يوميات فنان في باريس 1938

by فتوح نشاطي

166 pages, Paperback

First published August 1, 1971

Reviews

[Ahmed · Rating 3 out of 5]

أعجبت بدأب فتوح نشاطي في الدراسة وأعجبت بحبه الشديد للمسرح وليت كل ممثلينا عندهم نفس هذا الشغف ويذهبون للدراسة بالخارج، لكن نحن في زمن التيط توك واليوتيوب ووسائل التواصل الإجتماعي فمنسيهتم بالدراسة وقد جنى من الأموال ما يمكنه من شراء ضمائر الأساتذة
الغريب أن فتوح يذكر شربه للخمر بمنتهى الأريحية، ربما لإختلاف الزمن ليس إلا

[Maher Battuti · Rating 4 out of 5]

كتاب رائع يختص بأمور المسرح في الفترة ما قبل الحرب العالمية في فرنسا ، وبه أخبار عن مراسلات المؤلف مع كبار الشخصيات الثقافية في مصر . وهو خاص بعام 1939

[Nujood AlMulla · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ahhh, I wish, I deeply wholeheartedly wish that someone, anyone would translate this charmingly passionate diary into English one day. My personal relationship with drama and theatre is embarrassingly nonexistent, yet I was able to connect with every single diary entry in this book. The reason I really want it to be translated is that unlike in the Arabic world, the theatre scene in Europe is still very much alive. BY THE WAY, I EXCLUDE MUSICALS WHEN I REFER TO THE THEATRE. I genuinely think that anyone who is a student of that art form would benefit immensely from reading the text. Not only benefit, but they will see a role model, someone to look up to within the pages. The book is a collection of personal diary entries of Fatouh’s time in Paris whilst he was on a scholarship to study the art of drama and theatrical performance. Through the text, we get to come face to face with someone who is passionately, deeply, borderline obsessively in love with his subject matter: acting, writing and directing theatrical work. He recites snippets of days where he goes to museums to hear a lecture about Moliere’s interpretation of the interplay between tragedy and comedy or how Freud’s Oedipus Complex resides strongly in the French theatre, how Voltaire single handily returned the theatre to the people and shunned the aristocrats from a monopoly of the art, the importance of Victor Hugo, what we can learn from Aristotle’s view of theatre, the significance and impact of Shakespeare on every single actor and writer, why it is so complex to perform Don Quixote, how he feels about the state of the arts in Egypt and the Arab world, we get to live the occasional EXTREMELY SCARCE mischiefs of living in Paris and roaming about the Latin Quarter, and engage with all the incredible actors, writers, novelists he corresponds with and meet along the way (Meeting طه حسين - Taha Hussain was particularly emotionally charged), and how it feels like to be in the Opera House watching a ballet performance. He summarises almost every book he reads, almost every lecture he goes to, the pieces of poetry that resonated with him in THAT day in every entry.

I never thought I would ever enjoy a memoir this much. But I think there’s something about the SOUL OF AN ARTIST that every single one of us can connect with, they embody passion, they preserve beauty, in fact artists are the only custodians of what’s beautiful and pure and truly human in this world. These are the recorded moments of a true intellectual, who is deeply in love with the artform as a whole, who is in love with Paris, drama, philosophy, psychology, not through intention or by theory but he expresses that love in a very practical way, he takes it in. The author is an extremely well read, enthusiastic, romantic who has moved me through his private journals and revitalised the love for writing within me. He gave me a true depiction of what it’s like to love one thing and make it your whole existence, at least for one year.

I will attempt a few translations here:

27 March:
Oh how I wish I could stop reading, but would that even be possible when it’s the only thing my soul craves, when it’s my only solace in this estrangement of mine.

16 February:
“Human tragedy centres around the fact that it is impossible to go about one’s life without thinking of it. And that is why he craves to form an opinion of one’s self and an opinion about others. It is when foolishness spreads, that one only forms an opinion under false pretences. That way, not only will he certainly never experience the ability to know people but he will never experience the joy of knowing one’s self. Everything in the world is an illusion and a work of fiction, and the only thing we can count on is that we possess but one certainty, we are prisoners of the spectacle” - Alfred Motre in Luigi Pirandello’s ‘Italian Studies’.

6 August:
I have a sudden obsession for poetry these days, so I dived into the works of the great French poets: Verlaine, Rimbaud, Countess Anna de Noailles and Henri de Rengnier. I shiver from how tender their words are.

6 February:
The theatre responds to a deep instinct in human nature. So I see no danger of obsolescence. There might come a day where we feel no need to read poetry or literature but we will certainly forever retain a true passion from witnessing outstanding theatrical performances

28 March:
There is a missing link in the Arabic stage and that is the religious play. Theatre emerged in the world from the Greeks and the Middle Ages, it was maintained within the temples and churches as the most supreme spiritual bond that can connect man to his creator, whereas in our region, it only appeared 200 years ago with the puppeteers who were introduced to the Arabs through the Mamluk Empire and the Ottomans when they invaded Egypt. From there, acting in the west was always considered a dignified and sacred form of art whereas this ‘depiction’ in our region is still disrespected and is looked at with contempt. It is my personal belief that true art is a sacred product of holy worship.

[Hamed · Rating 4 out of 5]

يقدم لنا الفنان الكبير فتوح نساطي بانوراما كاملة في شكل يوميات عن الحياة الثقافية في باريس الثلاثينات والتي وصلت لذروتها قبل عام من الحرب العالمية الثانية اليوميات مليئة بالتفاصيل والمعلومات الغزيرة عن فن المسرح والأدب والثقافة الفرنسية واليزنانية خصوصا. فهو لم يتعرض مثلا للإتجاهات الحديدة وقتها في عالم المسرح والتي مثلها بريخت مثلا.وتتميز اليوميات بالصراحة الشديدة والتي لاحظناها قيل ذلك في مذكرات ركي طليمات ويوسف وهبي واجمل مافي اليوميان الرسالة التي عرضها فتوح نشاطي من زكي طليمات والتي تفيض بالود والمحبة والبلاغة والتي جاءت خير ختام لتلم اليوميات