Refugee Study: Leave Me to the Salten Seas
Refugee Study: Leave Me to the Salten Seas is a work by Aïda, an Egyptian-Italian artist and silent activist. She created this work in December 2015 in Yokohama, Japan, following the refugee crisis break out in Syria, in reaction to the body of an unforgettable 3-year-old Syrian boy, Aylan Kurdi, a refugee who was found washed ashore near the Turkish resort of Bodrum in September 2015.
The Arabic poetry in this work is extracted from one of the most famous Lebanese poets of the 20th century, Khalil Hawi (1919-1982). Born in Shuwayr, Lebanon, Hawi was a poet, scholar, and professor of Arabic Literature at the American University of Beirut, with a doctorate from Cambridge University. Influenced by Arabic spiritual traditions and Western thought, his work blends a dystopic philosophical depth and simple diction in metrical free verse. Hawi’s poetry often explores themes of cultural tragedy and a mockery of renewal symbolized by figures like Sinbad and singing dervishes.
Hawi had five notable anthologies, including River of Ashes (1957), The Flute and the Wind (1961), and The Wounded Thunder (1979). In 1982, two days following the Israeli invasion of Beirut during the Lebanese Civil War, he committed suicide in his apartment near the American University of Beirut.
A part of his poem extracted for this image came from “The Mariner and the Dervish” from Hawi’s anthology, “River and Ashes.” Woven in black and red ballpoint pen, intertwined between the waves, Aïda adapted the following verse:
لن تغاويني المواني النائيات
خليني للبحر للريح المالح
And handwritten to the left of the Arabic script in the opposite direction is the English translating to:
The distant ports will not entice me
Leave me to the open seas and salt-laden winds.
Aïda further writes to the right-hand side of the Arabic script,
“Leave me,
When I drown, you will remember me.”
Signed to the bottom right in Japanese is 間, which transliterates her name, Aïda, and translates to many meanings, including a gap or space between, a period in the interval of time, a relationship between people or things, a midpoint or halfway, and the most Archaic means, due to or because of.
Artwork Details:
Aïda. Refugee Study: Leave Me to the Salten Seas, 2015. Ballpoint pen, ink, pencil, and acrylic on archival paper, 26 x 18 cm (10 × 7 in). Signed and dated, bottom right.
Further Citation:
Ali, Zahra A. Hussein. "The Aesthetics of Transgression: Khalil Hawi's 'The Sailor and the Dervish' and the European Grotesque." Journal of Arabic Literature, vol. 28, no. 3, Oct. 1997, pp. 219–241. JSTOR.
Twenty percent of the work proceeds will be donated to a refugee association of choice. Shipping is not included, and artwork is insured on us during shipment.
Refugee Study: Leave Me to the Salten Seas is a work by Aïda, an Egyptian-Italian artist and silent activist. She created this work in December 2015 in Yokohama, Japan, following the refugee crisis break out in Syria, in reaction to the body of an unforgettable 3-year-old Syrian boy, Aylan Kurdi, a refugee who was found washed ashore near the Turkish resort of Bodrum in September 2015.
The Arabic poetry in this work is extracted from one of the most famous Lebanese poets of the 20th century, Khalil Hawi (1919-1982). Born in Shuwayr, Lebanon, Hawi was a poet, scholar, and professor of Arabic Literature at the American University of Beirut, with a doctorate from Cambridge University. Influenced by Arabic spiritual traditions and Western thought, his work blends a dystopic philosophical depth and simple diction in metrical free verse. Hawi’s poetry often explores themes of cultural tragedy and a mockery of renewal symbolized by figures like Sinbad and singing dervishes.
Hawi had five notable anthologies, including River of Ashes (1957), The Flute and the Wind (1961), and The Wounded Thunder (1979). In 1982, two days following the Israeli invasion of Beirut during the Lebanese Civil War, he committed suicide in his apartment near the American University of Beirut.
A part of his poem extracted for this image came from “The Mariner and the Dervish” from Hawi’s anthology, “River and Ashes.” Woven in black and red ballpoint pen, intertwined between the waves, Aïda adapted the following verse:
لن تغاويني المواني النائيات
خليني للبحر للريح المالح
And handwritten to the left of the Arabic script in the opposite direction is the English translating to:
The distant ports will not entice me
Leave me to the open seas and salt-laden winds.
Aïda further writes to the right-hand side of the Arabic script,
“Leave me,
When I drown, you will remember me.”
Signed to the bottom right in Japanese is 間, which transliterates her name, Aïda, and translates to many meanings, including a gap or space between, a period in the interval of time, a relationship between people or things, a midpoint or halfway, and the most Archaic means, due to or because of.
Artwork Details:
Aïda. Refugee Study: Leave Me to the Salten Seas, 2015. Ballpoint pen, ink, pencil, and acrylic on archival paper, 26 x 18 cm (10 × 7 in). Signed and dated, bottom right.
Further Citation:
Ali, Zahra A. Hussein. "The Aesthetics of Transgression: Khalil Hawi's 'The Sailor and the Dervish' and the European Grotesque." Journal of Arabic Literature, vol. 28, no. 3, Oct. 1997, pp. 219–241. JSTOR.
Twenty percent of the work proceeds will be donated to a refugee association of choice. Shipping is not included, and artwork is insured on us during shipment.
Refugee Study: Leave Me to the Salten Seas is a work by Aïda, an Egyptian-Italian artist and silent activist. She created this work in December 2015 in Yokohama, Japan, following the refugee crisis break out in Syria, in reaction to the body of an unforgettable 3-year-old Syrian boy, Aylan Kurdi, a refugee who was found washed ashore near the Turkish resort of Bodrum in September 2015.
The Arabic poetry in this work is extracted from one of the most famous Lebanese poets of the 20th century, Khalil Hawi (1919-1982). Born in Shuwayr, Lebanon, Hawi was a poet, scholar, and professor of Arabic Literature at the American University of Beirut, with a doctorate from Cambridge University. Influenced by Arabic spiritual traditions and Western thought, his work blends a dystopic philosophical depth and simple diction in metrical free verse. Hawi’s poetry often explores themes of cultural tragedy and a mockery of renewal symbolized by figures like Sinbad and singing dervishes.
Hawi had five notable anthologies, including River of Ashes (1957), The Flute and the Wind (1961), and The Wounded Thunder (1979). In 1982, two days following the Israeli invasion of Beirut during the Lebanese Civil War, he committed suicide in his apartment near the American University of Beirut.
A part of his poem extracted for this image came from “The Mariner and the Dervish” from Hawi’s anthology, “River and Ashes.” Woven in black and red ballpoint pen, intertwined between the waves, Aïda adapted the following verse:
لن تغاويني المواني النائيات
خليني للبحر للريح المالح
And handwritten to the left of the Arabic script in the opposite direction is the English translating to:
The distant ports will not entice me
Leave me to the open seas and salt-laden winds.
Aïda further writes to the right-hand side of the Arabic script,
“Leave me,
When I drown, you will remember me.”
Signed to the bottom right in Japanese is 間, which transliterates her name, Aïda, and translates to many meanings, including a gap or space between, a period in the interval of time, a relationship between people or things, a midpoint or halfway, and the most Archaic means, due to or because of.
Artwork Details:
Aïda. Refugee Study: Leave Me to the Salten Seas, 2015. Ballpoint pen, ink, pencil, and acrylic on archival paper, 26 x 18 cm (10 × 7 in). Signed and dated, bottom right.
Further Citation:
Ali, Zahra A. Hussein. "The Aesthetics of Transgression: Khalil Hawi's 'The Sailor and the Dervish' and the European Grotesque." Journal of Arabic Literature, vol. 28, no. 3, Oct. 1997, pp. 219–241. JSTOR.
Twenty percent of the work proceeds will be donated to a refugee association of choice. Shipping is not included, and artwork is insured on us during shipment.