i spent 10 days on my second group trip to russia, and i will write about some of my impressions in this article and the next.
on june 6, the russians will celebrate the 179th anniversary of the birth of the great poet and writer alexander pushkin.
pushkin grew up in a noble aristocratic family. his mother was the granddaughter of abram petrovich gannibal, also hannibal or ganibal, the african ethiopian with sporting curly hair and thick lips and it is believed he was close to caesar peter the great.
pushkin was very fond of his wonderful and beautiful wife. one day it was rumored about that she had a relationship with a person, and in an attempt to defend his honor and reputation, pushkin asked his rival to join him in a duel, as a result of which both men were injured and pushkin died two days later.
a l t h o u g h pushkin did not live for more than 38 years, he left behind an unforgettable eternal legacy and became the prince of the poets of russia.
he is the founding father of the modern russian language after he succeeded in breaking the barrier between russian vernacular (slang) and classical aristocratic dialects. his talent for writing dramas, novels and poetry of all kinds is no less than his many other talents.
pushkin also preceded his era and others in dealing with social and political issues, very complex on plot and intelligence that did not come to the minds of his peers and other russian giants who came after him such as dostoyevsky, tolstoy and chekhov. many giants of russian literature acknowledged his favor.
he also called for social justice and political reform, without fear of being oppressed by emperor alexander the first, and was subjected to exile, detention, hiding and entering into several battles with nobles and the infl uential people.
one of the most striking evidence of pushkin’s importance is that the societies and authorities of three completely different political and social systems of governance have agreed on his greatness.
he was respected and venerated in the era of the czars of russia. when the russian bolsheviks overthrew the tsarist regime, their respect for pushkin increased for his role in precluding and speeding up the revolution.
after the perestroika, and the collapse of the communist regime in russia, the respect, admiration and veneration of pushkin continued, as i touched it in the eyes of young and old, and on every tongue.
there are cities bearing his name in addition to theaters and public and private museums illustrating his effects, not to mention streets and hotels named after the great poet.
but when we look at our countries, what do we fi nd? we fi nd that if we took only the biography of the prince of poets ahmed shawki, let alone al-mutanabi and al-rsafi and nizar qabbani, and hundreds of others, we fi nd that shawki is equivalent to pushkin in several things. he was raised in the khedive ismail palace, and lived a luxurious life, and his origins differ from the origins of those around him.
shawki’s father was a kurd or a circassian, and his mother was greek turkish, both of whom won the title of ‘prince of poets’ in their respective countries, but neither shawki nor any of our giants received, as usual, 1 percent of what pushkin earned in terms of respect and veneration among his people.
is there anyone who wonders about this shameful situation? note: i apologize to all readers for the omission that took place in my article on thursday without my knowledge, so the subject of the article looked trivial and substandard.