Shafaq/ Majid Sura Mary

This old man, who compose poetry in Arabic beautifully as well as Persian and Urdu language, …

and  in the three Kurdish dialects as well , is worth that people in charge to take care of him to enable him spend his remaining days in peace and rest which he deserves.

Q-At the outset our guest is kindly requested to introduce himself to the readers.

A-My name is Dara Mohammed Salman. I was born in Baghdad, Bab al- Sheikh Locality Alsadriya district in 1927. That is what was written in the civil status ID but in fact, I was born in 1920.

Q-Professor Muhammad, is it possible that you talk to us about your beginnings with the letter and the word and where and when you learned how to read and write?

C - In early childhood  there were no schools in our area and people used to send their children  to the mosques to learn to read and write at the hands of (the mullahs) in the (Qoranic schools), and so the case for me . I apprenticed first at the hands of Mullah Hamid Alluristani (a Kurd of Mandalawi origin), I learned reading and writing and religious lessons in Arabic from him. I learned accurately and managed to memorize the entire Quran in a short period not exceeding six months and I learned the Persian language by Mullah Rahim who was also of a Kurd origin.

Q: What about your literary and poetic interests? how did they start?

A- The beginning of my journey with writing poetry was with Mullah A'arif Allah's mercy on him who noticed my high talent for poetry. He used to compose   the first part of a verse line which is called (Alsadr) and ask me to compose the other part which is called (Ala'ajz) until I controlled the prosody.

As for my writing in Kurdish I have published many works of poetry in the newspaper (Bischotin) or progress.

Q: What is the story of the poet Muhammad Dara with love and marriage, why did not you get married, is there a secret?

A-     I loved a girl during a certain period in the beginning of my manhood after I had made a work which was considered by some as heroic when I helped save some money and valuables belonging to someone in our neighborhood from a fire that destroyed his home That man decided to marry his daughter to me .But fate wished not to fulfill his decision, so I couldn't marry that girl.

Q- What about your journey to the Arab Republic of Egypt and the Maghreb countries in particular, and I heard that you have a secret with the Egyptian press?

A- I traveled to Egypt, and worked in Al-Wafd Newspaper as an editor for quite a while and then an editor in the magazine (Shafaq), which was issued in the city of Mansoura. And I would like to  reveal this secret to you only after such a long time since I gave my colleague in the magazine (Mohammad Abdel Khaliq)  a pamphlet written by Mr. Taufiq Wahbi  and it was titled (springs of Kurdish Literature) .That colleague  insisted to publish the pamphlet  by his own name, I agreed because the aim was concentrated only on the Kurdish literature introduction .I soon traveled to the Kingdom of Morocco and Tunisia, Algeria and then I left to Spain.