In the Beginning There Was a Woman

East meets West in words and music

The most remarkable in you

is that you don’t treat me as a

worn out poem

but you treat me as
an open writing of freedom

A summery evening in the Hungarian Embassy in Helsinki. Tasty Hungarian wine and hot snacks straight from the Pusta. People exchanging pleasant memories from Budapest and the cavebaths of Miskolc.

I had just finished a farewell discussion with the Ambassador when my friend Päivi Käri-Zein asked me to join her for a cup of coffee with two men from Lebanon.

“Certainly not”, I refused. I had a long day behind me and the next one would be full of rehearsals for my upcoming concert. “No way”, I thought. But Päivi kept on insisting, and finally I agreed to follow her. “She can take care of the talking, I will not utter a word”, I thought to myself.

We took a cab to Storyville, a nice jazz-bar in the centre of Helsinki. Two very nice and polite gentlemen were there waiting for us. There was a reason for this meeting: the other gentleman, Professor Faruk Abu-Chakra wanted to give a book of poems to my friend. She handed it over to me for a look, so I started to glance through some of the poems. Suddenly, I forgot everything around me.

“In The Beginning There Was a Woman”, said the title, which referred to a collection of poems written by Dr. Sheikha Souad Al-Sabah from Kuwait. Poems about freedom to love! Poems about the pain and grace of love! Transcending moments of the eternal emotion which all women from all over the world share. No matter if you are in the fathom of the Arabian Nights or under the Northern Lights; the enchanting feeling of love is still the same.

Prof. Abu-Chakra watched me reading the book enthusiastically and said: “You seem to like those poems.” Oh, yes! I loved them and had already written a few into my notebook. He then continued: “I have heard that you sing, so wouldn’t you like to sing some of those poems”. Yes! I definitely would like to sing the poems – but not without the music.

I contacted immediately my friend and partner Ville Matvejeff, a multitalented musician, pianist and composer. Like I had thought, he found the poems as fascinating as I did and did not need to think twice to agree to compose a suite of songs for piano and soprano to a selection of Souad Al-Sabah’s poems. You can just guess the rest of the story.

This writing will be the beginning of a series of articles where Ville and I will let you follow our amazing journey into the world of the Kuwaitian poems and brand new, unheard of Finnish music. The story has just begun, and will continue through the composition process to the world premiere concert and CD album which will be launched on June 28^th, 2008 at the International Poetry Marathon at the beautiful Sibelius Hall in Lahti, Finland.

Many ships have asked for sanctuary
In the harbor of my eyes
I refused asylum to all of them
Your ships alone
Have the right to take refuge
In my territorial waters
Your ships alone
Have the right to sail in my blood
Without prior permission.

Poems from Souad Al-Sabah

Cristina Andersson

cristina.andersson@develor.fi

About the writer:

Cristina Andersson from Helsinki is the author of the “Winning Helix – the art of learning and manifesting your true potential”. She is an educationalist, who lectures about winning and learning. She is also an energy-mobilizing speaker and an inspiring soprano singer.