A Date with a Literary Scholar ~ Mr. Refaat Alareer

Today, we the literature students from University Putra Malaysia has a golden opportunity on meeting up with Mr. Refaat Alareer from Palestine. He is an English Literature teacher. He was very enthusiastic about his works. Throughout the two-hour session with him, he talks about his works passionately. The talk was in full swing. As the listeners, we were able to actually feel how he felt when he first wrote all the poems. Things were so chaotic back in his native country. It shocked us that he took almost a month to come visit Malaysia. And, he has to endure all the hardships to crossover the border of Gaza to Egypt before he could reach Malaysia. Before the talk, I was unaware and being kept in the dark on why wars happen between those two countries. All I know is many innocent people are killed daily and nonchalantly. The innocent people ranging from the babies to old folks were never spared for lives. Today, Palestine is all scattered apart and Gaza is their only land of hopes.

Mr. Refaat has a few good tips on how to write good poetry.

• Read a lot of good and high quality poetry
• Believe that you can write good stuff
• Have the will to do so
• Scribble your thoughts. Always.
• Imitate
• Be yourself

Mr. Refaat went on further in stressing that we must always carry a small notebook, or at least a phone with us. This is to avoid us from losing any good idea that might come in our way unexpectedly. Free write is very important, in this case.

Mr. Refaat also owns a blog where he will post all his poems, and to share it with the people around the globe. It mainly talks about the suffering of the innocent in Gaza, and how they live in fear.

•  http://thisisgaza.wordpress.com/

As we read through his poetry, we can trace down these three elements in it

• Dialogue
• Performance / Drama
• Palestine

His poetry are all beautiful, soulful, meaningful, and aspiring. When he read some of his works during the talk, we were carried away by him. We can actually feel the meaning of each and every word in the poem. Although, we are all living in a peaceful country as Malaysia but somehow, we felt as if we were there in Palestine.

During the Q & A session, there was a question that intrigued me. That question was posed by one of my classmates. She asked what is the significance of Olive in Palestine, in which Mr. Refaat replied it is believed to be the cure of every illness. The Olive Oil are used to rub on the body to ease the ache and pain.

Furthermore, Mr. Refaat also introduced us to a few famous poets from Palestine. Their poetry were all about the ongoing wars in Gaza. Poets such as Mahmoud Darwish and Tamim Bargouti are famous for their Arabic poems while poets like Rafeet Ziadah and Susan Abulhawa use English in writing. This is because English is the most accessible language and easy to be understood by people around the globe. It helps to transcend the message clearly and easily.

Below are some of the videos about the poets mentioned above.

                                                  Rafeet Ziadah reciting "We teach life, Sir"

                                                               Wala by Susan Abulhawa