Across various points in time over decades, the Moroccan philosopher Mohamed Al-Masbahi has reflected on the poetry and life of the late poet and academic Mohamed Serghini, who departed from this world at the age of ninety-six earlier this August. The author of 'And the Burning of His Names Will Come' was a pioneer of poetic adventure, having studied at Al-Qarawiyyin University, as well as at universities in Baghdad, Rabat, and Paris. For decades, he became one of the first academics of Moroccan universities post-independence, mentoring generations of researchers while also serving as a critic and narrator who enriched the Arabic literary treasury. His contributions were recognized with prestigious awards, including the 'Arkana Global Poetry Prize' and the 'Morocco Book Award.'
Serghini and Poetry
In a paper titled 'I Am Poetry: Granting the Heart an Intellect. A Traversal Through Serghini's Poetry', Al-Masbahi notes that 'the convergence of simplicity and profundity in Serghini is what lends his poetry and life a flavor of irony and mischief; yet his irony employs cultural and symbolic elements that are lavish.' He continued, 'What astonishes you about Serghini as a person is his simplicity that reaches the borders of childhood, which he himself acknowledges: 'Few are those who grow up childlike.' He even sees 'that he puts poetry in the smallest of creatures, its secret'... However, once you begin to read his poetry, you’re surprised by its depth without bottom and its boundlessness; this, indeed, is the paradox that distinguishes the great poet from others who are 'erased by the night’s day.'
Al-Masbahi elaborated, stating, 'The meeting of simplicity with depth, the illumination of expression with the obscurity of meaning, is what draws you into Serghini's poetry.' He added, 'His simplicity makes him free from the burden of lengthy poems, hastening him to capture the essence of existence and becoming in the realms of irony and beauty. Being among the skilled craftsmen, Serghini managed to weave his existential snippets and poetic spoils into a language of high quality, antiquity, and suggestion.'
Discussing the irony and essence of Serghini’s poetry, a specialist in the philosophy of Ibn Rushd and author of 'Yes and No: Open Thought in Ibn Arabi' stated, 'You should not expect a definitive stance from Serghini, nor a coherent and clear analysis, as he preferred to linger between ‘yes and no,’ choosing to dwell in a liminal space between heaven and earth, between truth and imagination, between reason and madness, between reality and shadow. Therefore, do not be surprised if his poetry is laden with innuendos and irony, with rash judgments and wild thoughts. If you are among the knowledgeable or possess the faith of the elderly or those who aspire to change the city - the cave, do not take his words too seriously; however, if you belong to the realm of generosity and existence, and are among the indicators and convictions, you have the right to consider his folly and wandering as a matter of seriousness.'
The thinker also captured Serghini's critique of reason and its theoretical and epistemic consequences. After briefly noting the bankruptcy of reason in his collection 'Who Did This to Your Skulls', he openly states: 'I wish to unravel the riddle of the fly without resorting to reason,' and elsewhere, he hints at the confines of reason by saying, 'The womb of the mother, softened by soybean oil, leads reason down the neck of a bottle.'
He further noted, 'The relationship with reason, especially if it is effective, can only be seen by him as a relationship of servitude... When he declares war on effective reason and its agents, he does so because he is fed up with the thought of essence and substance, the thought of unity and permanence, desiring to open up to the thought of distance and plurality... Among the indicators of his disdain for reason are his multiple references to the precedence of deviation over the rule: 'His incident, the dove / with its linguistic cords, on a night when frost gathers to flourish and the deviation that precedes the rule'; he goes even further in his hostility towards objective reason existing in the universe when he joyously declares 'glory to chaos,' confirming it with the acknowledgment, 'And I am filled with teachings, brimming with epochs, in need of destruction and chaos, which have infiltrated between fingernail and fingertip, escaping our mutual death, lowering their eyelids in ecstasy and dissipating it, and they have gains and losses that a language endures in its entirety.'
Serghini's poetry also defies knowledge, according to Al-Masbahi's readings, as it is either tied to ignorance or to sustenance; he prefers to exchange it for the warrior's dance: 'Be knowledge and its ignorance, and do not be a folded document, O Creator of the satin with which the bed is made! The absent tortured me in the witness. Take the fruit of gnosis and accept a final dance in the warrior's rest!'; he does not wish to sever ties with existence for the sake of the self, lamenting 'Woe to the sayings that the severance of the current obliterates!'.
Fes and Serghini
In Al-Masbahi's article titled 'Fes and Serghini', he clarifies that the poet 'considered the city of Fes as the primordial substance from which his poetic words are fashioned, or in the language of Ibn Rushd, he regarded Fes as poetry in potential, and he merely worked to bring it into action; this means he viewed Fes as a poetic existence.'
The reader of Serghini observes: 'His sayings were not intellectual concepts, nor were they residences and tastes of elegance, but rather poetic similes and metaphors. Mohamed Serghini's expressions were not composed of essence, action, reaction, space, time, substance, and image... nor of the stations of ecstasy, annihilation, reliance, and contentment... but of seven fruits: apricots, plums, mulberries... and the alleys, streets, and colors, each carrying its unique poetic and emotional history that resonates within the poet's being.' He then guides the poet’s readers to the path: 'Whoever wishes to seek meaning in Serghini's poetry must visit the alleys of Fes, savor its fruits, inhale its perfumes, and delight in its women. Yet, without achieving a connection and rapport with Fes, there must be a guide, and this guide can only be Serghini.'
Since 'every mysticism and philosophy aims for a goal which is connection, unity, and annihilation in the beloved,' Al-Masbahi perceives that Serghini 'seems to strive for achieving a
As reported by hespress.com.
