Kazim al-Samawi

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Kazim al-Samawi
Al-Samawi, 1970s
Al-Samawi, 1970s
Native name
كاظم السماوي
BornKazim Jasir Faraj
1925 (1925)
Samawah, Mandatory Iraq
Died (aged 85)
Stockholm, Sweden
Resting placeSaiwan Cemetery, Sulaymaniyah
Occupation
  • Poet
  • journalist
  • writer
LanguageArabic
Citizenship

Kazim Jasir Faraj (

family name is derived from his hometown demonym, Samawah. He studied in Baghdad and graduated from the Rural Teachers’ House in 1940, continued his higher studies in Hungary and graduated from the Faculty of Arts in 1956. He worked for a while in journalism in Baghdad with a progressive tendency, founded The Humanity in 1956, a twice-weekly leftist newspaper. He left about seven poetry collections that have been translated into several languages. Al-Samawi died at the age of 85 in Stockholm and was buried in Sulaymaniyah.[3][4][5]

Biography

Early years

Kazim Jasir Faraj was born to Iraqi parents in the city of

laqab, al-Samawi being derived from his birthplace. His exact birthyear is disputed. According to his own statement, he was born in 1925, whereas other sources claim 1919. Very little is known about his early years, except that he went to Baghdad to complete his education, and graduated from the Rural Teachers’ House in 1940.[6] He began his literary career in the late 1940s with two beits in classical Arabic poetry genre.[6] He rose to prominence as a left-wing realist poet and committed journalist in the next two decades. [7]

Middle years

He began his life in exile in the 1950s. While he was in Lebanon, the Iraqi government at the time, headed by

Arabic: الإنسانية, romanized: Al-Insānīyah, lit. 'The Humanity'), but it was closed down in 1961. Al-Samawi criticized a statement made by Qasim, when he gave a speech in an organization in which he was renouncing the Kurdish nation as a separated people of Arab descent.Al-Insaniyah published an editorial in response to the speech entitled "Kurdish nationalism is not a soluble bullet."[10]

Kazim al-Samawi with his colleagues in Baghdad (bottom right), early 1960s.

Following his denaturalization in 1954, his journey began to live in exile for many years and decades, which gained him, despite hardships, new acquaintances. Exile life gave him a new vision and culture that made him to see “what he did not see in his country or what he did not find in books,” as he put it.

Lattakia in Syria from 1982 to 1984, then he left Ba'athist Syria for Cyprus in 1984-1993, to return to Syria again in 1993-1996, and in the summer of 1996 he moved to Sweden as refugee. [10] He had witnessed the death of nearly all his family members, from his parents to his two sons, one daughter, and wife.[10] His son Nasir was assassinated on 20 November 1991 in Beijing, where he was studying, and his wife died shortly after Nasir. His other son, Riyad was kidnapped in Baghdad, after he returned from Germany, and he was a soldier in the Iran-Iraq war and died years later with cancer. In mid-2008, his daughter, Tahrir, died in London.[8]

Al-Samawi was involved in the World Peace movement, and contributed to the establishment of the peace movement in Iraq in 1952, which he represented in many international conferences. He participated in the Asia and Pacific Rim Peace Conference in Beijing in 1952 as the representative of the Arab world.[8] He was also member of the Poetry Society of the Arab Writers Union in Syria.[11]

Final years and death

In 1994, a collection of his poetry from 1950 to 1993 was published in Beirut.

campaigner of revolutionary communist ideas against revisionism.[14]

Al-Samawi spent the last decade of his life in a one-room elderly care apartment in Skärholmen. He did not suffer from any personal or service problems, but complained of loneliness and alienation from his friends while abroad. Al-Samawi died on 15 March 2010 in his last exile, Stockholm, the capital of Sweden.[1][15] Upon his death in Stockholm, President Jalal Talabani ordered the transfer of his body to Iraq by a private plane to be buried in Sulaymaniyah, since he was one of the advocates of the Iraqi Kurdish nationalism. His funeral took place in the city of Sulaymaniyah on 25 March. As per his wishes, he was buried in the city's Saiwan Cemetery.[16]

Works

Poetry collections:

Other works :

  • Arabic
    : الفجر الأحمر فوق هنغاريا, 1954
  • Arabic
    : حوار حول ماوتسي تونغ, 1990

References

Citations

  1. ^ a b Al-Samawi, Karim (25 November 2020). "كاظم السماوي في ذكراه". almadasupplements (in Arabic). Archived from the original on 5 September 2022.
  2. ^ Shararah, Abd al-Latif (1988). Waḥdat al-ʻArab fī al-shiʻr al-ʻArabī وحدة العرب في الشعر العربي دراسة ونصوص شعرية (in Arabic) (first ed.). Beirut, Lebanon: The Centre for Arab Unity Studies. p. 381.
  3. ^ Yaʻqub, Imil (2004). Muʻjam al-shuʻarāʼ : mundhu badʼ ʻaṣr al-Nahḍah معجم الشعراء منذ بدء عصر النهضة [Dictionary of poets since the beginning of Nahda] (in Arabic). Vol. 2 (first ed.). Beirut, Lebanon: Dar Sader. p. 932 (407).
  4. ^ Al-Jaburi, Kamel Salman (2003). Mu'jam Al-Shu'ara' min Al-'Asr Al-Jahili Hatta Sanat 2002 معجم الشعراء من العصر الجاهلي حتى سنة 2002 [Dictionary of poets from the pre-Islamic era until 2002] (in Arabic). Vol. 4 (first ed.). Beirut, Lebanon: Dar Al-Kotob Al-Ilmiyah. p. 215.
  5. ^ Matba'i, Hamid (1995). al-Mawsūʻat aʻlām al-ʻIrāq fī al-qarn al-ʻishrīn موسوعة اعلام العراق في القرن العشرين [Encyclopedia of eminents of Iraq in the twentieth century] (in Arabic). Vol. 1 (first ed.). Baghdad, Iraq: Dār al-Shuʼūn al-Thaqāfīyah al-ʻĀmmah. p. 169.
  6. ^ a b Umar 2013, p. 33.
  7. ^ a b Umar 2013, p. 34.
  8. ^ a b c d e f g h i Abd al-Amir, Talib (25 November 2020). "في ذكرى شيخ المنافي كاظم السماوي". almadasupplements. Archived from the original on 5 September 2022.
  9. ^ Éji vándor (in Hungarian). Retrieved 6 September 2022. {{cite book}}: |website= ignored (help)
  10. ^ a b c Umar 2013, p. 35.
  11. ^ "كاظم السماوي". awu.sy (in Arabic). Archived from the original on 5 September 2022.
  12. ^ "الأعمال الشعرية لكاظم السماوي 1950 - 1993". neelwafurat (in Arabic).
  13. ^ "حوار مع الشّاعرة فيفيان صليوا: أنا حاضرة في الغياب وغائبة في الحاضر" (in Arabic). 15 July 2020. Archived from the original on 5 September 2022.
  14. ^ "ذكرياتي الطويلة مع الشاعر العراقي الراحل كاظم السماوي ( ابو رياض )". kurdistanpost.nu (in Arabic). 22 March 2010.
  15. ^ "في ستوكهولم رحل شيخ المنفيين العراقيين الشاعر كاظم السماوي". Sveriges Radio (in Arabic). 17 March 2010. Archived from the original on 5 September 2022.
  16. ^ "تشييع جثمان الشاعر المعروف كاظم السماوي في السليمانية". radiosawa (in Arabic). 25 March 2010. Archived from the original on 5 September 2022.

Sources

  • Umar, Nawzah Hamad (2013). al-Ghurbah fī shiʻr Kāẓim al-Samāwī الغربة في شعر كاظم السماوي (in Arabic) (first ed.). Beirut, Lebanon: Al-Manhal.
    ISBN 9796500127033
    .

External links
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Kazim_al-Samawi&oldid=1216508082"