When Shakespeare Travelled with Me
Arts & Ideas
BBC
4.2 • 599 Ratings
🗓️ 27 November 2020
⏱️ 14 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
April 1916. By the Nile, the foremost poets of the Middle East are arguing about Shakespeare. In 2004, Egyptian singer Essam Karika released his urban song Oh Romeo.
Reflecting on his travels and encounters around the Arab world, New Generation Thinker Islam Issa, from Birmingham City University, discusses how canonical English writers (Shakespeare and Milton) creep into the popular culture of the region today. Recorded with an audience at Sage Gateshead as part of BBC Radio 3's Free Thinking Festival in 2018.
Islam's Issa's book, Milton in the Arab-Muslim World, won the Milton Society of America's 'Outstanding First Book' award. His exhibition Stories of Sacrifice won the Muslim News Awards 'Excellence in Community Relations' prize.
New Generation Thinkers is a scheme run by BBC Radio 3 and the Arts and Humanities Research Council to select ten academics each year who can turn their research into radio. There are now 100 early career academics who have passed through the scheme.
Producer: Fiona McLean.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Welcome back to the home of the oxymoron. Evil genius. He asked the newspaper to print his obituary early so he'd enjoy it. That's like hiding at your own funeral. Yeah, a big, great gig. I'm Russell Kane. Join me to weigh in on whether the biggest players in history are more evil or genius. Becoming that rich, I'd say that is some level of genius. It also helps that it's a long time ago, right? |
| 0:23.3 | It's like the podcast version of telling your kids the ice cream van plays music |
| 0:27.0 | when it's out of ice cream. |
| 0:28.8 | Listen to Evil Genius on BBC Sounds. The palm trees around us were heavenly, reflecting into the shiny water. |
| 0:47.9 | My friends and I were slumbering in the fresh, late afternoon breeze in a small village |
| 0:53.0 | just north of the Nile Delta, deep in the Egyptian |
| 0:55.8 | county of Bihira, where my mum was raised. This was all untouched beauty, greenery, lakes, vast |
| 1:04.1 | fields, cockroaches, frogs, cattle. It was picturesque. Fishing here was incredibly easy for an amateur like me. We caught |
| 1:13.2 | one fish after another. We even used flour as bait, and still, we ran out. Keen to get a little |
| 1:20.7 | more done before sunset, we decided to search for a local who might be able to spare some |
| 1:25.4 | flower. We made our way to a little hut come |
| 1:28.4 | cottage in the distance where a woman greeted us, a big woman, wearing a colourful bandana |
| 1:33.2 | and a fluttering dress. She loudly insisted that we join her family for food. We weren't keen on making |
| 1:39.0 | and put extra food on the table, but had no choice once she called for her husband, big mustache and donning |
| 1:45.2 | a galabia, the traditional long garment worn by men around the Nile Valley. While we were dipping |
| 1:51.2 | freshly baked bread into all sorts, much better use for the flour than we had intended, I was asked |
| 1:57.5 | what I do for a living. I answered that I'm a student of English literature. |
| 2:02.6 | The response from our host was accompanied by a massive smile |
| 2:06.6 | that showed her imperfect teeth and her inner beauty. |
| 2:09.6 | Oh, Shakespeare, she exclaimed. |
| 2:13.6 | And just like that, my fascination with the Bard's global presence was born. |
| 2:19.8 | This most simple of women in this deserted village immediately bellowed Shakespeare's name. |
... |
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