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Nabeel Yasin is a highly-acclaimed Iraqi poet who was blacklisted in his country in 1978 for refusing to write poems glorifying Saddam Hussein’s regime. Now three decades later he is back in his homeland where he is running for the position of prime minister in the elections scheduled in March. Jeb Sharp talks with Yasin.
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JEB SHARP: By the time the US invaded Iraq the so-called poet of Baghdad had been in exile for more than 20 years. Nabeel Yasin had upset Saddam Hussein’s regime so much that the words enemy of the state were stamped in his passport. He fled Iraq in 1980. He recently returned with political ambitions. Yasin is running for prime minister in the March elections. Today in Baghdad Yasin recalled how he first fell out of favor with Saddam Hussein’s regime.
NABEEL YASIN: The problem start in early ‘70s when I read my poem, The Poet Satirizes King. So they thought that the poem satirized Saddam Hussein himself.
SHARP: Was it your intent to satirize Saddam Hussein?
YASIN: My poetry satirized the dictatorship in Iraq and everywhere.
SHARP: And where did you go when you left Iraq 30 years ago?
YASIN: Actually it wasn’t easy for my son Yamam and for my wife Nada. My son was three years and it was awful for us to stay for example in Syria, two weeks in Lebanon, three months in France, three weeks … . So our home was luggage and after two years I was able to stay for a couple of years in Hungary.
SHARP: You are very popular as a poet in Iraq and people read your poetry and smuggled your poetry back in even when you were far away. I wonder if that translates now. You know is this a serious run for political office or are you making a point?
YASIN: I’m working in the political field as an amateur but I’m a professional poet. So I try to mix between my dream and my realistic idea.
SHARP: How different is it to be a poet among the people compared to being a politician among the people?
YASIN: To be a poet I think it’s very, very good to be very close to the people. The politics unfortunately is different than the poetry. Many, many politicians they don’t like to meet people. Just to get their votes. So this is the problem in Iraq now.
SHARP: So why really are you trying to be prime minister? Why run for office if you what you really want to do is be a poet?
YASIN: Iraq needs to be again part of the international society. Iraq now belongs to 200 years ago. Even the Iraqis watching the television, using the internet, but [INDISCERNIBLE] the situation still belongs to 200 years ago. So I think if I’m just one citizen in Iraq I couldn’t do anything. But if we have position as educated people so we can help the people to realize the real democracy in Iraq, I mean real democracy, which gives the people the hope and take care for their demands.
SHARP: You’ve been back in the country a little while now. Did you recognize it when you returned? Was it strange to you or still familiar?
YASIN: I went with friend from the house to get something from a small shop. I told my friend … . I said listen I’m walking in the same street which I walked 30 years ago but I have not the same feeling. I’m still feeling I’m stranger. And everything around me still strange.
SHARP: Do you remember it as a better place 30 years ago?
YASIN: Exactly, exactly. For me it was a paradise. Everything was normal. In my, inside my feeling, even they chasing me from the secret police even the situation was very dangerous, even I faced death several times, but inside me the situation was normal. But now I lost Baghdad twice. One when I left it and another one when I came back to live in Baghdad.
SHARP: Nabeel Yasin have you been writing poetry since you returned to Iraq and do you have something you could recite for us?
YASIN: If you like I can read something from Mesopotamia poem.
SHARP: Yes please.
YASIN: This poem is speaking about women in Iraq.
[READING POEM IN ARABIC]
SHARP: It’s so beautiful in Arabic and I don’t speak Arabic but I’d love to hear a little bit more about what you were saying.
YASIN: I’m saying does this woman who will take care for the flowers maybe she will waiting for somebody bringing something from Damascus or from Shiraz or some water from Mecca but in the end she was alone. She still remember how many people she had lost and say my God is there anyone to lose?
SHARP: Nabeel Yasin is one of Iraq’s most beloved poets and a candidate for prime minister. Thanks again.
YASIN: Thank you very much.
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