Interviews/Entretiens
Interview with Hadaa Sendoo
Tatjana Debeljački – Generally speaking, what advice would you give us about author’s temptation? Please provide an example of “what not to do?”
Hadaa Sendoo – I would like to say that as a writer you can use “temptation” (both ambiguous and magic) in a novel or story, but as a poet you can't be so lucky. I think, a good poet should resist temptation.
“What not to do ?” I think that a young poet can imitate his predecessors, but he must not copy his predecessors' verses. Plagiarism is not cute, but it is also an unwise manifestation.
If desperation does not have a way to go, please, be brave and take a path to your own poetry !
TD – Balance of scenery of desire and ambition, beauty “secret” of success ?
HS – A good poet should have a desire and ambition, but this desire and ambition must be beyond his own, and one should even have ambitions to surpass his predecessors one day, from this perspective. The view of desire and ambition is not tilted, but anyway, beauty is the “secret” of success. It means to firm the faith, not to repeat yourself, and to maintain a unique spirit.
I hope that there will be a beautiful secret in each of our inner worlds. Perhaps the secret of success cannot be fully stated, and the heart of the poet can tell a secret with a poem only.
TD – Creation aims to leave a mark, the mark of faith in people and humanity, and this faith does not leave you ?
HS – Yes, you're right. Creation aims to leave a mark of faith in people and humanity, and this faith will accompany people for the rest of their lives. Memories of yesterday, and also memories of – or longings for – recovery and rebirth.
If a poem or a painting has a historic echo, it will be a powerful art work. Here let me use a metaphor: Walking a long way is not only happening in order to leave a mark, he or she is also hoping to arrive. The poets have a faith very much like the sun, and love of peace. This faith is the hope of humanity.
TD – Do you express ease of writing, the dominance of passion and
culmination ?
HS – I, in a poem like the one entitled “In the Woods”, have been trying to express a relaxed writing. I think ease of writing tests the true skill of a poet. Only when the mind is as clear as water can it be natural, and beauty of verses occurs without carving.
Every writing must have passion. Not only does the drama have a climax, but likewise, the peak of a poem is the peak of the soul. And poetic language is free flying, like the birds that sail and settle down on the snowy tree.
And dominant in Mongolian poetry is always the rhyme, and there must be rhymes in each line of a verse, incorporated in its first letter (and word). In today's modern Mongolian poetry, especially some post-modern poets are breaking away from this tradition (that the first letters of each line of a poem must rhyme).
TD – On the wings of the intimate, radiant empires remain in the curiosity of an author ?
HS – In the kingdom of writing, writers and readers are full of curiosity. A writer is like an eagle, soaring over the sea, flapping his wings in the dark stormy night! He gazes at his language empire and builds a new free empire, and at this time the wings of the empire are also the wings of a writer. The curiosity of a writer makes him enter the darkness and he finds the shadow of heaven through hell. In my writing, that curiosity exists : if one does not go through wind and rain, it is difficult to see the rainbow.
TD – Do you feel that your writing process is continually evolving, or have you found a way for your memory to always readily work for you ?
HS – I think that my writing process is like a cultivating process. And similar to the experience of the pious Taoist or yoga guru, the writer’s complicated mind enters a quietness of water, and experiences a returning of the heart.
Writing, with age, time, and life’s experience sublimated, is a leap. Writing does not stop because writers think, express their thoughts and feelings, the pain and joy of life, and the changing history. If I have found a way to keep the memory of youth and sunshine, that is what it means to write poems. And thus one finds a truth through the works of poetry.
TD – All poets were a little scared with insomnia in them ?
HS – Wow, this question asked the poet's heart. We know that insomnia often is caused by stress in the heart. But there is a kind of insomnia that is a poet's patent. Late at night, the poet may have started drinking coffee, listening to music, while thinking about a long poem. It was then "poet insomnia." Natural insomnia is not terrible for poets, but every night, perhaps, the poet himself “insomnias himself” – the poet returns to childhood, dreams of grandmothers, fathers, love of a wife, wooden houses, rivers, flowers, sun, moon, mountains, and horses. In exile, he dreams of his homeland. Dreams and insomnia are inseparable and there may be fear that, with a new poem, insomnia may continue which is why all poets are a little scared of their insomnia.
TD – Who is Ibrahim Honjo, in a civilizational and also in the artistic sense of consciousness and conscience ?
HS – Yes, Ibrahim Honjo – I regret a little that I didn't see him in Canada many years ago. But as an artist, he knows that the artistic sense and conscience is the most important. He said: Creativity is not the only purpose on its own. An author hopes that his work will live in people and with people as long as possible, to leave a mark on the time in which the author lives. An author believes in what he offers to the readers of his work. He lives with this faith.
TD – What inspires you most when writing ?
HS – Sometimes, writing a poem inspires me to think, meditate, reflect, look back, seeing how pain and joy coexist. My soul enters the pure lake, and it is with much love, and not more hate, that I am when I'm writing.
TD – Have you ever been tempted to return and change your potential ?
HS – Yes, I thought about returning, returning to the beginning, always remembering to return to innocence and returning to Homer, Dante, Goethe, and our Janggar Epic, but the return means moving deeper and farther away, in a “home way”.
I never thought about my potential. I'm sure I have deeper potential for writing, in the future. Everything can be written and transformed into poetry.
TD – Do you enjoy with all senses with experience and passions of the gift ?
HS – Of course, I regard all senses and passion and presence as God's gift to me. The senses come from perception, the experience of the gift comes from the first love, and the passion comes from the heart's call.
TD – What can we expect from you in the near future on the creative agenda ?
HS – If you expect anything from me, expect that I will write good poems one day, but not in the future. Thank you again for interview, Thanks to magazine !
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Hadaa SENDOO (b. 1961) is a poet and translator of international renown. Sendoo’s recent collections of poems include “Sweet Smell of Grass” (in Persian 2016), “Aurora” (in Kurdish 2017), “Mongolian Long Tone” (in Georgian 2017), WENN ICH STERBE, WERDE ICH TRÄUMEN (in German-Mongolian bilingual 2017) « Mongolian Blue Spots » (in Dutch,2017), and « A Corner of the Earth » (in Norwegian2017). His new collection of poems has published in Russian (2018, Moscow). Since 1989, he has published 15 books of poetry and in 2006, he founded the ground-breaking World Poetry Almanac, which he continues to edit. He has won awards for poetry in india, the USA, Canada, Greece, China, and Russia, including the Mongolian Writers’ Union Prize. Sendoo Hadaa’s influence transcends national and ethnic borders and he is recognized as a great poet of the 21th century. He lives in Ulaanbaatar, capital of Mongolia. Presently he served as co-Chairman of the Council of Writers and Readers of the Assembly of Peoples of Eurasia, in Russia.
© Photo credit/Crédit photo : Hadaa Sendoo
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To quote this poetic interview /Pour citer cet entretien poétique
Tatjana Debeljački, « Interview with Hadaa Sendoo », Le Pan poétique des muses|Revue féministe, internationale & multilingue de poésie entre théories & pratiques : Le Festival Megalesia 2018, Le Printemps des Poètes au féminin, mis en ligne le 19 mars 2018. Url : http://www.pandesmuses.fr/2018/3/hadaa-sendoo
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