Moroccan poet Mohamed Serghini, pioneer of modern verse, dies at 96

Mohamed Serghini, a towering figure in Moroccan literature and a pioneer of modern Moroccan poetry, has died at the age of 96. His passing marks the end of a prolific career that spanned poetry, academia, and literary criticism, earning him accolades such as the Argana International Award for Poetry and the Moroccan Book Award.

The Moroccan House of Poetry mourned him as "one of the fathers of modernization in modern Moroccan poetry and one of the founders of literary studies in Moroccan universities." Serghini taught at Moroccan universities from the 1960s, dedicating his work to poetry, translation, and criticism, leveraging his academic background and fluency in foreign languages, particularly French and Spanish.

Poet and academic Mohamed Ali Ribawi recalled meeting Serghini as a student in the 1970s. "I met my teacher Mohamed Serghini as a poet before I sat with him as a student, and this encounter made him great in my eyes," Ribawi stated. He admired Serghini's "unique poetic adventures," noting that while his poetry could be challenging, its "obscurity was not the usual obscurity of many young poets, but rather an obscurity linked to the cultural reservoir from which his poetry drew." Ribawi lamented that Serghini, had he lived in the Arab East, might have achieved even greater recognition.

Ribawi also shared personal anecdotes, describing Serghini as a mentor who broke down barriers between teacher and student, treating him like a friend. He recalled Serghini's deep knowledge of the old city of Oujda, where he had taught in the 1950s, and his regret over its negative transformations. Serghini was remembered as a beloved professor who actively supported his students' academic work.

Poet and academic Abdelatif Ourari noted that Serghini belonged to the "generation of the sixties in the history of modern Moroccan poetry," a period that brought a "qualitative leap" in the formal, rhythmic, and semantic aspects of the poetry's modernity. Ourari mentioned that Serghini began as a romantic poet, evident in his early works published under the pseudonym Mohamed Nassim, and that his distinctive style began to form between 1954 and 1967.