Within the poetic series “Ishraqat,” curated and supervised by the Syrian poet Adonis, the publishing house “Zamakan” in Beirut released the poetry collection “Seven Sayings for One Right” by the Egyptian poet Yasmin Salah. The collection represents a feminine scream filled with existential questions, portraying a self that sees the world as an abyss and life as a fall from the first moment of birth. This self carries a history of female oppression, emotions, and body. Immersed in the ugliness of the world, it confronts time, existence, and mythology, listening to the voices of the dead and the fish in the oceans. The poet’s self struggles with existence since childhood, initially seeing life as a passing mistake but later realizing some mistakes cannot be corrected.

The feminine tendency appears on multiple levels, starting with addressing the mother in a tone resembling reproach—not personal but about a long history stained with blood and oppression. Two contradictory worlds live within the poet’s self: the duality of tenderness and cruelty, inside and outside. The body is the battlefield between these opposites, bearing the scars left by the patriarchal world. The collection invokes mythological and narrative symbols such as Lilith, the first rebellion against masculinity, Alice in Wonderland, Pygmalion, and Noah’s Ark to express the thirst for liberation and the desire to recreate a new world free from existential wounds. The poet’s self sympathizes with nature, equated with femininity, seeing it as a lone leader in a battlefield, capable of rebellion and anger. Despite this, the self’s rebellion remains incomplete, and even bodily desires are deferred.

The poet envies her shadow, which survived life’s battle without soul, body, desires, or ambitions, enjoying a peace she lacks. The collection ends with a revolutionary yet defeatist declaration: “We need genetic modification to all become reassuring shadows.”