The writer, intellectual, and poet Dr. Souad Al-Sabah believes that the poem writes its music, and the poet only has to submit and obey what his soul dictates to him, then listen to the paper’s hymn; It is the special music coming from the unseen when it connects to the poet’s spiritual state. She added in an interview with “Okaz”: Poetry gave me more love than I ever dreamed of in terms of people’s love wherever I go in the Arab land or outside its borders. He built me ​​a small kingdom that I feel is the most precious thing I own. As for what it took from me, long days and nights of suffering from writing and attempts to transcend, thinking, discussing and responding, which sometimes resembled a difficult birth, it took a lot of my time and care and attention to follow the creative energies of youth, feel their path, and pave the way for them.

• Poet of homeland, love and women.. How do you evaluate what you have given to your country in particular and to Arab culture in general?

•• I wrote over a lifetime with my nerves, flesh and blood

And I spent the water of my eyes… for the homeland… for humanity… for love

I still feel that what I gave to the country remains much less than what it deserves, and what he gave us remains greater and greater, and no matter how much a person gives to his country, the country still has the upper hand. As for what I gave to Arab culture, it is part of the right of Arabism to me, and I leave the evaluation of this to others.

• What is your goal in presenting awards and honoring great creators on Loyalty Day? Have you found positive results by highlighting young and veteran honorees?

•• The goal of the competitions and their prizes is to stimulate creativity, plow virgin lands, discover roses, extract hidden gems among coal mines, encourage the new generation to prepare research, and uncover talents that have not had the opportunity to emerge and then pay attention to them. That is, the main goal is to achieve justice for a generation that does not have the opportunity to declare itself as a new cultural brand.

Therefore, we opened the doors to hundreds of new creators who won the house’s awards over the life of the competitions, from its launch in 1988 until today.

As for honoring on the Day of Loyalty, it is nothing but a collar placed on the necks of the nobles in an environment that forgets them in their lives, and does not remember them until they are covered with dust. I do not think that there was a cultural step that preceded it in obtaining all this praise, and this is due to the noble purpose that it embodies; I mean honoring the Arab creator alive, so that he will receive some of his debt to his nation, and the masses of the Arab nation will recognize him and his creativity… so that they will say to him a word of thanks that he will hear throughout his life.

• A question must be asked about your financial support for cultural and intellectual institutions. What is the return of these contributions?

•• Cultural gifts are a tree that we plant in the ground, and it gives us new flowers and new fruits every year. It is a sincere call to invest capital in cultural institutions; Because it is capable of bringing about change in subsequent generations, and will give us a positive action that we can feel immediately through happiness that seeps into the soul, and despite the blurry picture of our reality… I will remain optimistic that our current situation can be saved through culture, which must reach the people because it can liberate our reality. After everything we have been through, we still dream of culture reaching those who need it, to hold his hand and lead him towards the sun.

• It was noted in your poetic progression that you wrote the vertical poem, then the meter poem, and then the prose poem.. Then you returned to the prose poem.. Is there an explanation?

•• It is the poetic note that releases its sound in your throat as you wish. The poem writes its music, and the poet only has to submit and obey what his soul dictates to him, then listen to the song of the paper. It is the special music coming from the unseen when it is connected to the spiritual state of the poet… so the poetic sentence comes in the form in which it appears… and in the clothes that you choose… sometimes you wear the clothes of the Bedouins, and at other times you keep up with the fashion of the city…

Sometimes it appears with its desert face… and sometimes it sinks in the waters of the Gulf like a crazy fish.

• Your poems touched the throats of many people.. Which throats made you happy the most? What’s the last one?

•• Every voice has its own beauty. Abdel Karim filled my poem with sadness, Najat filled it with femininity, Magda Al-Roumi wrote my poems with her voice again, Nawal dissolved her feeling between the lines, and these days I recall the voice of a young Palestinian singer whose experience was with my poem “Symphony of the Earth,” which I wrote in glorification and honor. And out of love for the cause of Jerusalem.

Experiences that I am proud of, but I have never sought song. My poems write to me as they please, and are not subject to the conditions of the song. And if by chance it matches the taste of composers or singers and they sing it, I do not mind that, and I am happy with the success of the experience of poems sung on the throats of the great singers in the region.

• What did poetry give you, and in return what did it take from you?

•• Poetry gave me more people’s love than I ever dreamed of wherever I go in the Arab land or outside its borders. He built me ​​a small kingdom that I feel is the most precious thing I own. As for what it took from me, long days and nights of writing suffering, and attempts to overcome, think, discuss, and respond, which sometimes resembled a difficult birth, it took a lot of my time and care and attention to follow the youthful creative energies, feel their path, and pave the way for them.. My library is crowded with young people’s products, and I carry some of them wherever I go to hear voices. others and discover their experiences.

• What work did Dr. Suad Al-Sabah do when she said, “Here I am”?

•• It is impossible for a creative person to confine his image to a book or to reduce his voice to a collection of poems, and anyone who wants to read it must read it in its entirety… But when I see my children and grandchildren… I say this is the best thing I have ever done.

• We are now talking about Souad Al-Sabah in her home as a mother and grandmother. How can you draw for us the map within whose borders you move according to these characteristics?

•• How can scattered letters, like crossword puzzles, renew life? I start with Souad (the grandmother), for God’s sake, how wonderful she is verbally and in life, and I do not have enough words to express a morning that begins with making sure that this grandson or that granddaughter has finished getting dressed to go to school. Did you comb her hair? did u have a breakfast yet? Everyone continues their preparations, and I carry my heart and run, urging them to hurry so that the children will be at school, at the appointed time. When the time comes to return, lunch begins my real day. I devote myself to following up on them and then writing school assignments, and then the time for rest comes, followed by the season of entertainment, writing, drawing, and discussion at home. Through them, I recall my childhood and youth, and whoever visits me will see how this grandson or granddaughter comes to me to complain about something or seek guidance from an opinion.

The mother’s role is reduced at this stage; The children have grown up, thank God, and each of them, young men and women, has his own world and interests, and when they feel the need for advice, I give it without order.

• Which of the boys resembles you the most? What can you tell us about your relationship with them? To what extent do you influence their lives?

•• In each of them there is an aspect of the image that was of the father and the mother together, this is in terms of form, but in essence, the harmony and harmony of our children becomes a role model, praise be to God, as well as their cooperation and understanding and the prevalence of the spirit of consultation among them, and this is the greatest impact that we succeeded in implanting in their chests. The influence exists by virtue of good education and by virtue of a mutual understanding of common duties and responsibilities.

• Can it be said that the role of Sheikha Suad Al-Sabah as a mother has overshadowed other elements of her personality in recent years, especially after her children assumed prominent positions in the country?

•• It was neither my concern nor my role for the children to reach any position they have reached or may reach. For me, motherhood is my first and greatest concern. Over the years of my life as a mother, I have carried this responsibility with all the challenge, seriousness, and commitment it requires, and I still do. I will remain a mother, and the name (Umm Mubarak) will remain the most precious name I carry.

• I wrote about poetry, economics, and politics. Which fields do I most like, Dr. Souad Al-Sabah?

•• Poetry is the greatest truth in my life, while politics and economics are among the trees that I planted through study and follow-up with responsibility as an Arab person and a Kuwaiti citizen. Poetry is the speech of the soul and the mirror of the life that I love.

• What is your weak point? When do your eyes shed tears?

•• If trusting others without limits is a weakness, then register this against me, and if loving people, empathizing with their pain, and trying to provide them with the assistance you can is a weakness, then register against me as well.

Tears were dear in the past…but today, is there anything in the life of an Arab person that does not cause tears? Do I cry for the blood that bursts in rivers in Arab lands? Do I cry for Gaza, which is being brutally annihilated under international auspices? No matter how I turn my eyes, tears water it. So is the question when we cry or why? Tears, even if they freeze in the eyes, have become part of our fading light.

• The past by Sheikha Suad Al-Sabah. What remains of it in your memory? What do you want to forget?

•• Everything remains in my memory. I am loyal to my memory, and grateful for the entire past. I do not want to forget its details, its good deeds and its mistakes. I am not ready to erase any part of my memory.

At the same time, she is passionate about the future; Which I have carried since all time to hand it on to my children and grandchildren and to the creators after me who will complete the mission.

• The rumors that affected you in the past, have they stopped? Why did she choose you in particular?

•• Sayings do not break me, and I do not pay attention to them.. I have a large wastebasket in which I put small rumors. As the writer turns on the light to guide walkers, he knows that many insects are attracted to him. I don’t think much about the answer to the question: Why did these rumors choose me? I am busy with work and I do not hear the noise.

• You fought with your pen and poetry for Gulf women. Did Gulf women get what they deserved?

•• The goal is not just for a woman to get what she deserves, but for what she gets to be an entitlement and not a grant, for her right to always be available to her without her asking for it or fighting for it, for the other party not to feel that she has condescended and sympathized and given her her right.

The issue is a sense of responsibility and a high sense of humanity that men must be aware of, society must believe in, and women must understand. In every issue I wrote about and fought for, I was haunted by the obsession that the woman should not be in the last row, not even in the second row…but that she should stand in her natural place that she chooses and befits her…not to be a slave, not a commodity, or a subservient. The road is long and thorny. It requires enlightened minds from all parties.

• How was your husband, Sheikh Abdullah Al-Mubarak’s relationship with the royal family in Saudi Arabia, especially with King Saud?

•• The relationship of clarity and affection.. Here is the slogan of Abdullah Al-Mubarak in his relations: he does not flatter but he does not hurt, so he was linked to permanent relations outside the law of political interests and diplomatic conditions. Also among his characteristics was that he protected the reputation of the people in their absence, did not allow any leadership to be harmed, and protected the prestige of the government. His relationship with King Saud, or King Khalid, and King Fahd was solid and distinguished and extended to the end of his days, may God have mercy on him. It is the same relationship with the Arab leaders that preserved his status, prestige, and advantages even when he was outside the circle of government.

• You have special rituals that only those close to you know about you: travel and worship. Do you take refuge in your sadness for the first and overcome it for the second?

•• Worshiping God Almighty is obligatory. No one has any merit in it, and there is no room for boasting or pretending. God created us only to worship Him. I love closeness to God, and I take from worship my strength, and from trust my certainty. The most beautiful days of my life are the hours of closeness to God Almighty. As for travel, it is a wonderful time with children and grandchildren, family closeness, and a release from the many pressures and responsibilities that swallow up life like sharks.

• Do you have an annual habit during Ramadan, when you spend the holy month in Mecca?

•• In Mecca, may God honor it… The flavor of Ramadan has a special nature, and the taste of worship is different… where the soul finds its soul and feels stability.

It is the food with which I strengthen myself for the rest of the months of the year.

• Saudi Arabia and Kuwait are one homeland with everything in common. What does the Kingdom mean to you in your conscience, culture, and family extension?

•• Part of the soul, and a lot of the entity… and the great love for the leadership, the people, and the land… the ancient history and the glorious present… in which I have roots, extension, relationships, brotherhood, friends, and readers.

There, I hear the voices of girls when they stop me and ask about a sentence in a poem or a meaning hidden in a phrase… or an expression of gratitude for the mark I made on their lives.

• What is your view of Saudi women?

•• The honorable model…originality and progress…thought and enthusiasm, renewal and preservation.

• What do you think about the change that Saudi Arabia is experiencing?

•• Saudi Arabia has a well-established history and established principles. Change occurs in approach… and the noble goals remain the same.

• What does Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman mean in his youthful sense? What is important to you about the younger generation?

•• Admirable ambition, and determination capable of excellence.

• You had a good relationship with the imams of the Holy Mosque and some scholars in Saudi Arabia. Did they have an influence on your life?

•• They are goodness and blessing.. and communicating with them increases knowledge and service of religion.. May God grant them success in serving knowledge.

• We return to your poetry about your late husband, Sheikh Abdullah Al-Mubarak. How do you describe both loyalty and sadness?

•• Abdullah Mubarak gave me life on his warm palms. I did not write about Abdullah Al-Mubarak except what I learned from him. My letters and my language are his gift to me, and I return them to him. I am like someone who pours light into its source and returns water to its source. My grief over his loss is unparalleled by anything in the world. He is the missing person who never leaves the place. He is the wanderer who never leaves the place.

This is some loyalty to those who taught me loyalty.

• The poem (The Last of the Swords), which you wrote as a tribute to the late lifelong companion Sheikh Abdullah Al-Mubarak Al-Sabah, has a peculiarity that is known to everyone who has looked at your poetic experience in general. Why did you choose this particular poem to write according to the classic vertical format?

•• I had no choice. The poet, before anyone else, knows from experience how the rain of a poem falls on the soul. If I were to explain, and I admit that I do not like to interpret my poetry so as not to steal the role of the critic, perhaps my view of Abdullah Al-Mubarak as a Kuwaiti sword was the reason.

For me, he was a collection of the eyes of heritage: the sword, the tent, and the light of the night that hosts passers-by and illuminates their paths. Therefore, perhaps, sadness for him wore the cloak of poetry smeared with perfume… so the poem was all its sadness, its bereavement, its solid voice… and its broken voice.

• You lost your husband, what did he take from you? And what did he give you?

•• He took everything from me, and gave me everything. By losing him, I lost the beauty of life, and he gave me certainty in God.

The presence of Abdullah Mubarak in my life gave me a new meaning… and gave me interest in implementing his commandments for the rest of my life… as if I were living it again.

• If you were given the space to write a letter, who would you send it to?

•• For a lifetime partner and good old friend.

Cultural gifts are a tree that we plant to give us a new flower every year

I’m busy with work and don’t pay attention to rumours

I don’t like to interpret my poetry so as not to steal the role of the critic

Abdul Karim Abdul Qader filled my poem with sadness… and Najat filled it with femininity

Saudi women are an honorable model of authenticity and progress

I am loyal to my memory and grateful for the past, and I do not want to forget its details

I spent water from my eyes and wrote with my nerves, flesh and blood