tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post6640762721260243151..comments2024-01-28T03:56:39.351-08:00Comments on TOM CLARK: Marwan Ali: Train / Ahmed Ashraf: The Iron WayUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-80440955796238237262014-09-27T16:06:15.693-07:002014-09-27T16:06:15.693-07:00Thank you, David. Yes -- palpably human. The comm...Thank you, David. Yes -- palpably human. The common denominator.TChttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05915822857461178942noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-65546283667358462802014-09-27T15:38:27.104-07:002014-09-27T15:38:27.104-07:00Tom,
The poet's "secret of the passengers...Tom,<br />The poet's "secret of the passengers’ joy" makes me look more closely at the those faces gazing out train windows. What is it? Boredom, endurance, acceptance? Whatever it is, it pitiably human. Stunning photographs. I will return to this post.<br />-David <br /><br />Be the BQEhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11621320435990191224noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-6970594388267100652014-09-27T14:48:57.177-07:002014-09-27T14:48:57.177-07:00Hilton,
Thanks very much. Hikmet's grand epic...Hilton,<br /><br />Thanks very much. Hikmet's grand epic novel in the form of a poem, in its first books discovering the human condition in the railway stations and on the trains, offers a useful frame for reading Marwan Ali's poem. So much of the tapestry of life is there... and the universality of the experience of riding trains may provide an inkling of commonalty among all train riders here and there, high and low -- anything, these days, to help to overcome that sense of "the other".<br /><br />I see latterly that I've neglected to identify the translator of Marwan Ali's poem. It's Raphael Cohen.<br /><br />The comments of the photographer Ahmed Ashraf on his portfolio come out a bit rough in the English supplied at the site, so I've done some editing, hopefully not too heavy handed -- I think the sense comes across, and relates to Hikmet's project in many respects:<br /><br />"Two years ago for me it was the first time to travel by the train, what I wanted to do was to try to reach to the human in the train... not the normal traveller for travel, I mean the one who rides the train steadily and permanently... those miserable humans who spend a quarter of their day going to and back from their work every day, from the regions and villages to the capital and the other cities...<br /><br />"Train in the third class, the creaking and crowded, low-cost... trying to reach those for whom the train becomes part of their lives...<br /><br />"These images speak for themselves, and for the sincerity of their content. But for the photographer they reflect what he wants to say about the train’s Human... human .. just human..."TChttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05915822857461178942noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-8203297769520805042014-09-27T10:18:50.326-07:002014-09-27T10:18:50.326-07:00Great poem, great photos. Remember Nazim Hikmet&#...Great poem, great photos. Remember Nazim Hikmet's "Human Landscapes," a book that had a powerful effect on me. Also, Wolfgana Schivelbusch's "The Railroad" is a wonderful history of changing consciousness as a result of new technology (the change from horseback to railroad). Since I'm working on the Chinese workers who built the transcontinental RR, I've become even more attached to trains.Hiltonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04497545378045907642noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4445844569294316288.post-14040863446915056302014-09-27T00:28:17.869-07:002014-09-27T00:28:17.869-07:00Youssef Chahine: Cairo Station, 1958 (trailer)<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bOJpiUZphTE" rel="nofollow">Youssef Chahine: Cairo Station, 1958 (trailer)</a>TChttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05915822857461178942noreply@blogger.com