Egyptian writer Maysara Salah Eddine: “Theatre shaped my poetry”

"For this reason, all of us who participated in this documentary felt a great responsibility to convey Naguib El Rihani's legacy."

Poetry v theatre

Although theatre and poetry share similarities, poetry veers more toward the personal, while theatre veers to the public sphere. This is not to say, though, that the two don't overlap.

"Poetry is my refuge,"Salah Eddine says, adding: "It is where I retreat to practice self-reflection and reveal my thoughts."

"This does not necessarily mean that poems must be personal, but sincerity in a poet's experience helps him write poems that touch the lives of others and express their feelings and ideas," he continues.

"It gives them ample room for interpretation and reflection, which opens new horizons."

"Theatre is different," according to Salah Eddine, who explains that:  "through their characters, scriptwriters can understand everyone, including those who do not share their views."

"As a scriptwriter, I can debate my very own beliefs to various degrees, to the point of challenging them and perhaps even abandoning them."

"My experience with theatre influenced my poetry and reshaped my knowledge and experiences as a poet and human being."

Like many young artists,he often participates in playwriting workshops, which he considers to be "crucial for exchanging expertise and refining one's artistic skills."

But he believes they also have another vital function, which is "to create different visions and new experiences that introduce creative talents to many basic skills and insights that equip them with the tools needed to make their own mark and find their own voice and inspiration."

While workshops cannot singlehandedly produce new creative talent, he says, "they offer a nurturing environment to guide those who are on a journey to rediscover themselves by testing new waters."

"They also help create experts who understand the function of art and the importance of creativity," he adds.

Translation works 

Salah Eddine translated famous American poet Sylvia Plath's only novel, 'The Bell Jar,' which he considers "a full-fledged novel" that doubles as "a painful personal narrative filled with glimpses into the loneliness and anxiety that dominated Plath's life."

The young Egyptian poet believes that translation "is a literary act full of challenges."

From the very first moment, a translator faces the dilemma of comparison: his translation versus the original text, his translation versus other translations of the same author, and, of course, comparisons between the different translations of the same text.

Therefore, he explains, "the translator must be brave enough to face the challenges of the translation process and have the courage to make decisions that he/she believes are in the best interest of the text and the reader."

Salah Eddine attributes his decision to translate 'The Bell Jar' in particular to "a connection of sorts between myself — as a reader and poet — and the poems of Sylvia Plath."

"This connection gave me a degree of reassurance to craft a new translation of Plath's novel that expresses her poetic language, as well as her personal fears that she reveals throughout the novel."

As for the role of translation in refining the poetic experience, Salah Eddine says: "A poet's personal experience is the main driver of his creative project. The more his knowledge and expertise grow through a variety of experiences, the more his poetry diversifies and evolves to reach new horizons."

He adds: "Delving into the experiences of writers and poets from all around the world contributes, to a great extent, to the cultural formation of poets and writers. But after absorbing these experiences and forming a strong connection with them as a translator, I must take a step back and employ my personal vision as a poet and playwright in order to preserve my own creativity."

The path less travelled

Salah Eddine has taken the less travelled path of playwriting while most of his peers flocked toward novels, which are more common and popular. He has published many poetic dramas and musicals, some of which have made it to the stage, such as: 'Tram al-Ramel' (The Tram of Dirt), 'Bar Sheikh Ali,' and 'Ahwal Shakhsiya' (Personal Affairs). However, he says that it was 'Pandora' that cemented his path as a poet and playwright.

In this context, Salah Eddine rejects the idea that readers are biased in favour of novels: "The audience cannot be accused of bias in favour of a specific literary genre or writing; it's just that they're always eager to discover whatever's new."

"The audience will always engage and interact with the creative adventures of people that have different experiences if they have the honesty and diligence needed to develop their tools for the sake of such innovation."

Salah Eddine downplays the literary awards he has won in Egypt and abroad calling them "casual events in a writer's life that may or may not occur and have no significance in and of itself."

"Rather," he explains, "they motivate writers to push themselves harder to research, reflect, and create new art and forge new life experiences."

Salah Eddine concludes by sharing his aspiration to objectively evaluate his art "in order to continuously develop it, cross into new paths and attain new visions."