Nasr, a poet in perpetual exile

M. Taufiqurrahman, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Palestinian-born cultural theorist Edward Said once said that living in the world as an exile could be an enriching experience.

He said the borders and barriers that enclose us within the safety of familiar territory can also become prisons that are often defended beyond reason and necessity.

In his collection of writings, Reflections on Exile, Said says the exile knows that in a secular and contingent world, homes are always provisional.

"It is part of morality not to be at home in one's home." Said ruminated, echoing German philosopher Theodor W. Adorno.

There is a striking parallel between what Said conjured up in his philosophy and the life led by Dutch poet/writer-cum- actor/film director Ramsey Nasr.

Born in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, 31 years ago to a Palestinian father and Dutch mother, Nasr now lives in Antwerp, Belgium; he has taken a position as a city poet for the Flemish town, an occupation that requires him to write six poems a year.

In spite of his Palestinian roots, Nasr had a completely Dutch upbringing and does not speak proper Arabic; he visited the land of his ancestors four times -- on the first occasion in 1996, when he was 24.

Yet, his Dutch upbringing did not enable him to feel at home with an artist's life in the Netherlands and, instead, he sought refuge in Antwerp.

Nasr, who recently read his poems at the International Literary Biennale, a literary festival organized by Teater Utan Kayu (TUK), said that Dutch people were so obsessed with classification that they could not relate to a multitasking artist such as he.

"They always ask me the question, what are you -- a writer, poet, actor or film director? They are obsessed with pigeon- holing me," Nasr told The Jakarta Post over a candle-lit dinner at TUK, Utan Kayu, East Jakarta.

Although falling short of becoming a household name in the Netherlands, Nasr's fame as an artist there is such that a plumber could easily recognize him on the street.

In 1995, he left a big impression in a theatrical monologue, De doorspeler, a play that won him a Philip Morris Scholarship to study at the International Theater school in Amsterdam.

From 1995 through the spring of 2000, he was a member of one of the leading theater companies in the Netherlands and Belgium, Het Zuidelijk Toneel. During that period he played some 10 different parts, one of them Romeo, from Romeo and Juliet.

He played major roles in several TV and cinema movies, of which Mariken, Magonia, One Man and his Dog and The Enclave are the best known.

His most well-known written work is the epic poem, Geen Lied (No song), a stage monologue in which a young man wanders through the underworld in search of his beloved, finding and losing her repeatedly.

Fame, however, did not satisfy Nasr artistically so he decided to relocate to Antwerp, a city only an hour's drive from Rotterdam.

Nasr was already well-acquainted with Antwerp as he was enrolled at Studio Herman Teirlinck, a theater school in the capital city.

It was in this city that Nasr found a place he could call home. "I am now more and more attached to Antwerp, because I can live anonymously, yet at the same time there are people who read my poems who come to me and say thank you: It's very moving," Nasr said.

He said that such gratitude was hard to come by, given that Antwerp people tended to bear a streak of chauvinism, especially when they had to deal with anything Dutch.

For centuries the Flemish people considered themselves as having a more refined culture than that of the Dutch, whom they considered "coarse".

Nasr has written a two-page poem as a declaration of his love for Antwerp in city newspapers and has received a warm reception from the city's people.

His dandy life and cultural stature in Antwerp aside, Nasr remains bedeviled by what transpired in the land of his father's ancestors.

Although his approach to art occupies the middle ground between art-for-art and art-for-social activism, when it comes to the plight of the Palestinian people, Nasr could not help but engage in the struggle of his kin.

Before he visited Palestine in 1996, the quandary in which the Palestinian people found themselves was still beyond his grasp. "But after the visit, I knew that those who suffer from the occupation were my blood brothers," he said.

And, Nasr added, if his poem could not liberate Palestine from the Israeli occupation, he believed that it could open people's minds to the plight of his people.

"I am not of the opinion that the poem should be first into the battlefield, but it could change people's opinions about the conflict," he said, adding that the same conviction held true for the Israeli occupation.

In turn, Nasr has dedicated his artistic endeavors to the struggle of the Palestinian people.

He has traveled to several Middle Eastern countries reading his poetry and denouncing the Israeli occupation.

One of his last essays is titled Chairman Balkenende, Do You Have a Dream abour Palestine at All?, an exhortation to the European Union to finally take a stand and implement properly the UN resolution on Israel and Palestine.

His decision to take a stance on world affairs could have gone against the nihilistic view held by a large number of European artistes.

"There are artistes who wish to retire from the world and write about a cat snoring in a corner. On the other hand, there are those who produce work purely to shock people -- provocation for its own sake," he said.

If not aiming to change the world, writers at least had to be aware the world was on fire and do something about it, Nasr said.

"I believe in the power of words; otherwise, I would have jumped off the top of a building or joined the army," he exclaimed.