The Omani poet, Aisha Al-Saifi, entered the paradise of poetry, crowned as the first woman to win the title of the “Prince of Poets” program, in its 10th season. With the monotony and traditions of standing on the ruins, she decorates the scarf of her talent with the creativity of a language that has always advocated the new and the innovative.
• You are the first woman to be crowned a princess in the kingdom of poetry.. How do you feel?
– If you asked before the coronation about that feeling; looked different; As he had gone on a very long and arduous journey, as if he had landed his travels at the end point, I felt at that moment that the trouble was worth going through; Because when I heard my name announced, I felt that I was flying in joyful skies, floating on the wave of truth, and the reality of joy, and I had always expected to win; because I am worthy of it; I entered this race armed with all my poetic tools, and devoted my effort and work on the texts that I paid great care to, and I was sure that God would not disappoint my endeavor. Now, I feel the responsibility that I assumed by winning “Prince of Poets”, because it is not the end, but rather the beginning of a new page in my poetic journey.
creations of the past
• Poetry is an invitation to celebrate the different.. Do you practice experimentation to get out of the mainstream, or do you have poetry as a call to the craftsmanship of heritage?
– A poet can be a poet as long as he does not knock on the door of the different, because we do not stop at the building that was founded by the predecessors; According to the data of our social and cultural reality, we continue to build those towering castles, which were built by previous poets, and we – from a distance – raise the ceiling of our poetic expectations, accompanying our heritage that we intend to produce with criticism. Therefore, my poem must have modern poetic tools, benefiting from the poetic heritage, and my intention is to provoke the sons and daughters of my generation to interact with what I wrote, so my text resembles them and resembles the details of their lives. generation. Here, the concept of experimentation that we practice to consolidate the poet’s experience appears clearly, denying her absolute identification with the past. As a poet, I am distinguished from other poets, and my poetic suffering differs from the suffering of others.
What are the most important features of your poetic project?
In my poetic project, I seek originality and uniqueness, trying to dismantle female worlds. For me, it is an entity that has not yet been explored, and we may find in some of the productions of contemporary poets, such as: Mahmoud Darwish and Nizar Qabbani, voices of femininity, but the expression of the female is only good at a female like her, who writes about her without fear; Therefore, I want to write about a brave female who is not afraid of the censor’s scissors, a determined, committed female; I seek the creation of poetic texts, spoken by the female tongue, and expressed by her.
Describe the optimal moment; To receive the inspiration of the bottom line!
– It is a narcissistic moment, which possesses my entire being, and comes to me in the most strange places. It is an unexpected moment, and its revelation comes to me complete and incomplete. and for a moment I shall be faithful to poetic inspiration, and that will develop my aesthetic gifts; When this poetic revelation visits me, and its artistic images pour out; I abandon life with all its details, and I find great pleasure in following the poem as it is formed, as it is a moment of labor for the child of the poem, so I say that I am loyal to the poetic moment; Because it is characterized by selfishness.. Either it is or it is not.
• From your point of view, how does language become feminized through poetry?
– The poem is female, and it must be female if it emerges from the womb of female creativity; It communicates all the voices of women poets in the world across the ages, and they were thus tributary to the seas of language. Therefore, we must produce many females. Let us affirm the femininity of the language, which expresses the worlds of women; Let’s work on it linguistically; In pursuit of the feminization of the language.
The poem is incomplete
• Who were affected from the past, and what was the impact?
– Since my early acquaintance with poetry, I have read many poets from different eras, but I can say that I am loyal to the poetic text without its author. That is why you find me reading obscure poets whose work is distinct and serious, and the more I read, the more I know that there is no complete poem, as it is incomplete to be completed by those who come after it. Therefore, I will continue to be faithful to the beautiful text, as I am a product of all those who preceded me, so I do not want to be a duplicate of one of the poets. Through my readings, I strive for distinction and the instrument of my unique poetic experience.
• How do you find the poetry scene in the Gulf in general?
– I was present at the Gulf Poetry Forum, which was held in Dammam a month ago, and I was pleased to listen to poetic experiences from different age groups, men and women, and I discovered how different we are in terms of geography, culture and openness, as they fused into these texts that I listened to; That is why I say that Gulf poetry, today, is at the forefront of poetry in the Middle East, but there are many experiences of female poets that we have not yet come across; We look forward to the day when women’s creativity becomes normal, when women ascend the pulpit; To receive her free poem with all boldness and courage.
• What does the “Prince of Poets” award, offered by the UAE, add to poetry and poets?
What the UAE is doing through the “Prince of Poets” program is spreading poetry among this generation that is busy with communication sites and the world of the Internet, and it is a very pioneering and important role. Because it contributes to hair marketing; Let it become a popular culture, and let the voice of poetry remain present in the conscience of this generation that is being embraced by globalization. Such programs devote poetry, and make it the ideal civilized face. How much we need, today, to plant poetry in people’s lives, and to make it a mass material.