Hatif Janabi

HATIF JANABI

 Was born in Iraq, near by Babylon. He earned B.A. in Arabic Lang. & Literature from University of Baghdad (1972), M.A. in Polish Lang. & Literature, Univ., of Warsaw (1979) and Ph.D. in Drama from Warsaw University (1983), where he now teaches Arabic Lang & Literature .He was a lecturer of Arabic Literature and Drama in the University of Tizi-Ouzu in Algeria (1985-1988) and a Visiting Scholar: Indiana University (1993-1994). Since 1976 he has lived in Poland.
 Hatif is an outstanding poet, writer, essayist & translator. He is the author of (20) books of poetry, criticism & translation. He has published nine volumes of poetry. Every think has written by him is different than the others works.
 He has won numerous poetry prizes, amongst which: The Polish ZAiKS Prize for Translation, Warsaw (2003), Witold Hulewicz Award for all works, Warsaw(2003), International Day of Poetry in cooperation with UNESCO & The magazine “Poezja Dzisiaj”(Poetry Today) Award for all works, Warsaw (2005), The University of Arkansas Press Award for Arabic Literature (1995), Award of “Metafora” - Quarterly Review in literature (The Klemens Janicki Award for 1997) for poetry, First Prize for the collection of poems entitled “Dzikie Kontynenty”(Wild Continents) in The 14th International Festival of Poetry-Poznań 1991, and he was awarded The Polish Ministry of Culture and Art, Fellowship, June 97-June 98, June-December2000, January-June2002 &  January- June2008.

In edition, he was nominated for the Prize of Polish Ministry of Culture in Literature for 2003.

  His poems appeared in many languages: Arabic, English, French, German, Czech, Kurdish, Slovakian, Spanish, Persian, Polish, and Russia. His selected poems:” Questions and their Retinue 1972-1994” have been published in 1996 by The University of Arkansas Press. His name mentioned in more than twenty anthologies & encyclopedias for poetry & Intellectuals.
  His selected poems ”Faradis, Asakir wa Ayail”(Paradises, Soldiers, and Stags) have published in Arabic by Al-Mada, Damascus 1998; Raghba bayna Ghaymatain(Desire between two clouds), Beirut 2009; The polish selection of his poems ”Babilon Poszukuje Babilonu”(Babylon Seeking for Babylon) has been published by Świat Literacki Publishing House, Warsaw 1998; selected poems in French, Le Midi Arabe, Buchet/Chastel, Paris 2007. His poems have appeared in many Arab, English( Australia, England & U.S.A), German & Polish magazines and anthologies, such as “Language for a New Century: Contemporary Poetry from the Middle East, Asia, & Beyond”, W. W. New York 2008; “Ruckkehr Anthologie zeitgenossischer Lyrik aus dem Irak”, Kirsten Gutke Verlag/Koln – Frankfurt 2006; “The Space Between Our Footsteps”-poems & paintings from the Middle East, Simon & Schuster Books,U.S.A 1998, ”Literatures of Asia, Africa and Latin America”, Prentice Hall with Simon & Schuster Books, U.S.A 1999 and “Pisarze Świata..”(The Writers of the World)- Encyclopedia, PWN, Warsaw (1999). He is the author of” Arabic Theatre: origins, history and quest”, Dialog, Warsaw 1995.

He is the main translator of the polish literature into Arabic, translated more than 40 polish authors, such as Slowacki, Mickiewicz, Milosz, Herbert, Szymborska, Różewicz, Grochowiak, Zagajewski, Kornhauser, Stachura, Wojaczek, Kapuściński, Kolakowski, Leończuk...) and Arabic literature into Polish.

He has published (20) books and a co-author of 12 books. He is well known and held in high repute as a poet, writer, essayist & translator.
Hatif Janabi was a member of Polish P.E.N. Centre Board (till November 2003), The Union of Polish Writers (till 2006), Polish Oriental Association and Middle East Studies Association of North America (till 2006).

About his poetry:

• “The poems were passionate and jolting and could not be read without serious attention. They were not poems that would blend in with one’s environment; rather, they demanded that the reader transplant them” (Khaled Mattawa- U.S.A).
  

• “His poems are very interesting, beautiful and surprised a specific character, separateness among the poems of his colleagues” (Piotr Kuncewicz- Poland).

• “I read with admiration the poems of Hatif. A wonderful symphony of these poems came into being in my soul” (Ćedomir Kisić- Sarajewo).

• “Poetry of Hatif Janabi makes a new phenomenon in our polish culture (prof. J. Danecki, the introduction to “Aniołowie Miłosierdzia”Warsaw 1995).

• “Although exile, alienation and bad times with reversed values occupied much space in the soul of Hatif Janabi and became the main link of his words, with continuously glide like a wind in various directions of the land of poetry, his poems are open to various climates and broad horizons. They show a rich world and loving details of life in exile, in hectic reality. This world fills up with visions of perfectly co-existent similarities and contradictions, wholes and parts of swollen emotions”(Dr. Yousef Sha’hadeh, rocznik Orientalistyczny, University of Warsaw 2003).

• “Janabi’s poems deal with war, death, perception, and truth, drawing from his family life, his exile in Poland, violence in Iraq, and his experience in the United States”(New York Review of Books 3 October 1996).

• Ce qui fait la spécificité de l’écriture de Hatif Janabi, c’est qu’elle réussit ce difficile compromis entre dire et taire. On cherchera en vain un épanchement dans cette œuvre qui ne rechigne pas à dire « je ».(Jalel El Gharbi- Tunis-Hatif Janabi, Le poète et l’absence).

• “ Le vernis slave se superpose-t-il dans ses écrits au fond arabe? Qu’emprunte-t-il à l’Occident? En quoi est-il fidèle à l’Orient? Vaine recherché. En réalité, Hatif Janabi a pris le temps de tout lire et tout oublier ; sa poésie exprime ses preoccupations subjectives, reflète sa proper personnalité. Le lectteur trouvera ici une œuvre originale et puissante, qui le séduira”(Jacques Burko- Buchet Chastel, Paris 2007).

• “Que dit la poésie de Hatif Janabi en arabe? S’enfuir, dire ce qui s’enfuit, s’exiler, dire ce qui s’exile ; pour que, soudain, des mots prenent leur depart, sortent dérober au grand aie, par-ci par-là: l’énigme. Ainsi l’exil, qui d’habitude sépare, étragement unit”(Abdelfattah Makoudi- Morocco, Le Midi Arabe, Paris 2007).

• “…Malgré la beauté de son lyrisme, qui ou quoi peut sauver le poète puisqu’il dit que même les poèmes sont sans refuge ? Sans doute lui faudrait-il retrouver son « premier cri » et la foi naïve et absolue de sa grand-mère...
  O Dieu du noir
  Mon Dieu, y a-t-il secours ?
  O mon Dieu,
  il se meurt, il se meurt le pays." (Béatrice Libert, Belgium, décembre 2007)

.