Article
On Ayman Agbaria's 'Why Did They Select Us to be Their Victims?'
Yesterday's victims are tomorrow's heros and the victims of the day after tomorrow
October 16, 2006
Agbaria’s poem points to the wondering and the pondering of the survivor who, having withstood the struggle, remains alive and arrives at the blessed moment of freedom; who may finally write and rewrite history as he or she sees it, considering why and for what purpose life was made so difficult, but there is no longer anyone left to accuse. This feeling of having no one with whom to speak is carried to extremes in the poem because even the idea that ‘they’ – the ones who commited crimes – are no longer present is a misleading feeling. In effect, even if ‘they’ were still here, there would be no one to talk to. The existential distance between the the victim and victimizer doesn’t allow the possibility of an answer to the question raised by the poem.
Writing, especially writing poetry, is a human attempt to manage with, among other matters, difficult questions that don’t always have answers. This attempt is bound by its very nature to fail – because “Half the truth is for us/ And half the lie is for them” to use the poet’s exact words. Those who are practiced in the theories of Karl Marx and his like and who believe in the objective truth have an easier job of coping in a world where truth is not really sweeping and one-sided. What does planet earth say about the destruction wreaked on it over so many years, and not merely for a ship and a sail?
The question embedded in the title of Ayman Agbaria’s poem immediately awakens a sense of injustice.
This feeling is characteristic of those who have been victimized by acts of violence, persecution, prejudice or discrimination. The first two kinds of victimization expressed in the poem – cutting down trees and stripping people, whether living or dead, of their clothes – are aimed at physical matter – at the landscape and the body, although the second example involves humiliation of the spirit too. The third type, turning those who are weak into victims, forcing them to demonstrate their victimhood by crying and gesturing, is a true rape of the soul; often this kind of emotional handicapping of the Other is the most difficult obstacle to the victim’s recovery, to rebuilding life and mental health. Agbaria’s poem points to the wondering and the pondering of the survivor who, having withstood the struggle, remains alive and arrives at the blessed moment of freedom; who may finally write and rewrite history as he or she sees it, considering why and for what purpose life was made so difficult, but there is no longer anyone left to accuse. This feeling of having no one with whom to speak is carried to extremes in the poem because even the idea that ‘they’ – the ones who commited crimes – are no longer present is a misleading feeling. In effect, even if ‘they’ were still here, there would be no one to talk to. The existential distance between the the victim and victimizer doesn’t allow the possibility of an answer to the question raised by the poem.
Writing, especially writing poetry, is a human attempt to manage with, among other matters, difficult questions that don’t always have answers. This attempt is bound by its very nature to fail – because “Half the truth is for us/ And half the lie is for them” to use the poet’s exact words. Those who are practiced in the theories of Karl Marx and his like and who believe in the objective truth have an easier job of coping in a world where truth is not really sweeping and one-sided. What does planet earth say about the destruction wreaked on it over so many years, and not merely for a ship and a sail?
© Rami Saari
Translator: Lisa Katz
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