Well-known Omani poet Zahir Al Ghafri dies at 68

Muscat: Well-known Omani poet Zahir Al Ghafri has died at the age of 68 in Sweden after a prolonged illness.

Al Ghafri was regarded as one of the most influential figures in the Sultanate of Oman’s literary scene, particularly in shaping modern Omani poetry.

Al Gafri passed away in a hospital in Malmo, Sweden, on Saturday after a long fight with liver cirrhosis.

AL Ghafri, who was born in 1956, spent his childhood in Surur village in the wilayat of Samayil, northern Oman,

He studied philosophy at Mohammed V University in Rabat, Morocco, where he was influenced by intellectual and philosophical trends that formed a large part of his poetic language.

Since then, he searched for the deep meanings of life by moving between Iraq, Morocco, Paris, London, New York, Malmö in Sweden, and other major cities. This journey was a mixture of being influenced by places and daily scenes, which was clearly reflected in his poetry.

Despite his immersion in global modernity and interaction with great poets and thinkers from different cultures, Al Ghafri did not lose connection to his Omani roots. His upbringing in the village of Surur and Nafa vilages of Samayil were reflected in his poems and was a constant source of inspiration for him.

Al Ghafri is famous for developing the Arabic free verse poem, inspired by his rich experiences in life and travel, influenced by great poets such as Badr Shakir Al Sayyab and Mahmoud Al Buraikan during his stay in Iraq in the 1960s and 70s.

He also benefited from the European and Western cultural atmosphere by his many trips to France, Britain, and the United States, where he met international poets and writers and participated in numerous literary festivals.

His body of work, including collections such as White Hooves (1982), Silence Comes to Confess (1991), Flowers in a Well (2000), In Every Land a Well Dreams of a Garden (2018), The Bedroom (2020), and Makers of the Heights, left a lasting impact on Arabic literature. Several of his poems have been translated into various international languages, further cementing his global literary influence.

His poetic works have been translated into several foreign languages, including Spanish, English, German, Swedish, Persian, Hindi, and Chinese, which made his poetry transcend geographical and cultural borders to reach the hearts of readers around the world.

During his career, Zahir Al Ghafri won several honorary awards, most notably the “Kika” Poetry Award in 2008 for his poem “Stranger Between Two Rivers”. This award was in appreciation of the poems he presented that blend poetry and narration, and address issues of travel, diaspora and nostalgia.

Al Ghafri’s poems were distinguished by a deep existential sense, through which he addressed the paradoxes of life and the various human experiences. In many of his poems, he relied on mixing narration and poetry, relying on the internal rhythm of the text that derives its strength from the simplicity of the language and the depth of the image.

He also used the senses extensively to depict the profound moments in his daily life, so poetry had a sensory dimension linked to the poet’s body and personal experience.

With the passing of Zahir Al Ghafri, the Arab literary scene has lost a unique poetic voice, who knew how to weave texts that blend Omani heritage with global modernity, leaving behind a literary legacy that will remain present in the hearts of poetry and literature lovers for decades.

- Fahad Al Mukrashi is a freelance journalist based in Muscat