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A Bahraini polyglot has released a collection of his poetry, weaving an intricate tapestry of mysticism and the literary traditions of Eastern poetry with the universal lingua franca.
In his debut collection A Breeze From The East, that hit shelves this month, Wael Almahdi has penned his verses in a style of his own creation called Mashriqi English (Mashriqi meaning ‘Eastern’ in Arabic).
In the 102-page book, Wael weaves Arabic and Persian words into poems in English, while emulating the sensibilities of classical Sufi poetry.
“I thought that it would be a very interesting literary and poetic experiment if I wrote the poetry in English, while including Arabic and Persian themes and vocabulary,” the 45-year-old told GulfWeekly.
“It is simply contemporary English with a
dose of Eastern ideas and vocabulary.”
Wael, a dentist by profession, began experimenting with this style five years ago on Instagram @words.from.the.east, aiming to reimagine the medium through which readers can experience poems written in the Islamic tradition – while making it accessible to people who spoke English.
“Our (Sufi) poetry is interested in transcendental and spiritual experiences. It features common metaphors of flowers, nightingales… symbols, which are usually not always represented in English,” the Saar resident said.
His words conjure evocative imagery and themes that traverse time, paying homage to the Sufi literary traditions of poetic giants like Rumi, Amir Khusrao and Mohammed Iqbal.
Wael developed an interest in languages and poetry during his early childhood, when he grew up in the US.
“I noticed that there were a lot of Spanish speakers in our area and also people from different parts of the world. And that gave me the motive to look up languages and discover how they’re different, but also how they’re similar,” he said.
He can now read 10 languages fluently, including Farsi, Turkish, Urdu, Spanish, German, Dutch and Hebrew.
He cites this curiosity to find common ground in our differences as the motivation behind his endeavour.
“Part of my motivation with Mashriqi English is that I want to bring cultures together. I want people to see how similar we are, not how different people are.”
Wael believes that his poetry has resonated with his followers over the years as the style is more accessible to people interested in classical poetry, especially within diasporic readers who have a desire to engage with heritage literary culture, but cannot delve into it due to language barriers.
“It sort of gives them this introduction. It reminds them of home, but at the same time it makes it accessible.”
Wael hopes that his poetry influences young poets to adopt this style and create something new and better than what he can create.
“This is a proof of concept. I’ve tried to show that it can be done. You can stick to English but you can also use Arabic, Persian and Turkish influences.
“I want people to be impacted by it. I want a young person to say, ‘this is beautiful. I want to create something similar’.”
Published by Crescent Books, A Breeze From The East is available to purchase on Amazon.
