When Gibberish and Uniqueness Intermarry
By Rita Cohen-Sharaf
Written in October 2005
“Halamanteeshi” is Wafaa’s new and first CD title featuring her poems in English and songs in Arabic. The CD is a unique production that mesmerizes and makes the listener want to repeat it over and over again. Its uniqueness stems from the fact that Wafaa’ produced her singing as a wonderful collage of her children songs and “Halamanteeshi” poetry of the past with her vocal interpretation of the present. Her songs and poetry at age four were collaged uniquely with her current singing. She also beautifully mixed her singing with that of her deceased uncle, Dawood Salman. His outstanding voice was recorded briefly once shortly before he was killed in a car accident in 1965.
Between the ages of three and five, Wafaa’ used to make up poetry and recite it in a similar way to that performed by Arab poets. The difference is that her poetry, although rhymed beautifully, it was meaningless. Her uncle (on her father’s side), Dawood Salman, called it Halamanteeshi poetry. Halamanteeshi was the term he created to mean gibberish. For Arabic speakers, the ‘H’ in Halamanteeshi is the Arabic letter ‘Haa’ sister of ‘khaa’.
In 1964, Wafaa’s father and uncle decided to record family members’ voices at home on reel tape and send it with a friend to two family members (Wafaa’s uncles) who were studying in Moscow at that time. It was in this historic recording that both Wafaa’ and her uncle, Dawood Salman, performed songs and poetry. In 2000, while hosting her radio show at WZBC in Newton, Massachusetts, Wafaa’ transferred that reel tape to Digital Audio Tape (DAT) and later in 2002, she converted it to a CD. Then, came the birth of a unique idea by Wafaa’ to produce this CD in memory of her eldest uncle, Dawood Salman, and her youngest uncle, Majid Salman, a soldier who was killed in July 1988 during the last month of the Iran-Iraq war.
The CD’s poems on war and peace as well as few humorous short thoughts intelligently written (in English) and beautifully recited by Wafaa’ are a MUST HEAR. No words can express the richness and diversity of ideas in these wonderful poems. Her recitation is accompanied by violin, piano and jazz saxophone, making it a spiritually intoxicating production.
The CD includes Iraqi children and folkloric songs as well as lullabies performed by Wafaa’ in Arabic language in addition to an English song (from a poem written by Wafaa’) vocally interpreted and sung by Veronique Epiter, a French-American singer.
Following the hate crimes that immediately occurred after the September attacks in 2001, Wafaa’ lived in a different mode. The affect of the “war on terrorism” era forced her in 2002 to be somewhat anti-social and to regularly write poetry, prose and essays. It was also an era in which Wafaa’ no longer listened to Arabic and English songs. “I don’t like to listen to songs in languages I understand. I can’t stand listening to meaningful songs anymore. They are all a cliché, either about love, pain, nature or nationalism. Song lyrics offer nothing new,” said Wafaa’. She began to listen to voice interpretation of anything but meaningful words; to music only or to songs in languages she did not understand. This mode brought her closer to and made her appreciate her childhood “gibberish” poetry, which she beautifully incorporated in her singing performance of tracks 3 and 4.
With the exception of two Iraqi children songs and one folkloric song, all songs and poems in the 12-track CD were written and composed by Wafaa’ Al-Natheema. Wafaa' performed two of the CD's songs at the Peace Festival Beyond the DMZ in South Korea on August 26, 2005.
To purchase the “Halamanteeshi” CD, to set up an interview or to invite Wafaa’ for a poetry recitation (in English and/or Arabic), please contact the Institute of Near Eastern & African Studies (INEAS) in Cambridge, Massachusetts at INEAS_1994@yahoo.com, (617) 86-INEAS (864-6327 ext. 3), http://www.ineas.org/
CD cost: $15 + $2 S/H in the USA, Canada & Latin America
+ $3 S/H in Europe
+$5 S/H in Asia/Africa/Australia
Mail checks to:
Institute of Near Eastern & African Studies (INEAS)
P.O. Box 425125
Cambridge, MA 02142 USA
Rita Cohen-Sharaf is a free-lance writer and poet living in Canada with her husband and two teenagers. She can be reached at Cohen_sharaf@hotmail.com
