National poet Dun Karm’s masterpiece, Il-Jien u Lil Hinn Minnu, will be recited in its entirety at an event called Imqareb Kliem: Il-Jien U Lil Hinn Minnu on Friday.
This event is a multimedia performance produced by AWL publishers that includes original music for strings and the projection of visuals in the Preti Hall at the National Museum of Fine Arts, Valletta.
Imqareb Kliem will be held as part of the official calendar of events commemorating the 50th anniversary from Dun Karm’s death.
The recital is being led by Glen Calleja who presented Il-Jien u Lil Hinn Minnu in the Malta Summer Arts Festival in 2006.
Calleja will be accompanied by Jacob Portelli and Romeo Giacomotto who will be performing original string music on instruments ranging from the harp to the psaltery, an instrument rarely seen in public performances. Caldon Mercieca is coordinating the projection of visuals during the event.
Music and visuals have been integrated with the recital in an attempt at creating one organic performance, a single interpretation of Dun Karm’s masterpiece that re-proposes the moods, the imagery and the development of the poem’s main themes in music and visuals.
In Il-Jien u Lil Hinn Minnu, Dun Karm takes the reader through a spiritual journey in the first person. The poem is an intimate confession of despair, of longing and of realisation. The poet admits to feeling lost, disoriented and small in front of the greatness of creation and insignificant and hopeless in the face of the spiritual doubts assailing him.
He sheds tears of pain at the loss of the mother he loved and who was his solace in times of trial. He wallows under the heaviness of the existential torments that wall him in in dark territory where there is no hope and he is completely alone. He rejoices as he regains his footing in a quasi-mystical reunion with the divine in a different kind of loss of the self in God. He, finally, sings in rapture.
This performance is open to the public and should appeal to audiences interested in Maltese literature and in a performative, multidisciplinary approach to literary heritage.
Imqareb Kliem: Il-Jien U Lil Hinn Minnu can be found on Facebook. Entrance is free.