RFI Musique: What is your relationship to poetry? How did you discover this art?
Walid Ben Selim : First by my mother. She educated us through the verses of poets. On a daily basis, I heard their names, they were unconsciously part of my mental landscape… Then, there was this disconnection for a few years. And this dazzling return of poetry in my life. It was in India, in 2010. I thought I would stay a week, but my stay lasted three months. Three months during which I had to sing, offer creations every evening, but I had exhausted my repertoire… So, I immersed myself in the only book that I had brought in my luggage, The Epistle of Forgiveness d’Abu-l-Ala al-Maari (born in 973 and died in 1057, editor’s note), the most philosophical of poets and the most poetic of philosophers. A revelation! And the start of a journey!
Why this revelation?
I had known from school that Maari was a banned poet, and that upset me. His character fascinated me. Died blind at 84, this “vegan” demanded that men return the honey stolen from the bees! In fact, this convinced pessimist defended all creation, with the exception of humanity… An astonishing proximity to the ideas of the militant movements L214 and Extinction Rebellion (1)! A religious and political critic, he lived on the margins of the world, as an ascetic in his village, and people came to consult him. Including the envoys of the caliphs, eager to buy his services and his poetry at a high price for the court of Baghdad…He refused. It was not for sale. In short, here I am in India, during this initiatory journey, alone to speak Arabic, in permanent discussion with a poet from the 11th century. Enough to create a certain vocation!
How would you define poetry?
Poetry, for me, is the mathematics of language. Despite the complexity of classical Arabic, in a few clear words, you solve an equation about the world. A single sentence synthesizes in itself a philosophy, a feeling, a color… When you read Maari’s poetry, you realize that his truths are always valid, his flashes always just as powerful, like E=mc2: immutable formulas! Like this verse from Mahmoud Darwish – “ Here and now, between the debris of the thing and the nothing, we live in the suburbs of eternity »: how better than that to define life?
From your beginnings, you covered these poets in rap, with your group N3rdistan…
Each poet has a cadence, a key to understanding, a meter. I have fun finding it, to know how to rap, how to sing. I have always been at this crossroads between rap, metal, electro, with poetry at the heart…
Today you sing the Sufi poets. For what ?
For me, it is one of the most beautiful spiritualities, one of the most beautiful philosophies in the world. Sufism cannot be an affirmation nor a dogma: rather a way, a path. The etymology of the word also refers to a chrysalis, the transformation of a butterfly. As a verse from Mahmoud Darwish said: “ You carry the burden of the butterfly “. You have to look within yourself and nowhere else to find the divine. And this is exactly the poet’s approach. For me, all poets are Sufis.
How did you choose the poets you sing on this album? Why do you like them so much?
Ibn Arabi (1165, Murcia – 1240, Damascus, editor’s note), for example, remains one of the greatest theorists of love. He wrote on the subject like no other. And I find his teaching and wisdom fascinating! Because, in the end, we are educated in everything, except this primordial feeling: love! On this disc there is also Mansur al-Hallaj (858-922, Baghdad, editor’s note), Persian master of the 10th century, imprisoned then assassinated by those in power; Ibn Zeydoun the Andalusian (Cordoba, 1003, Seville, 1071); the Palestinian Mahmoud Darwish (1941-2008), and of course the essential Rûmî (1207-1273). Oh ! I love them all so much! And then, there is Abou Nawas (747-815), punk poet, who never stopped getting drunk, who declaimed provocations, to the point of insulting the caliph… A sort of Roman Gary of ancient times. There were countless fatwas weighing on his head, but his poetry was so beautiful that he was always forgiven. For me, these poets are friends, spiritual guides!
How did you choose the texts to set to music?
I can spend weeks and weeks reading this or that author, and at one point, one of the texts says to me: “ you sing to me, and this is how you are going to sing to me. “. A no-brainer. The melody blossoms… Then I develop and work with harpist Marie-Marguerite Cano.
Your voice has infinite power in the service of poetry… How did you forge it?
I never really worked on it, I never took lessons. But the best school I had was metal… This style teaches you to manage, to place your voice. And every day of my life, I have sung, since I was five years old and my first cover of Mahmoud Darwich.
Why did you decide on this duo, luminous, fragile, powerful and precious, with harpist Marie-Marguerite Cano?
To weave this repertoire, I was offered carte blanche with the recommendation to remain in the field of “world music”. Now, for me, a Moroccan, “world music” is perhaps “Western classical music”… I therefore chose the harp, this marvelous instrument, so far removed from the court of the caliphs of the 10th century. century, so “exotic”. And then, on this project, I wanted purity, to add nothing to the hubbub of the world, to lower the tone so that people would concentrate and listen to the words of the poets. “Less is more”: I wanted something simple and subtle, which comes from the heart.
This disc is called Here and now“here and now”, according to a verse by Mahmoud Darwish: why?
Because resisting the “here and now” constitutes one of the greatest tragedies of humanity. We project too much into the future, we look too far back. By this record, I wanted to say: “ come back with me, here and now “. Where poetry is played.
(1)L214 : French non-profit animal rights association and Extinction Rebellion: an international environmentalist social movement.
Walid Ben Selim Here and now (Nuun Music)
In concert on October 15, 2024 at the Studio de l’Ermitage in Paris
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