{"id":255775,"date":"2019-08-29T17:58:57","date_gmt":"2019-08-29T20:58:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/?p=255775"},"modified":"2019-08-30T11:28:03","modified_gmt":"2019-08-30T14:28:03","slug":"brazil-gives-me-a-fresh-idea-of-love-moroccan-author","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/anba.com.br\/en\/brazil-gives-me-a-fresh-idea-of-love-moroccan-author\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Brazil gives me a fresh idea of love\u2019: Moroccan author"},"content":{"rendered":"

S\u00e3o Paulo \u2013 Moroccan writer Abdellah Ta\u00efa came to Brazil to promote his first book translated into Portuguese, \u201cHe Who Is Worthy of Love\u201d (Aquele que \u00e9 digno de ser amado<\/em> \u2013 Editora N\u00f3s<\/a>, 2018, 131 pages). He spent two weeks in the country, participated in Cear\u00e1 Book Fest, Balada Liter\u00e1ria in Salvador, where he met Portuguese author Valter Hugo M\u00e3e, and was in S\u00e3o Paulo last Tuesday (27) for the event Pr\u00e9-Balada Liter\u00e1ria at Centro Cultural B_arco in Pinheiros.<\/p>\n

Ta\u00efa is the first openly homosexual Arab writer, having come out in 2006. He writes in French and his books have been translated into Arabic, Spanish, English, Swedish, Danish and Portuguese. The author<\/a> talked to the audience about his writing process, told some stories and answered questions about the letters in his book, which he said that has self-biographical elements. Afterwards, he autographed the books, all hugs and selfies.<\/p>\n

During the chat, Ta\u00efa said he was glad to spend this time in Brazil. \u201cI\u2019m happy to be here. I feel like there was a Brazilian Abdellah, whom I met here. Brazil makes me a different person. I\u2019ve talked with some people here and I admire the way Brazilians occupy the territory of feelings. Brazil gives me a fresh idea of love, a fresh perspective on loving,\u201d he pointed out.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\u2018Aquele que \u00e9 digno de ser amado\u2019 book cover<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Moderator Simone Paulino asked Ta\u00efa to tell \u201cthe story of Agep\u00ea\u201d \u2013 Brazilian singer-songwriter from Rio de Janeiro, deceased in 1995. The writer was in Brazil in October last year for the first time, in Porto Alegre. He had never considered visiting this Brazilian city and had a deadline to deliver a letter that had been commissioned for a German movie, which narrates the love story of a Lebanese young man and a German-born Turkish descendant woman. \u201cIt was a posthumous letter, and it\u2019s a true story, but they couldn\u2019t use the original letter. I had two months to write and couldn\u2019t pull away from the real letter. Sometimes, love can be a devilish thing. This letter would be the movie\u2019s final sequence and had to convey a voice from the past that is still present because of love,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Arriving in Porto Alegre, Ta\u00efa was told that he had less than a week to deliver the text, since they would shoot the scene. \u201cThen I went on YouTube and typed \u2018chansons br\u00e9siliennes’ (Brazilian songs, in French), and the first video was the song \u201cDeixa eu te amar\u201d by Agep\u00ea. I loved that tune, understood just a few words, but the song inspired me to write the letter. Then I searched for the translated lyrics and within three hours I had the letter written. It starts like this: \u2018Even from afar, let me love you a bit.\u201d It\u2019s a mix, a Moroccan author writing from Porto Alegre, Brazil in French for a German movie telling the story of a Lebanese guy and a German-born Turkish descendant girl,\u201d he said. The movie\u2019s working title is \u201cThe Wife of the Pilot\u201d and is bound to come out in 2022.<\/p>\n

Inspiration to write<\/strong><\/p>\n

Ta\u00efa believes that inspiration can come from unexpected places, like Agep\u00ea. He recommended the attendees to read the text \u201cIn Praise of Bad Music\u201d by Proust, which talks about that, he said. According to the Moroccan author, a culture elitism, a hierarchy of feelings, is in place, meaning that writers give voice to elite characters and are not interested in the emotions of the poor, and said he tries to reverse this logic. He believes it\u2019s important to get to know authors and great works, read poems, and even copy them and learn them by heart, but they should be forgotten afterwards.<\/p>\n

\u201cWriting is practice, practice, practice. Others\u2019 judgment is not important. I was so rejected when I was a teenager that now I understand the importance of knowing who I should or should not show a text to. I experience this emotion even before writing. I always want to move people, make them cry. Egyptian movies also influenced me a lot; they were all I watched while growing up. We all have the power to write through images.\u201d<\/p>\n

How writing came into his life<\/strong><\/p>\n

Ta\u00efa told that, as he turned 12, he got to understand the world and its logic, so that he could go beyond it. \u201cI understood that, in Morocco, French speakers were rich and Arabic speakers were poor. I needed to be smarter than anyone who tried to stop me. I chose French because it was the language of the rich; this language crushed me, and I owned it, and I wanted to go far away, but these were unfeasible dreams at the time. It wasn\u2019t a na\u00efve path to follow. At a very young age, 15, 16, 17 years, I had to act and think in a very diabolical manner,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

He said he didn\u2019t become a writer by reading Victor Hugo, Proust or Shakespeare. \u201cIt\u2019s a very bourgeois idea, one that excludes people like me; by this logic, others are not allowed to exist. People are afraid of those who write, specially their family, but one needs to find the strength to keep going against the odds,\u201d he said. The author defined himself as hyper-curious and said that in literature what exists is not necessarily said.<\/p>\n

From 2003 to 2010, Ta\u00efa worked as au pair of a boy in Paris. In 2010, he won a literary award in France, and only then he could devote himself entirely to the craft. The award, he said, brought both money and recognition, but he said he lives a simple, modest life.<\/p>\n

Genre: Letter<\/strong><\/p>\n

Ta\u00efa said he always wanted to write a book made up by letters \u2013 \u201cHe Who Is Worthy of Love\u201d is written in this format. \u201cI\u2019m 46, I was born in 1973. When I was growing up, letters were important. I came out with a letter in an Arab newspaper in 2006. Writing a letter, reading it out loud, people relate to it. It\u2019s a simple but deep format that everyone can understand. The word has a voice,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Ta\u00efa autographed the books at the end of the event<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The book \u201cHe Who Is Worthy of Love\u201d is a fiction work written in the format of letters, and the author says it is about a hardened heart, a barren life. \u201cThrough all this love, I reflect on the world. I have no shame in exploiting my own life, but I don\u2019t tell secrets from others. I write how I picture you, in spite of you. We read ourselves in the books, this feeling of relating is the magic of literature,\u201d he stressed.<\/p>\n

Relation with Morocco <\/strong><\/p>\n

Ta\u00efa lives in Paris, in the same building where singer Edith Piaf used to live. \u201cShe\u2019s from the real French people, from a poor background, her mother was a prostitute, and she achieved all that. Everybody likes Piaf,\u201d he said. The writer said he goes to Morocco often to visit his brothers and sisters that still live there. Their parents have already died, as shown in the first letter of his book. He lived in the Arab country until he was 25.<\/p>\n

His books are sold in his home country, in French, and three of them were translated into Arabic \u2013 \u201cThe Day of the King\u201d (published in Lebanon), \u201cA Country for Dying\u201d and \u201cLetters to a Young Moroccan\u201d (published in Morocco). He said that his house in Morocco had 11 people living in three bedrooms, one for his father, one for his older brother, and the last one for him, his mother and sisters. \u201cWe were nine people in one bedroom until I was 18\u201d \u2013 another similarity with the book, where the main character Ahmed also lives with a big family in a modest house.<\/p>\n

Ta\u00efa said that, despite writing his books in French, he is considering writing in Arabic soon, and that it would be another creative process.<\/p>\n

Colonialism<\/strong><\/p>\n

The author told it had been a long time since he wanted to write a book in letters, but he couldn\u2019t do it with any theme, and he found the theme now he has lived in France for 20 years. Morocco was colonized by France from 1912 to 1956.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s almost as if the French watchword is \u2018we colonized you, but this is in the past.\u2019 But it can never be like that. It creates some kind of amnesia, which France encourages. My generation started understanding this history, how [colonization] affected us, but France want us to forget it all. Through racism, xenophobia and hatred toward immigrants, this complex far-right is widespread in France nowadays,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

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Event took place at Centro Cultural B_arco<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cSo people think that since I\u2019m homosexual I\u2019ll speak ill of Morocco and the Arab world, if I\u2019m a Moroccan gay writer, I\u2019d necessarily be on France\u2019s side, our old colonizer. No, never, ever,\u201d Ta\u00efa stressed.<\/p>\n

The writer continued saying that he experiences this feeling every day. \u201cIn this book I wanted to reach this precise point, of how my heart got harden from my relation with my mother and what others imposed on us, and also the colonialism infused in a love relationship,\u201d he said, giving away self-biographical bits on the book.<\/p>\n

The author said, \u201cwhen freedom becomes so skilled, it isn\u2019t freedom anymore,\u201d that is, as he managed to master the French language and quote (Arthur) Rimbaud, Andr\u00e9 Gide, everything he believed would make him free, it also became a kind of prison. \u201cThe book talks about that and if the reader doesn\u2019t put the book aside and gets to the third letter, they will see I got where I wanted to, and we see that Ahmed had a revenge plot, which will only be understood in the fourth letter, he said. He didn\u2019t want to tell much about the last letter to avoid spoiling the experience of those who hadn\u2019t already read the book.<\/p>\n

Self-fiction<\/strong><\/p>\n

Abdellah Ta\u00efa said he has no formula when it comes to drawing from his own experience to write fiction. \u201cThere are no rules. I guess it might sound cocky, but I have lots of interesting stories in my family and I make them my own. There are lots of characters in this book and I\u2019m proud of it. I can\u2019t write fiction that doesn\u2019t involve something of mine. Generally speaking, I find it hard to step out of myself to make my art. It might be overtly autobiographical, or covertly so,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

He goes on: \u201cI\u2019ll look at people and think of stuff. Is that autobiographical or fictional? That\u2019s what literature is about. I\u2019ll look at a woman, imagine stuff about her and write it down. Everyone does that, don\u2019t they? I\u2019m the one imagining it, so it belongs to me. That\u2019s where my literature stands. What I pick up from the other in spite of them, and what I put in there from my own self,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The author said he\u2019s able to dream of someone for a long time. \u201cIt might be someone I never spoke with. I can dream of them for months, daydream. That\u2019s why I brought up Agep\u00ea; to me that\u2019s the magic of song. Those songs have the power of summing up a feeling through very simple words. I had never even met Agep\u00ea, and all of these things opened up in me,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

For him, the magic of literature happens when you read a book and you feel like you\u2019re reading about your own life. \u201cThe idea that art knows us before we even know it ourselves. It might be an ancient book, from the 17th<\/sup> or 18th<\/sup> century, and we might recognize ourselves in those stories. It\u2019s as if our little lives were something else that transcends us. I really believe deeply in that,\u201d he concluded.<\/p>\n

The event featuring Ta\u00efa was open to the public, during a lesson from a Creative Writing Workshop by writer Marcelino Freire, who also organizes Balada Liter\u00e1ria<\/a> events across Brazil. The 14th<\/sup> Balada Liter\u00e1ria will take place in S\u00e3o Paulo from September 4 to 8, in honor of educator and philosopher Paulo Freire.<\/p>\n

About 40 people joined the conversation with the author<\/a>, with moderation from Editora N\u00f3s director Simone Paulino, who edited the Brazilian version of the book, with simultaneous French-Portuguese interpreting by Raquel Camargo, who\u2019ll also translate the next book by Ta\u00efa to be released in Portuguese \u2013 Un pays pour mourir<\/em>, due out next year.<\/p>\n

Translated by Guilherme Miranda<\/strong><\/p>\n

Juliana Lubini\/Editora N\u00f3s<\/div>\n
Juliana Lubini\/Editora N\u00f3s<\/div>\n
Juliana Lubini\/Editora N\u00f3s<\/div>\n
Juliana Lubini\/Editora N\u00f3s<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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