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A
Chance to Meet and Reach Out to One Another
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By
Amira Sayed al-Ahl
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11/10/2004
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Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish
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You
had to be on time if you wanted to see Mahmoud Darwish read some of his poems.
The Al-Andalus Auditorium, which hosted the famous Palestinian writer and poet,
was filled to the last space late yesterday afternoon. The people stood in large
crowds outside the doors, prevented by security to enter the overcrowded tent,
hoping to get a glimpse of the Palestinian.
On
Wednesday the 56th Frankfurt Book Fair opened it doors. For five days,
publishers and booksellers, authors and agents and of course, readers come
together in Frankfurt to indulge in books; to celebrate literature. “Books are
the key medium in our society. This is the message Frankfurt sends out around
the world”, said Dieter Schormann, President of the German Publisher &
Booksellers Association in his opening speech.
The
Frankfurt Book Fair is the biggest book fair in the world. Nearly 6,700
exhibitors from more than 100 countries are presenting the newest in literature,
art, and film on a total of 164, 000 square meters.
In
the first three days, roughly 150, 000 visitors came to the fair. Yesterday the
book fair opened its door to the public. Thousands of people were streaming
through the huge halls where they could choose between plenty of lectures,
poetry readings, performances, and more.
This
year the Arab world is the guest of honor at the book fair. Amr Moussa,
Secretary-General of the Arab League, spoke at the opening of the book fair on
Tuesday night. He emphasized that the Arab world as guest of honor brings a
taste of its culture, its literature, its art, and creativity. “We invite you
to a meeting of East and West in the world of literature, an encounter with and
an introduction to the horizons of science and the creativity of the arts,”
said Moussa. The book fair should be seen as a chance to meet and reach out to
one another. “We are meeting here today to give a new and brighter impulse to
the historical relationship between the Orient and the Occident.”
Suzanne
Mubarak, who opened the international center at the Frankfurt book fair on
Thursday, honored the book fair as a “world-celebration of the book”. She
said that Egypt was determined to encourage a generation of knowledge in the
21st century. A generation that will be open towards others in a culture of
learning. “Reading is a human right,” said Suzanne Mubarak.
Many
Arab writers followed the invitation of the Arab League, which was responsible
for the organization of the Arab program, and the German Publishers &
Booksellers Association to hold lectures, attend discussions, or to read from
their works.
Famous
Arab authors such as Mahmoud Darwish, Sahar Khalifah, Elias Khoury, and Naguib
Mahfouz can be seen at the fair. At the opening of the fair Tuesday evening,
Naguib Mahfouz gave an address speech as the literary speaker of the Guest of
honor, the Arab world.
But
also Arab authors who live, write, and publish in exile, are represented at the
fair. Their works are often forbidden in their countries of birth, and therefore
those Arab writers are mostly not well-known in the Arab world.
One
such example is the Syrian author Rafik Shami. 30 years ago he left Syria and
has ever since lived in exile in Germany. Shami, who is one of the most famous
Syrian authors in the world, writes his books in German. His works have been
translated into 23 languages, but none of his books exist in Arabic.
Besides
the successful start of the fair that on the first day of the exhibit numbered
1500 more visitors than the previous year, turmoil overshadowed the first days
of the book fair. The Simon Wiesenthal Centre had claimed a number of books at
the fair to be anti-Semitic and instigating hatred. However, the public
prosecutor’s office in Frankfurt informed the management of the Frankfurt Book
Fair on Friday that there are no legal reasons to ban the exhibiting of the
books mentioned by the Simon Wiesenthal Centre. All books which came under
scrutiny by the public prosecutor are highly critical of Israel, states a press
release of the Frankfurt Book Fair. Under German law, books can be banned from
public display if they are found to be pornographic, deny the holocaust, or
instigate hatred or crime. The public prosecutor found that the books did not
breach German law.
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