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2000-2001 www.arttoday.com
Caoshu: Cursive Japan calligraphy also called 'grass writing'
"Le monde est une mer, notre coeur en est le rivage"
The world is an ocean; our heart is its beach
Proverbe chinois -- Chinese proverb
Modern Arabic calligraphy courtesy of Hassan Massoudi
2000-2001 www.arttoday.com
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Later he explains again:
"In the Japanese calligraphy as in the Islamic calligraphy, human
beings are rarely represented. If they are, it is a deviation or it has
historic purposes. In both techniques, only natural landscapes and
abstract designs of the pen predominate.
The Sakkai calligraphy was hanged on the living room; it was a poem
of love. She possessed two copies of her work, a thesis project. She
offered one to Ibrâhim. Here is what he recalls from this moment:
“She owned two copies; she gave one to me. And I wondered
why she did that because she knew me only for a few hours. And I
tried to figure out and I asked myself if at a moment, in our lives, we
do not meet someone and we are able to vibrate with this person, just
for an instant. It is no more no less than a share. The happiness of the
instant is no more no less than two souls meeting a moment without
any interest, without any delay. In this encounter, only one thing
remains, it is to give what we own because we feel satisfied, we feel
ourselves almost in ecstasy. And I spent really one hour and a half
chatting about Calligraphy with her, without expecting anything in
return except the happiness of sharing. Was it the first time or was it
among the rare occasions that she was able to express herself? I
truly don’t know. The question is not to be asked.”
Ibrâhim ponders for a moment about what he has just said, then he
smiles. I suddenly feel embraced in this pause, wondering why this
man could touch so many lives and touch them so deeply. Why do
people trust him so readily? Then I remember, I remember what we
talked about many days before. Ibrâhim is practicing the pure
teachings of Islam. He practices the words, not far from the Zen
words, that say: “A good disposition and more silence are the best
work.” Silence is sometimes more revealing than words. I know
thus why he finds the Japanese culture close to the one he was raised
in.
He resumes:
“The real question is not if I am right or if I am wrong. The real
issue is not to find an interpretation for all this. The most important is
that we end everything in life by sharing.”
Ibrâhim has kept strange snapshots from this encounter. The
pictures are taken through mirrors and window panes. By refraction,
it seems that we perceive the modern shops of the street down below
with its hostesses wearing mini-skirts or the neon tube of the hotel
USA. In the midst of yellow and red colors stand the mother and her
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