Andrej Al Asadi
- North Macedonia -
Andrej Al-Asadi was born in London, UK, in 1996. He has graduated from the Faculty of Economy at the Ss Cyril and Methodius University – Skopje. He is the author of the following books of poetry: Midnight Blues (2014), Under the Dervish Sač (2018) and Heavenly Geometry (2019). For his collection of short stories The Other Past, Al-Asadi won the award for the best debut prose manuscript “The New Ones”. He has taken part in a number of poetry readings and events throughout the Republic of North Macedonia, as well as at at the International Poetry Festival Struga Poetry Evenings.
REVIEW OF THE MANUSCRIPT
HEAVENLY GEOMETRY
BY ANDREJ AL-ASADI
Andrej Al-Asadi is undoubtedly one of the most discernible voices among the younger Macedonian poets. He appeared unassumingly while he was still in high school with his first collection of poems Midnight blues, while with Under the Dervish Sač he was already short-listed for the Brothers Miladinov Prize awarded by the Struga Poetry Evening. Heavenly Geometry is his third poetry manuscript, which represents a logical continuation of his previous books.
During the last five years or so, several distinct poetic voices have developed in Macedonian poetry, all belonging to poets born in the mid-1990s who have each distinguished themselves with their own particular poetic styles. With Heavenly Geometry, Andrej Al-Asadi is reclaiming a more traditional poetic language, or as Blazhe Koneski would say, he is reactualizing it all over again. The forms of language forms used by Al-Asadi represent a departure from the more regular speech which has been the hallmark of the poetry of the poets born a decade earlier, but this is what also separates him from the poets of his generation.
Heavenly Geometry is rife with poetic images that barrage the reader’s senses with fresh and vigorous metaphors. Furthermore, his thought is journeying to the rarely trodden spheres of human consciousness, while it also communicates with ancient knowledge. All throughout, we can sense that what is written in the poems has certainly been experienced in the inner worlds inhabited by the lyrical subject, thus making them authentic and attractive to the reader. Finally, if we take a more hermeneutic approach to this manuscript, we shall discern references to Eastern philosophy, ranging from works originating in the Far East and India and circling back to references from Arabian culture.
A thing which in general is rare in poetry is also one of the parameters that help to identify whether one’s poetry is of high quality or not, and that is its capacity to inspire. Most certainly, the poetry of Andrej Al-Asadi has that power to both inspire and elevate the reader.
Gjoko Zdraveski
Poetry
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TEMPLE OF DUST / ХРАМ ПРАШИНА
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THE BLACK POEM / ЦРНА ПЕСНА
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WE, THE POETS / НИЕ, ПОЕТИТЕ
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WE SHALL OVERCOME / ЌЕ ПОБЕДИМЕ
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PALESTINE / ПАЛЕСТИНА
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A POEM FOR THE ASHIK / ПЕСНА ЗА АШИКОТ
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BECAUSE THE WORLD IS YOURS AGAIN / БИДЕЈЌИ СВЕТОТ Е ПОВТОРНО ТВОЈ
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MERCY FOR THE LAST DAY / МИЛОСТ ЗА ПОСЛЕДНИОТ ДЕН
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REFUGEES (SALAM ALEYKUM EUROPE) / БЕГАЛЦИ (СЕЛАМ АЛЕЈКУМ ЕВРОПА)
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HOPE NEVER DIES / НАДЕЖТА НЕ УМИРА
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IN THE SHADOW OF THIS CENTURY / ВО СЕНКАТА НА ОВОЈ ВЕК
