of what can happen people with a very narrow scope of knowledge and very weak mental capabilities try to preach lifestyle and philosophy of living.

Resonance

I always thought that this is one beautiful concept...

In sound .. Its the prolongation or amplification of sound due to different settings that sum up in two waves of sound having the same frequency and lag ...

In physics ... its the creation of a very strong vibration due to the equality of a system's frequency to that of an external source ...

In electricity ... the absence of resistance to current flow and the system becomes completely reactive .....

In human emotions ... very similar to the above ( notice the words 'absence of resistance', 'reactive', 'frequency equality' ).. its the sharing of an emotional pattern that results in a shared increase in intensity of an emotional state !!!! Sadness, Happiness enthusiasm .. its application to children ... to leadership ...

elegant concept!

AND .. by the way .. the pose of the women below is called 'Sojood' and in no way 'tawbaza' or 'tanbaza' ... "SOJOOD" ... w that's it .. no more discussion about this please ..

The Old Believers - Russia

Interesting:

شكــر!

نساء روسيات من مجموعة »قدامى المؤمنين« في روسيا، وهي مجموعة دينية انفصلت عام ١٦٦٦ ـ ١٦٦٧ عن الكنيسة الارثوذكسية الروسية احتجاجاً على بعض الإصلاحات التي ادخلها البطريرك نيكون. وتستمر هذه المجموعة بممارسة طقوسها الخاصة، ومنها التقليد السنوي الذي يلازم موسم الحصاد وفيه تقام صلوات الشكر للرب، وتنحني النساء التابعات للمجموعة أمام رجالها لشكرهم على مساعدتهم وصلواتهم من اجل موسم حصاد خصب. (أ ف ب)

Russian women from the 'old believers' group 'thanking' their men.

I explained to 'rasha' ( many times ) that this is how she should act .. but it seems i cant convince her .. women these days are very unreasonable .. i think its the too-much-education :D .. I even tried to explain to her using the story of why in arabic till now the husband is referred to as 'Baal' ( baal being a canaaite god .. and literally meaning lord ) ... again, she was neither convinced nor impressed..

Siddartha - By: Herman Hesse

The Story of Siddartha's spiritual quest for answering 'The question' and reaching Nirvana. Moving from attempting to neglect and defeat the self, into realizing its significance and then reaching Wisdom and understanding that truth has many faces and that the answer is not really an answer but a state of mind and a higher awareness.

The Son of a brahmin, he decides to become a samana, who lives in the wood, doesnt work and spends all his time meditating. He meets the Buddha and realizes that Teachers can't actually teach him. He looks at people as childish because of their emotional nature and the desires that control them. His journey later takes him to the world of flesh, physical love and trading (money). This disgusts him after many years and he escapes this life. He reaches an awareness of the importance of the 'emotional', and a river ( VERY SIMPLY ) helps him realize what time and teachers and quests couldnt.

A beautiful journey of search for the self and for the Nirvana and the meaning of life.. Fascinating resemblance between the message conveyed and Hesse's amazing Romantic (Neo-Romantic) writing style.

The Book of Laughter and Forgetting - By: Milan Kundera

I was told by a friend that Milan Kundera's books offer a very nice and interesting insight to the view of many of the people in the late communist era in Eastern Europe. This book in particular ( next to his very famous 'the unbearable lightness of being' ) looked very tempting to read..

The book is a series of short stories, very strongly connected by the themes of laughter and forgetting. Laughter is a deep value and a goal by itself.. Pure laughter.. the laughter that is originally diabolic.. But is very human and is somehow opposed to structure and organization; this is why the angels couldn’t really master it. This any structure is common in the stories touching Prague’s political conditions in the period around 'the spring'.

The writer through many of the situations and characters displays the value of laughing.. and discusses forgetting .. letting go, and allowing the past to be unconsciously integrated into the bigger flow of life, or else defying forgetting. Kundera Beautifully passes by the theme of the inability to reach the idealistic goals that the revolution is based upon, leading to its reduction into a bureaucratic body of deceit and forgetting ( in its negative form, and this is why the protagonist in one of the stories decides to live .. to remain a mark and defy forgetting ! )

Simplicity, belonging, youth, love, sex, dreams, memories, moving on, worries and hopes and more .. this book is a very emotional one, yet it doesn’t lack architectural genius and beauty of structure ( even though rigid structure in its systematic communist form is shown as opposing to the true nature of the people and detached from them).

Beautiful!

سائليني - Ask Me [ Not Precisely ] - By Said Aql

You might say alot about Said Aql, you might call him racist, you can call him many things.. but you have to admit, There aren't many Arabic poets with his creativity and ability to 'craft'.

I remember a university professor referring to his poetry as 'Sculpting', and till now, this is the word that i think most describes his poetry.. His poems - as he made it clear in one - are like marble statues.. Fairooz sang many beautiful poems (much more than i can mention here) but I have always thought that this one specifically was miraculous [this is the word to describe a 'special' Fairooz song] ..

****

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Translation of the lines in bold [very poor translation]:

Ask me how, when i scented my regards,

roses became jealous, and lavenders became sick ..

Your banks rested .. in my mind,

and your birds hid .. in my thoughts and flew ..

If i had to bottle my poetry in intoxication,

you would be the flow .. and the soft laughters ..

(...)

Your people, History is what they left behind [ part of the beauty here is the exact organization of words in arabic, which is not really possible in English] ..

Their mention, is an honor, hanging on the collar of time!

(...)

I am not a lone singer if I say ...

wounds are pleasures, if with the hymns of birds ,

For me its enough .. that I come from a mountain ..

that is between god and earth , a dialogue !

[listening to the song will give you a new level of appreciation for this poem]

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سائليني
شعر: سعيد عقل غناء: فيروز ألحان: الأخوين رحباني


سائليني، حينَ عطّرْتُ السّلامْ،
كيفَ غارَ الوردُ واعتلَّ الخُزامْ

وأنا لو رُحْتُ أستَرْضي الشَّذا
لانثـنى لُبنانُ عِطْـراً يا شَـآمْ

ضفّتاكِ ارتاحَتا في خاطِـري
و احتمى طيرُكِ في الظّنِّ وَحَامْ

نُقلةٌ في الـزَّهـرِ أم عندَلَـةٌ
أنـتِ في الصَّحوِ وتصفيقُ يَمَامْ

أنا إن أودعْتُ شِعْـري سَكرَةً
كنتِ أنتِ السَّكبَ أو كُنتِ المُدامْ

ردَّ لي من صَبوتي يا بَـرَدَى

ذِكـرَياتٍ زُرْنَ في ليَّا قَــوَامْ

ليلةَ ارتـاحَ لنا الحَـورُ فلا
غُصـنٌ إلا شَـجٍ أو مُسـتهامْ

وَجِعَتْ صَفصَافـةٌ من حُزنِها
و عَرَى أغصَانَها الخُضرَ سَقامْ

تقـفُ النجمةُ عَـن دورتِـها
عنـدَ ثغـرينِ وينهارُ الظـلامْ

ظمئَ الشَّرقُ فيا شـامُ اسكُبي
واملأي الكأسَ لهُ حتّى الجَـمَام

أهـلكِ التّاريـخُ من فُضْلَتِهم
ذِكرُهم في عُروةِ الدَّهرِ وِسَـامْ

أمَـويُّـونَ، فإنْ ضِقْـتِ بهم
ألحقـوا الدُنيا بِبُسـتانِ هِشَـامْ

أنا لسـتُ الغَـرْدَ الفَـرْدَ إذا
قلتُ طاب الجرحُ في شجوِ الحمامْ

أنا حَسْـبي أنّني مِن جَـبَـلٍ
هـو بيـن الله والأرضِ كـلامْ

Too Soon Old, Too Late Smart - By: Gordon Livingston

We always seem to complain about this ..

Dr. Livingston is a practicing psychiatrist since 1967. He is a father who lost two sons, one to suicide and the other to cancer. This element adds both depth and a bit of subjectivity to his writing [writing is not writing without subjectivity].

The book at hand is structured in the form of 30 tips that he observed through his own experience, and interaction with patients. The ideas present, even if debatable and many of them can be easily refuted, evoke thinking about certain aspects about human relationships and human behavior that remain unnoticed.

Interestings:

• Its difficult to remove by logic an idea not placed there by logic in the first place
• Only bad things happen quickly [ so live with it, damn it!! ]
• There is nothing more pointless, or common, than doing the same thing and expecting different results [ reminds of Einsteins statement that its wierd when we try to solve the problem using the same resources and abilities that made us fall into it in the first place ]
• We are all prone to the myth of the perfect stranger
• NOBODY LIKES TO BE TOLD WHAT TO DO [ yes , not even your kids ]
• The only real paradises are those we have lost

Some of the thoughts are overly simplistic, some are not original, others are deep, but in the end it makes sense at least to take a look at a summary of his life’s experience. Even at the evaluation level, it helps to read these thoughts as they can broaden one’s perspective.

One might be able to complain that there is not enough positivity or energy in this book, but remember that the writer doesnt believe in god, and this seems to have case a significant shadow on his writings overall [especially when coupled with the loss of his sons]..

I don't regret reading it .. much much more than what i can say about edward de bono's H+ [I just saw that book on the shelf and it made me angry .. again]..

نشيد الجبار - The Song of the Titan (Also: Thus Sang Prometheus)

This is the 'song of the titan'.. A poem very much descriptive of the feelings of a person constantly feeling attacked and let down by life..who refuses but to fall without a strong struggle.. Typical of 'Abul Qasem Al Shabi'.. One of the remarkable arab poets of the beginning of the century .. Tunisian in nationality, Died very young at the age of 25.

Prometheus is the titan who 'defied the gods' ( especially Mr. Zeus ) and gave humans the fire.. Zeus didnt like this act, and punished Prometheus severely and eternally .. A vulture will eat his liver all day, and it will regenerate itself at night for prometheus to endure this pain again and again .. hercules later on freed him ..

There is a strong will for life in this poem .. here is a translation of some of the lines :

I will live .. Disregarding sickness and foes .. Like an eagle on the highest cliff,

Looking at the shining sun .. mocking clounds and rain and storms ..

Walking in the land of feelings dreaming .. singing .. and this is the happiness of poets

Listening to the divine voice .. awaking in my heart .. the dead voices of the past ..

and facing fate that doesnt stop .. fighting my hopes with all challenges,

"The burning flames in my heart .. wont be put off by waves of sadness, or storms of trouble..

Try to break my heart as you want .. for it will be like a solid rock ..

Living as a giant .. always looking forward .. to the beautiful far dawn ..

Walking with a dreaming spirit .. shining through the darkness of pain and sickness,

Light in my heart, in all my feelings .. why should i fear the night ..

I am the flute whose tunes dont stop .... as long as he is with the living ..

.. If my life ends .. and my days are gone .. and my voice is silenced by the end ..

and the flame of the universe in my heart dies .. which had lived like a red tourch ..

Then i'm glad to be moving .. from the world of hate and sin ..

To dissolve in the beauty of non-ending beauty .. and drink from the well of light ..

I will say to those who wanted to kill me ..

and saw my still shadow on thorns .. Imagining my blood is gone ..

Hammers will not destroy my shoulders .. fire will not eat my body ..

so throw grass into the fire .. and play - you kids - under MY sky ..

I will from above tell you .. with the sun and the nice dawn in front of me ..

HE WHOSE HEART SPEAKS THE LANGUAGE OF DIVINE REVELATION .. CAN NOT PAY ATTENTION TO THE STONES OF THE STRAY

نشيد الجبار - لأبي القاسم الشابي

سَأعيشُ رَغْـمَ الـدَّاءِ والأَعـداءِ ............... كالنَّسْـر فـوقَ القِمَّـةِ الشَّمَّـاءِ

أرْنُو إلى الشَّمْسِ المُضِيئةِ هازِئـاً ............ بالسُّحْـبِ والأَمطـارِ والأَنـواءِ

لا أرْمقُ الظِّلَّ الكئيـبَ ولا أرَى ................. مَا فـي قَـرارِ الهُـوَّةِ السَّـوداءِ

وأَسيرُ في دُنيا المَشَاعـرِ حالِمـاً ............... غَرِداً وتلـكَ سَعـادةُ الشعَـراء

ِأُصْغي لمُوسيقى الحَياةِ وَوَحْيِهـا ............ وأذيبُ روحَ الكَوْنِ فـي إنْشَائـي

وأُصيخُ للصَّوتِ الإِلهـيِّ الَّـذي ................... يُحْيـي بقلبـي مَيِّـتَ الأَصْـداءِ

وأقـولُ للقَـدَرِ الَّـذي لا ينثنـي .................... عَنْ حَـرْبِ آمالـي بكـلِّ بَـلاءِ

لا يُطْفِئُ اللَّهبَ المؤجَّجَ في دمـي ........ موجُ الأسى وعواصـفُ الأَزراءِ

فاهدمْ فؤادي ما استطعـتَ فانَّـهُ ........... سيكون مثلَ الصَّخـرة الصَّمَّـاءِ

لا يعرفُ الشَّكوى الذليلَة والبكـا ........... وضراعَة الأَطفـالِ والضّعفـاءِ

ويعيـشُ جبَّـاراً يحـدِّق دائمـاً ............... بالفجر بالفجـرِ الجميـلِ النَّائـي

إِملأْ طريقي بالمخاوفِ والدُّجـى ......... وزوابـعِ الأَشـواكِ والحصبـاءِ

وانْشر عليه الرُّعب واثـر فوقـه .... رُجُمَ الرَّدى وصواعـقَ البأسـاءِ

سَأَظلُّ أمشي رغمَ ذلـك عازفـاً ............... قيثارتـي مترنِّـمـاً بغنـائـي

أَمشـي بـروحٍ حالـمٍ متَوَهِّـجٍ ................ فــي ظُلـمـةِ الآلامِ والأَدواءِ

النُّور في قلبي وبيـنَ جوانحـي ...... فَعَلامَ أخشى السَّيرَ فـي الظلمـاءِ

إنِّي أنا النَّـايُ الَّـذي لا تنتهـي .............. أنغامُـهُ مـا دام فـي الأَحيـاءِ

وأنا الخِضَمُّ الرحْبُ ليس تزيـدُهُ .............. إلاَّ حيـاةً سَـطْـوةُ الأَنــواءِ

أمَّا إِذا خمدت حياتـي وانقضـى ......... عُمُري وأخرسَتِ المنيَّـةُ نائـي

وخبا لهيبُ الكون في قلبي الَّـذي ...... قد عاش مِثْلَ الشُّعْلَـةِ الحمـراءِ

فأنـا السَّعيـد بأنَّنـي مُتـحـوِّلٌ ................. عـن عالـمِ الآثـامِ والبغضـاءِ

لأذوبَ في فجر الجمال السرمديِّ ......... وأرتوي مـن مَنْهَـلِ الأَضـواءِ

وأَقولُ للجَمْـعِ الَّذيـن تجشَّمـوا ................ هَدْمي وودُّوا لـو يخـرُّ بنائـي

ورأوْا على الأَشواكِ ظلِّيَ هامِـداً ............. فتخيَّلـوا أَنِّـي قضيْـتُ ذَمائـي

وغدوْا يَشُبُّون اللَّهيبَ بكـلِّ مـا ............. وجدوا ليشـوُوا فوقَـهُ أشلائـي

ومضَوْا يَمُدُّونَ الخُـوَانَ ليأكلـوا .......... لحمي ويرتشفـوا عليـه دِمائـي

إنِّي أقولُ لهمْ ووجهـي مُشـرقٌ .......... وعلى شفاهـي بَسْمَـةُ استهـزاءِ

إنَّ المعـاوِلَ لا تَهُـدُّ مناكـبـي ................. والنَّارَ لا تأتي علـى أعضائـي

فارموا إلى النَّار الحشائشَ والعبوا ..... يا مَعْشَرَ الأَطفالِ تحـتَ سَمائـي

وإذا تمرَّدتِ العَواصفُ وانتشـى ............. بالهـولِ قلْـبُ القبَّـةِ الزَّرقـاءِ

ورأيتمونـي طائـراً مترنِّـمـاً .............. فوقَ الزَّوابعِ في الفَضاءِ النَّائـي

فارموا على ظلِّي الحجارةَ واختفوا ...... خَوْفَ الرِّياحِ الْهـوجِ والأَنـواءِ

وهناكَ في أمنِ البيوتِ تطارحـوا ............ غَـثَّ الحديـثِ ومـيِّـتَ الآراءِ

وترنَّمـوا مـا شئتـمُو بِشَتَائمـي ............. وتجاهَـروا مـا شئتـمُو بعِدائـي

أمَّا أنـا فأُجيبكـمْ مِـنْ فوقكـمْ .......... والشَّمسُ والشَّفقُ الجميـل إزائـي

مَنْ جَاشَ بالوحي المقـدَّسِ قلبُـه ............. لـم يحتفـل بحِجَـارةِ الفلـتـاءِ