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REMEMBERING NAGUIB SURUR: Life of a rebel poet Egypt's great poet and actor, Naguib Surur, died more than three decades ago, but his influence is still felt today
Thirty-three years have passed since 24 October 1978, the day Naguib Surur, the Egyptian actor and poet, died, leaving behind a treasured legacy for his short yet rich life. Forty six years is all he had to create the legend left behind and that still lives today. Mohamed Naguib Mohamed Surur Hagrass was born in Daqahlia governorate (northeast of Cairo) 1 June 1932. He was a young student when he wrote poetry about the struggle of the working class, after he witnessed his own father being hit and humiliated by the governor (hence his famous poem, Al-Hizaa, or The Shoe). Surur abandoned his study at the Faculty of Law during his final year in order to join the Higher Institute for Dramatic Arts, and there he received his degree in 1956, going on to start a rich career in acting and directing, besides poetry and criticism. The first step in his career was with the theatre directed by renown novelist Yahia Haqqi, a public governmental body. The fondness of Surur for the Soviet model was sparked when he won a scholarship to study drama direction in Russia in 1958. There he met his wife Sasha Korsakova, the mother of his two children, Shohdy and Farid. Departure from Moscow came upon a devastating incident: a fight in a café followed by his arrest, and his beating at the police station. Surur's tears that evening were not due to the pain he suffered, but rather to his discovery that the Soviet Union was nowhere close to the communist model he believed in — that the Soviet police was another shade of the Egyptian secret police. Surur's next trip was to Austria in 1963 upon invitation by an Egyptian political refugee, and there he worked in radio for a while. However, he returned to Egypt only one year later in 1964. Upon his realisation that his wife and sons would not be allowed in Egypt, it was said, Surur asked Sasha's permission to remarry, and he eventually got married to artist Samira Mohsen. Throughout this instable life, Surur was able to complete a wide collection of plays, including Meneen Ageeb Nas (From Where Do I Get People), and Yassin we Baheyya (Yassin and Baheyya). His poetry collections included Protocolat Hokamaa Riche (Protocols of the Elders of Riche), Al-Tragedia Al-Insaneya (Human Tragedy) and the famous Luzuum ma Yelzam (The Necessity of the Necessary) in addition to various poems published by newspapers including Al-Adaab, Al-Thaqafah Al-Wataneyya and Al-Akhbar. During the 1970s, soon after the Naksa (the 1967 defeat), Surur started suffering mentally and socially: he could not afford to feed himself, became homeless and depressed. In addition, chased by State Security, he ended up fired from the Arts Academy; eventually he ended up in a psychiatric hospital. Sometime during this period, Surur's Al-Umiyyat(a derogatory invocation of the word "mothers") came out and was quickly banned for its strident anti-government content. His son, Shohdy, tried to publish it on the Internet in 1998, for which he was sentenced to prison. He travelled to Russia and never returned. Surur's friends and acquaintances would describe him as a complicated, cheerful person, despite his tragic writings. Surur died in an untimely manner, leaving 15 poetry collections and five books of criticism. He was a true artist who stayed loyal to his cause throughout his life, believing deeply in the power of poetry: Poetry is not just poetry Because it is rhymed and eloquent If it shakes your heart And mine, then it is real poetry http://english.ahram.org.eg/News/24859.aspx
