To Sum Up My Feelings on Egypt
The half-Palestinian, half-Egyptian Tamim al-Barghouthi, son of Palestinian poet Mourid al-Barghouthi has a long poem that he wrote after he was deported from Egypt in 2003 for taking part in an anti-Iraq war demo in which he talks about the conflicting feelings he has towards the country in which he grew up but that will always treat him as a foreigner (because his father is Palestinian, he cannot have Egyptian nationality, even though he was born there). I found to my surprise some of the things he said echoed what I felt – a kind of a love-hate relationship with this intense place, especially when he said while introducing the poem: when you are in it, you complain about it all the time, but when it is taken away from you, you suffer greatly. of course, his experience is a lot longer and more complicated, but I identified with this because can see myself appreciating certain things about this place that I complained about while I was in it all the time. He captures the conflicting feelings he has in simple but beautiful and articulate imagery.
The poem is called “They asked me: do you love Egypt, I replied I’m not sure”. Enjoy it, its really nice.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7nCegZza3IM]
