An Evening of Moroccan Poetry at the Journalist Club
Poems by contemporary Moroccan authors were presented for the second time in this year at an event organized by the Embassy of the Kingdom of Morocco to Bulgaria and the Europe and the World Foundation.
The Evening of Moroccan Poetry was held at the Journalist Club (4 Graf Ignatiev St., Sofia). The first such event was held on June 1, 2018, at the Residence of H. E. Mrs. Zakia El Midaoui, Ambassador of the Kingdom of Morocco to Bulgaria. The new event was once again under the patronage of the Moroccan Ambassador who cordially welcomed the guests:
“On behalf of the Embassy of the Kingdom of Morocco in the Republic of Bulgaria I am pleased to welcome you all to the poetic evening that the Embassy organizes in Sofia, for the 2nd time, in partnership with the Europe and the World Foundation, represented tonight by its President Mrs. Gergina Dvoretzka, to whom I express my gratitude and my friendship for her commitment to the side of the Moroccan Embassy in Sofia to concretize this cultural activity.
Tonight’s event marks the commemoration of the 63rd anniversary of the three glorious national celebrations of the Kingdom of Morocco, which are the return of the late King Mohammed V of exile, the Feast of the Renaissance and that of the Independence of the Kingdom.
These three important events, celebrated each year by the Moroccan people from Tangiers to Laguouira, symbolize the triumph of the will of the throne and the Moroccan people in the national struggle for freedom, independence and unity.
I take this opportunity to express my sincere congratulations to Mr. Khairi Hamdane, poet, writer, translator and journalist, who recently received the award for the “Bulgarian Feather of Translation”.
I should also like to thank the Bulgarian Union of Journalists, in the person of its President, Mrs Snejana Todora, and Mr. Ivailo Dimanov, Poet and Head of the Journalist Club, for hosting this event.
My thanks also go to the Bulgarian famous actors Mrs. Iva Karamancheva and Mr. Gueorgui Mihalkov as well as to the musician poet Mr. Ivan Hristov, who did us the honor to participate in this 2nd edition of the evening of Moroccan poetry”.
Mrs. Snejana Todorova, President of the Bulgarian Union of Journalists (UBJ), also greeted the guests of the poetic evening. She pointed out that the event coincided with the celebration of the 105th anniversary of foundation of the Union of Bulgarian Writers (UBW), and extended her congratulations to that creative organization, underlining that the Evening of Moroccan Poetry fits well into the celebrations of this anniversary. Mrs. Todorova recalled how successful the first such event was at the Residence of the Ambassador of the Kingdom of Morocco on June 1, and expressed her sincere gratitude for the support H. E. Mrs. Zakia El Midaoui had given to similar cultural initiatives.
As a sign of respect and friendly feelings towards Mrs. Snezhana Todorova, H. E. Zakia El Midaoui handed her a special gift on behalf of the Embassy on the occasion of the coming holidays, wishing for future joint fruitful work and for the good life of both nations.
The poet Ivailo Dimanov, manager of the Journalist Club and a member of the Board of the UBJ, also used the occasion to congratulate the UBW for its anniversary and expressed his joy that he was hosting the evening of Moroccan poetry. Then he presented the evening’s host: Gergina Dvoretzka – a poet, journalist, and President of the Europe and the World Foundation.
As it had happened in the first Moroccan Poetry Evening on June 1. the literary reading was opened by H. E. Mrs. Zakia El Midaoui. She read in the original French the poem Scars of the Sun by the Moroccan poet and writer Tahar Ben Jelloun, Goncourt Prize winner and a member of the Goncourt Academy, who is popular in Bulgaria, too.
During the second Evening of Moroccan poetry, verses from modern Moroccan poets, writing in Arabic and French, were read. The poet and translator Khayri Hamdan, winner of this year’s Peroto Award for the translation of literature from Bulgarian into a foreign language, presented his new translations of poems from Moroccan poets writing in Arabic: Ez Eldin Buraka, Iman Alchattabi , Hassan Bolhuishat, Ali Azahaf.
One of the poems included in the first evening of Moroccan poetry, Empty Chairs by the poet Nadaj Rajjah Om Sanaa, was read in the original Arabic by Mrs. Malica El Haddad, Advisor to the Embassy of the Kingdom of Morocco.
The poems of the poets Aissa Iken, Abderahamn Benamaza, Abdelatif Laabi, who write in French and were translated by Gergina Dvoretzka, were performed by the actors Iva Karamancheva and Georgi Mihalkov. The team of the Europe and the World Foundation invited them not only because they liked their performances but also because Georgi Mihalkov is a Francophone and performed some of the verses in the original.
Gergina Dvoretzka read personally a poem by poet Fatema Shahid, Echo Whispers the Remnants of Legends, in the original French and in a new translation.
The poet Ivan Hristov shared his impressions from the International Poetry Forum in Safi, Morocco, where he was awarded the honorary prize “Culture is a Refuge for Humanity”. The attendants also had the opportunity to hear his performances of kaval, which he also presented to the Moroccan poetry forum.
A musical greeting to those present was performed by the poet Ivailo Dimanov, a song with lyrics written by him.
At the end of the event, Gergina Dvoretzka expressed her gratitude for the sympathy shown by H. E. Zakia El Midaoui to the Moroccan Poetry Evenings organized jointly by the Moroccan Embassy and the Europe and the World Foundation, stressing that they were not formally under her patronage but entirely with her involvement in the preparation. Mrs. Dvoretzka said she had repeatedly spoken personally with the Ambassador about the organization of the two events, whose initiative was most often of H. E. El Midaoui – a proof of the importance she attaches to cultural contacts.
E. Zakia El Midaoui delighted the participants in the event with gifts, expressing their gratitude for working to promote Moroccan culture, and invited all guests to taste the famous Moroccan sweets and mint tea.
More photos of the event can be found on the Europa and the World Foundation page on Facebook here and here.
More on our site:
First Presentation of Moroccan Poetry in Bulgaria
Source: www.evropaworld.eu