Poet
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Moncef Mezghanni 1954-... country: Tunisia language: Arabic |
was a successful poetry performer long before his work was published. His epic poem ‘Ayyache’ (1982) brought him instant fame. Mezghanni is director of Tunisia’s Maison de la Poésie. The poet Moncef Mezghanni was born in 1954 in the Tunisian town of Sfax. He trained to become a teacher, taught for a while, and then went to work in the Ministeries of Education and Information. He is now director of the Maison de la Poésie in Tunis. Mezghanni began writing poetry at an early age. At first he had to recite his poetry to reach an audience, as there were few opportunities for publication. By the time his first volume of poems was published, he had already made a name for himself performing at poetry nights and festivals. He now has published six collections of poems. For children, Mezghanni has written two stories and two plays, one of which, Hisân al-Rîh (The Horse of the Wind), is in verse. Apart from this he works for radio, television and films. He also writes lyrics for songs. In a number of questions Mezghanni takes the middle of the road: he does not reject traditional metrical poetry, but continues to use it side by side with free verse, and between politically committed verse and poetry as art for art’s sake he claims he can find a third way. His selection for this festival may demonstrate this: the poems have lines of varying length en there is enjambment, but metre and rhyme do play a role, not as dominant as in the classical verse, but rather subtly, in the background. From Mezghanni’s observations on the subject one may gather that he finds treading a fine line between the old and the new harder to do than just doing away with tradition altogether. Author: Willem Stoetzer Translated by Ko Kooman Poets: |
