Nov 24, 2011
Nov 22, 2011
Nov 19, 2011
Hymns Of Life
I have once listened to hymns of life sung by birds of Freedom in sacred woods. So what? What I am trying to say is that such hymns sung by such birds, albeit few and rare, have been faithful to the promise they gave and now continue to hail. One of the hymns they celebrate is "Sapere aude" which basically means this: "have the courage to use your own understanding."
What reasons have we for hoping against emotionally atavistic stances ironically targeted towards the future? The idea is this: when the past calls for a meeting with the future in the province of the present, the future seems to be arrogant and boastful in character and looks at the past call, accordingly, with exaspiration.
The present, not able to understand what is happening because of politicians, nevertheless purports to reconciliate between them, moves back and forth, taps out insightful elements from the past, brings them up to theory and practice, studies the expediency, and imparts the results obtained thus far to the future.
The future refrains for a moment from its pride and prejiduce and gets to know how unity, not division, between past and present has managed to deliver a present perfect beyond the simple.
Now, by virtue of the present, the future changes and takes towards the past so modest, sincere and negotiated a stance. Unity, not division, will make the difference now towards a future perfect that will have obtained by the time unity becomes not a means to an end but a spirit persistently calling for a proper meeting of past, present and future in the making in the present progressive now safely geared towards the future.
Here, thus, are the questions:
What is Freedom?
What is Love?
In the questions
There is the answer.
But is it safe to say
they now belong to this part
of the world: TUNISIA?
But see, can Freedom come about
without Love?
Can Love obtain and entertain
without Freedom?
Can paths of Life cross again
without decoded signs of Love
encoded in signs of hatred?
Seekers of Truth,
The Freedom we seek to seize
is Freedom with Love.
Neither more nor less.
For never has darkness
concealed sparkling stars above.
And Flowers have never come
and gone without a promise of spring.
Brothers of Truth,
Enough is enough of fearing.
Enough is enough of tearing.
Keep the Love of Truth.
Keep the Freedom of souls.
Keep the beautiful Revolution
Of Hearts against the scams
of tamed minds and have
The courage to use your own
Understanding: "Sapere aude".
Chokri Omri
It is worth pointing out, by way of elucidation and explanation, that the dictum “Have the courage to use your own reason!”, used above, (in Latin sapere aude!), is the battle cry of the Enlightenment. It was articulated by Immanuel Kant in his famous article ‘What is Enlightenment?’ (1784). Obstacles that can stand in our way in achieving ‘maturity’, i.e. thinking for ourselves, are manifold and have to do with: the self, politics and society, as well as culture. These are problems that concern academics as much as anyone else: In a letter to his sovereign Kant declared freely that he believed Rousseau to be correct in saying that rulers only tolerate those intellectuals who are happy to simply “adorn our chains with flowers” – as many do. The greatest difficulty lies in motivating people to shake off immaturity: “It is so easy not to be of age. If I have a book which understands for me, a pastor who has a conscience for me, a physician who decides my diet, and so forth, I need not trouble myself. I need not think, if only I can pay – others will easily undertake the irksome work for me.” Immanuel Kant writes:
"Enlightenment is Man's emergence from self-imposed tutelage, that is to say, from the inability to use the intellect without guidance by another. It is self-imposed if its cause does not lie in a deficiency of the intellect but of the courage and determination to use it autonomously. Sapere aude! Have the courage to think!" (I. Kant, Was ist Aufklärung?).
What reasons have we for hoping against emotionally atavistic stances ironically targeted towards the future? The idea is this: when the past calls for a meeting with the future in the province of the present, the future seems to be arrogant and boastful in character and looks at the past call, accordingly, with exaspiration.
The present, not able to understand what is happening because of politicians, nevertheless purports to reconciliate between them, moves back and forth, taps out insightful elements from the past, brings them up to theory and practice, studies the expediency, and imparts the results obtained thus far to the future.
The future refrains for a moment from its pride and prejiduce and gets to know how unity, not division, between past and present has managed to deliver a present perfect beyond the simple.
Now, by virtue of the present, the future changes and takes towards the past so modest, sincere and negotiated a stance. Unity, not division, will make the difference now towards a future perfect that will have obtained by the time unity becomes not a means to an end but a spirit persistently calling for a proper meeting of past, present and future in the making in the present progressive now safely geared towards the future.
Here, thus, are the questions:
What is Freedom?
What is Love?
In the questions
There is the answer.
But is it safe to say
they now belong to this part
of the world: TUNISIA?
But see, can Freedom come about
without Love?
Can Love obtain and entertain
without Freedom?
Can paths of Life cross again
without decoded signs of Love
encoded in signs of hatred?
Seekers of Truth,
The Freedom we seek to seize
is Freedom with Love.
Neither more nor less.
For never has darkness
concealed sparkling stars above.
And Flowers have never come
and gone without a promise of spring.
Brothers of Truth,
Enough is enough of fearing.
Enough is enough of tearing.
Keep the Love of Truth.
Keep the Freedom of souls.
Keep the beautiful Revolution
Of Hearts against the scams
of tamed minds and have
The courage to use your own
Understanding: "Sapere aude".
Chokri Omri
It is worth pointing out, by way of elucidation and explanation, that the dictum “Have the courage to use your own reason!”, used above, (in Latin sapere aude!), is the battle cry of the Enlightenment. It was articulated by Immanuel Kant in his famous article ‘What is Enlightenment?’ (1784). Obstacles that can stand in our way in achieving ‘maturity’, i.e. thinking for ourselves, are manifold and have to do with: the self, politics and society, as well as culture. These are problems that concern academics as much as anyone else: In a letter to his sovereign Kant declared freely that he believed Rousseau to be correct in saying that rulers only tolerate those intellectuals who are happy to simply “adorn our chains with flowers” – as many do. The greatest difficulty lies in motivating people to shake off immaturity: “It is so easy not to be of age. If I have a book which understands for me, a pastor who has a conscience for me, a physician who decides my diet, and so forth, I need not trouble myself. I need not think, if only I can pay – others will easily undertake the irksome work for me.” Immanuel Kant writes:
"Enlightenment is Man's emergence from self-imposed tutelage, that is to say, from the inability to use the intellect without guidance by another. It is self-imposed if its cause does not lie in a deficiency of the intellect but of the courage and determination to use it autonomously. Sapere aude! Have the courage to think!" (I. Kant, Was ist Aufklärung?).
Nov 12, 2011
I remember you
When I see happy lovers
When nothing in the sky covers
The golden moon, when the seagull hovers
Over the melancholic sea ,I remember you.
When I hear your favorite song
Or your name by a strange tongue
When I need someone to make me strong
I remember you.
When the pink gets mellow
And the vernal drought brings the merry swallow
To sow life and revive the withered pillow
I remember you.
When I get up in a good state
And breathe the cool breeze of the morning,
When I don’t fear my fate
Nay, with bated breath waiting for the coming
I remember you, I love you.
Rafik el Fehem.
When nothing in the sky covers
The golden moon, when the seagull hovers
Over the melancholic sea ,I remember you.
When I hear your favorite song
Or your name by a strange tongue
When I need someone to make me strong
I remember you.
When the pink gets mellow
And the vernal drought brings the merry swallow
To sow life and revive the withered pillow
I remember you.
When I get up in a good state
And breathe the cool breeze of the morning,
When I don’t fear my fate
Nay, with bated breath waiting for the coming
I remember you, I love you.
Rafik el Fehem.
Nov 7, 2011
Come Back
When you left, beauty stowed away in your heels
And joy slept with your ironed dresses
So what you left is somebody who kneels
May he find a hair of your tresses
I am sad like the jaundiced leaves of winter
And desperate like the ultimate quest,
Useless like the small splinter
When scattered from the rest.
I have no dreams by night but your seraphic countenance
Lethal darkness never hides your lit eyes
With love and tear, neither does long distance
Prevent my ear from hearing your heart‘s cries.
As the rain comes and quenches the avid lands
As survival rope is tossed to the drowner’s hands
As the convalescent child rejoins his friends
You should come so that the world stands
Rafik el Fehem.
Oct 2, 2011
Sep 22, 2011
Sep 16, 2011
Sep 6, 2011
Sep 5, 2011
Blue moon, you saw me standin' alone
Without a dream in my heart, without a love of my own
Blue moon, you knew just what I was there for
You heard me sayin' a prayer for
Someone I really could care for
And then there suddenly appeared before me
The only one my arms will hold
I heard somebody whisper "please adore me"
And when I looked, the moon had turned to gold
Blue moon, now I'm no longer alone
Without a dream in my heart
Without a love of my own
And then there suddenly appeared before me
The only one my arms will ever hold
I heard somebody whisper "please adore me"
And when I looked, the moon had turned to gold
Blue moon, now I'm no longer alone
Without a dream in my heart
Without a love of my own
Blue moon, now I'm no longer alone
Without a dream in my heart
Without a love of my own
Ella Fitzgerald
Sep 3, 2011
كُنْ كَشَذَا العِطْرِ المُعَطِرِ غَيْرِهِ
تَفَاَئلْ فَالصُبْحُ يَأْتِي مُشْرِقًا
مِنْ بَعْدِ لَيْلٍ مُظْلِمِ القَسَمَاتِ
وَاللهُ يَرْزُقُكَ فَلا تَكُ يَائِسًا
لاتُذْهِبَنْ العُمْرَ فِي حَسَرَات
كُنْ وَاثِقًا ، كُنْ مُؤْمِنًا ، كُنْ آمِنًا
كُنْ لَيِّنًا ، كُنْ دَائِمَ البَسَمَاتِ
كُنْ كَشَذَا العِطْرِ المُعَطِرِ غَيْرِهِ
كُنْ شُعْلَةَ الإِيمَانِ فِي الظُلُمَات
Aug 29, 2011
Aug 27, 2011
Aug 16, 2011
A Window of Hope
CHOKRI OMRI
(TUNISIA)
One cannot but try to wonder: 'was it my grandfather who got up at four in the icy morning to lead the sluice of water into the garden?' This is the question that remains to be asked and to which my answer will be part of the question our posterity will undoubtedly put. One ought never to blame our ancestors. On the contrary, one should rather admonish himself for wanting to be something similar to them. It is accordingly essential to us to open our eyes to the fact that we have to start anew without fear or submission.
It is now our turn to learn how to stand upon our own feet without being shown how to live or what to feel or not to feel. This earth belongs to us. It belongs to us and I do not think that it will do and be availed to simply wait and see whether things are going to happen or not. Whoever wants to fight for his freedom must start out at once by setting himself free from all the chains and shackles he comes into close contact with. Let us make sure we
do not end up becoming slaves of the past. We are going to be free and then build up for the future for it is the only window of hope that is elaborately set before us as a way out of oblivion. It is, I must say, the struggle of life against death. It is the struggle of memory against forgetting. It is the struggle of truth against illusion
O FEREASTRĂ A SPERANŢEI
Unii nu pot face altceva decât să se întrebe: era cumva bunicul meu cel care se trezea la patru în dimineaţa de gheaţă pentru a îndrepta şiroiul de apă în grădină? Aceasta este întrebarea ce rămâne a fi adresată şi la care răspunsul meu va fi parte din întrebarea pe care urmaşii noştri o vor pune fără îndoială. Nu ar trebui să dăm niciodată vina pe strămoşii noştri. Dimpotrivă, ar trebui să ne punem în gardă pentru a dori să fim ceva similar cu ei. Este, prin urmare, esenţial pentru noi să deschidem ochii la faptul că trebuie să o luăm de la început fără teamă sau supunere.
Acum este rândul nostru să învăţăm cum să stăm pe propriile noastre picioare fără să ni se arate cum să trăim sau ce să simţim sau ce să nu simţim. Pământul acesta ne aparţine nouă. Ne aparţine şi nu cred că va fi folosit pur şi simplu doar pentru a aştepta şi a vedea dacă lucrurile se vor întâmpla sau nu. Oricine vrea să lupte pentru libertatea sa trebuie să înceapă imediat prin propria-i eliberare din toate lanţurile şi cătuşele cu care intră în strânsă legătură. Să ne asigurăm că nu vom deveni sclavi ai trecutului. Vom fi liberi şi apoi vom construi pentru viitor deoarece este singura fereastră a speranţei care este minuţios aşezată înaintea noastră ca o ieşire din uitare. Este, trebuie să spun, lupta vieţii împotriva morţii. Este lupta memoriei împotriva uitării. Este lupta adevărului împotriva iluziei.
Traducere de Alexandra Diana Mircea
Universitatea din Iaşi
Aug 14, 2011
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