"But for the crowds in Tahrir, now is above all a time for poetry, and the muse of the moment may be Ahmed Fouad Negm. Born in 1929, Negm was a railway worker, postman and political prisoner before he became a hero of the counterculture in the 1970s. During that decade, he paired up with the oud player Sheikh Imam and recorded dozens of amusingly anti-authoritarian songs — including a famous lampoon of Richard Nixon and an equally famous elegy for Che Guevara — that circulated in cassette form among university students. Since the early days of the demonstrations, these songs and poems have resurfaced in the square. Interviewed on Al Jazeera shortly after the protests began, Negm was burbling with excitement. He immediately launched into his poem “Good Morning,” which was composed for high school students during a series of demonstrations in 1972 and borrows its theme from folk songs that celebrate a newborn’s first week of life. Asked if he had been to Tahrir, Negm said he hadn’t, explaining that he was “an old man.” In fact, he is one year younger than Hosni Mubarak, but maybe he just meant that he knew when to get off the stage."
Excuse me leftists, I love the poetry of Ahmad Fu'ad Najm but I can't stand the singing of Shaykh Imam.
Excuse me leftists, I love the poetry of Ahmad Fu'ad Najm but I can't stand the singing of Shaykh Imam.
