Académique Documents
Professionnel Documents
Culture Documents
1945-1984
WITH A CRITICAL INTRODUCTION
NOVEMBER 1984
ABSTRACT
Theories of
RESUME DE SYNTHESE
Une introduction
Les theories du
la
TABLE OF CONTENTS
PART ONE:
A CRITICAL INTRODUCTION
1
The Classical
11
18
25
47
63
72
94
112
.... /con't
(iv)
PART TWO:
Some Early
120
Modernists
121
Nazik a1-Ma1a)ika
123
125
127
Buland a1-Haydari
128
130
132
"Waiting Sails"
134
135
137
"Broken Urns"
140
"Evening Prayer"
141
143
Lewis cAwad
144
146
Michel Trad
147
"It's a Lie"
148
Shadhil Taqah
150
153
- Nizar Qabbani
"Bread, Hashish, and One Moon"
"Marginal Notes on the Book of Defeat"
IIJerusa1em"
"The Dictionary for Lovers"
"Unemp1oyed ll
"Love Compared ll
"The Latest Book of Poems"
"The Nipple ll
155
159
167
169
171
172
173
174
. . ./
(v)
177
Muhammad al-Maghut
"When the Words Burn"
"The Orphan"
178
179
182
183
184
186
187
Unsi aI-Hajj
"The Deep House"
"A Plan"
195
196
198
199
Muhammad al-Fayturi
"He Died Tomorrow"
200
201
205
206
207
209
Sa'di Yusuf
"Six Poems"
"The Fence"
211
212
214
Khalid al-Khazraji
"Beirut, My Love"
215
216
219
"The Game"
221
222
223
224
Ghada al-Samman
"Imprisonment of a Question Mark"
"Imprisonment of a Rainbow"
225
226
227
Amal Dunqul
"The Murder of the Moon"
229
230
. .. /
(vi)
233
234
236
239
243
248
Yusuf al-Kha1
"The Eternal Dialogue"
"The Long Poem lf
Khalil
"The
"The
"The
250
252
256
Hawi
Cave"
Magi in Europe"
Prisoner"
263
265
269
272
"A Dialogue"
"The Fall"
"The Road"
If A Vision"
If A Mirror of
the Stone"
275
277
280
281
282
283
284
287
290
292
301
303
304
307
314
315
317
320
Salem Haqqi
"Sinbad's Last Journey"
322
Isam Mahfuz
326
"A Birth"
327
323
329
330
... /
(vii)
~
"Of Poetry"
"The Prison"
IIIdentity Card ll
333
334
336
337
339
341
342
344
345
Samih al-Qasim
"Come, Together We Shall Draw a Rainbow ll
"Fear"
"So"
"Descent II
348
Fadwa Tuqan
liThe Rock"
364
349
354
355
357
359
360
362
365
369
MuCin Basisu
"A Traffic Lightll
"To a Lady Tourist"
372
Sadiq al-Sa~igh
IIA Spectacle"
IIDryads"
Kamal Nasir
"The Leaders of My Country"
Tawfiq Zayyad
"Six Words"
Tawfiq Sayigh
"Out of the Depths Have I Cried to
Thee, 0 Death"
BIBLIOGRAPHY
370
373
374
376
377
378
379
382
383
385
386
389
391
400
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
As my thesis
My brothers,
The efficient
. ../
(ix)
(Acknowledgements, con't)
PART ONE:
A CRITICAL INTRODUCTION
It has undergone an
The subsequent
as much
movements.
have
I.
The Classical
Treat
parts, or
the second
Patterned repetitions
taf~ilahs
in each
nature:
Catalectic changes
(sadr)
mustaf'iltn1
mustaf c iltn1
mustaf'iltn1
mustaf<: il
mustaf ~ iltn1
fa'lun
--"'-
fa(lun
fa~ilun fa'ilun
Is it the hour of
judgement?]
facilun
fa'lun
fa(ilun
fa(ilun
facilun
fa'lun
falUun
fa'ilun
fa(ilun
fa(lun
fa'ilun
fa(ilun
[For him a star wept, tender for what ailed and hypno
tized him.l
elifu~ighaz.3t..in dh~ayaf i~
facilun
fa(ilun
fa'lun
fa'ilun
fa'lun
fa'lun
fa(ilun
fa<ilun
[In love with a lithe and beautiful deer, he runs from his
enviers]
to catch.]
fa'ilun
fa'ilun
.A-.
-.A........
:..J
fa'ilun
~Ali
illustrate
Strictly
-c
ilun.
In the fashion of Arab romantic poets of the
fa
period, Taha has availed himself of a certain prosodic
license in this poem, shortening the line by two tafCilah's
and arranging the poem in quatrains and couplets with
differing end-rhymes, rather than in the two-hemistich
line with
fa'ilatun
fa(ilatun
faCilatun
fa'ilatun
~a habibi~dhihil~tu
fa (ilatun
fa~ilatun
hubbiJ
fa'ilatun
)~a qalbi!.."
fa'ilatun
fa(ilatun
fa'ilatun
fa'ilun
around us]
fa'ilatun
fitilatun
fi(ilatun
fa'ilun
10
shadows. ]
The aesthetic
The diffi
But
11
poet
As
To do so, it is necessary
poet
12
Another persistent
Arab
poets must
Modernists of
Shedding rigid
writes Jabra:
13
The new
He is convinced that
sense of alienation
14
Arab
poet is to produce a
It should
It begins as far
15
he saw no reason
16
but
Abu
17
What
lized then, and remained as Abu Nuwas and Abu Tammam had
left it, laden with its traditional meter and rhyme
schemes.
It is unfortunate
Perhaps
Arab
history.
Just as the
is drastic.
18
(c) The Neoclassic and Romantic Poets
The latter half of the nineteenth century and the
early part of the twentieth saw a group of poets whose
task was to refurbish that literature and usher in a new
age of renaissance.
19
This
For exam
Such lips,
Such a honeycomb in it
Such flowers in it
Beautiful, woeful
My sorrow pains me
After her. 8
20
simila~
element
The repetition
They
21
Shukri
Like the
Largely impervious to
22
Migration seemingly
In the main,
Their
23
on the ruins
Weeping about how they rose, and how they fell?
If there were no ruins, he would still lament
To suit the age-old desert custom.
Leave off these old traditions, destroy
Their shrines and smash their idols!lO
It is noteable that in form the poem meets every classical
requirement, conforming to the a1-kamil meter (mutafa'ilun,
mutafa ci1un, mutafa c i1un) with a two-hemistich line in the
unified rhyme scheme.
The major contribution of Arab poets in the first
half of the twentieth century was in the attempt to
modernize the structure and contents of the poem, not its
form.
24
poetic reform:
a1- CAqqad and his fellow poets in the Diwan group, believed
that the poem's special "music" should carry its psychologi
cal and philosophical undercurrents, and that the meter and
rhyme scheme chosen should compliment the contents and
emotional impact of the poem.
The sum of these cautious innovations in Arabic verse
did serve to provide poets in the first half of the twen
tieth century with an increasing conviction that effective
changes could, indeed, be made, without disrespect to the
achievements of their literary forefathers.
By the late
II.
Some
11
some to Lewis
Dece~er
1947.
A number of other
12
But if
po~t~
there grew,
dun~ng
the 1940's,
26
Leaders of succeeding
27
While al
al-Mala~ika
new movement.
28
29
cates of the freer form (aI-shier al-manthur) as Yusuf alKhal, stress the necessity of retaining musical and
rhythmical elements in poetry, and, while affirming that
"modernism in poetry means creativity, and the escape from
precedent,"
in question. l
'Modern'
The
"is characterized
18
30
A new concern
It possessed a
Not only
So far from
If
31
al-Mala~ika's
elaborate
and is incapable of
poem in prose,"
How
32
not entirely dismiss rhyme, but may create its own irregu
lar inner rhymes; however, its essential music is imparted
by the new rhythmical structures adapted trom the variation
of the poetic foot.
(The
In sum,
intricate
33
second stanzas Sayyab breaks down the meter from its four
taf(ilah hemistich with the introduction of irregularly
rhymed lines ranging from three to five taf'ilah's.
34
-----
'--
fa'ilun
....-.;;:...
fa<lun
fa'ilun
../
fa'ilun
facilun
fa'ilun
fa'ilun fa'lun
Man ghayruhumu?
"""'-
fa<lun
--"'"
facilun
Qadamun; qadamun.
Qadamu
facilun
[A step--another.]
'Alqaytu s-sakhra cala sadri .
fa'lun
fa(lun
facilun fa'lun
ta'ilun
facilun
facilun faeilun
facilun
35
'-=
"""---
~akfaniya
fa'ilun
facilun
..-"""---../"--
fa~ilun
fa(ilun
fa'ilun
-----
~~~),
he is certain to suggest
the idiom and the music of the region, thus capturing the
36
Wahudurun,
[and a presence]
exam~
37
No specific meter
The "musical phrase"
Such a profusion of
38
There can be no
ques~
39
Al-Mala'ika,
The
40
The
Some
Amal Dunqul
Here the
17.
41
n-naba)a 'l-allma
sh-shamsi
'watanaqalu
_ J'- 'ala barIdi ________-
~
mutafa<'i
mutafa C.iltm
mutfaciltm
mut
mutafa'iltm
mutfaciltm
mutfa'iltm
mutfaCiltm
[They saw him crucified, his head dangling from the trees!]
Nahaba 'l-lususu quladata
'l~masi
th",,:thaminah ,
mutfa C iltm
mut
mutfa'iltm
[From his chest,]
~akuhu fi ~ad~
mutafaciltm
[And
mutfa <1
42
lun
rnutfacilunrnutfa(ilun
rnutfa'ilun
Thus a
di~ferent
quality of
It often is identifi
The
a resemblance to that
43
44
45
Wabiyadin shakkala Ii
ShaCriya binarjisatayn
Wafattasha sadri biyadin
46
47
'
(b) Two Voices in Arab ic Mo d ernl.sm:
As will be
"Ice
and Fire" (pp. 179 and 184), al-Maghut is one of the few
who do not hesitate to compromise the fine figure of the
poet in a particularly refreshing way, and this he manages
to do without in the least compromising his sense of
involvement with humanity.
His pronouncements
48
In al-Maghut, flippant
To a voiceless motherland
(p. 179)
49
In this seeming
50
Almost conver
51
A fine mistrust of
Any sequence of
Nothing quite in
the vein of these opening lines had been heard before the
appearance of the poem in 1958:
Poetry, this immortal carcass, bores me.
Lebanon is burning-
It leaps, like a wounded horse, at the edge
.
of the desert
And I am looking for a fat girl
To rub myself against on the tram,
For a Bedouin-looking man to knock down somewhere ..
Supporting the curious juxtaposition of the tragic and
the trivial is a deliberate disparity of diction.
Classi
("lioness"
But the
clich~s
of historical
52
53
From the
(p. 292).
and
The sacrificial
an~
A recurrent theme
The burning
54
In the
to strange gods:
I want to pray
I~Marrying
55
has swept
The voices of lazy birds
And borrowed branches
From the trunks of the straight trees.
I will, then,
Take pride in this wound of the city,
The canvas of lightning in our sad nights.
Though the street frowns in my face
It protects me from shadows and malign glances
So I sing for joy
Behind fearful eyelids.
When the storm struck in my country
It promised me wine, and rainbows.
In an earlier poem, the title poem for a volume by 'Abd
al-Wahhab al-Bayati (p. 135), "broken urns" are the decayed
remains of an Arab"world which forever busies itself in
persecuting its outspoken poets and thinkers.
Purifica
56
"According to Adonis,"
Quoting
The speaker
57
Poetry
of poetry.
In al-Maghut's work, an informality of structure; the
intimate and loquacious style preferred by the speaker,
and lightning changes in subject, tone and emotional impact
are well served by the flexible form of al-shi'r
al~manthur
Kamal Abu-
58
as it reflects
But it is as
Adonis reduces
59
Again he departs
'-....-/'
mustaf'ilun
musta"ihm
mutaf
musta<ilun
mutaf
Birishati
mutafCilun
mutaf
"-..:.:
la
daw~a 'ala jufuni-
~
~
/
musta'ilun
musta Cilun
fa cillun
Lashay)a,
hikmata
'----------
mustaf'ilun
mustaf'ilun
'~huba:/
mutaf
60
musta (,ilun
mustaft.ilun
mutaf
~aC.
khashabi "J:]~
mustac ( ilun
mustaf
mustaf
~jlisu fi ~iza5
musta'ilun
mutaf
[I sit awaiting]
------mustaf
Maw'idiya 'l-mansiy
"-
musta c:'ilun
[A forgotten rendez-vous.]
The
61
Line Length
Line
Rhyme
Line Length
Rhyme
long
11
long
12
short
short
13
short
short
14
long
short
15
long
long
16
short
long
17
long
short
18
long
long
10
short
long
There is a pronouced
orderliness to the music
1\
62
Unpreceden
explorations
64
(p. 278)
Some poets identify with folk, literary and religious
figures in Arabic history like the warrior-poet CAntarah
(~
Several Moslem
65
Osiris myths.
Initially
Arab
However, it is to their
66
[Arab]
Zuhayr,
67
The
68
The wounds
And the cross they nailed me to for the whole
afternoon
Did not kill me, though. And I listened: the wailing
Travelled across the field to me from the city
Like the rope that pulls on the ship
While it sinks to the depths. The lamentation was
Like a string of light between the morning
And the darkness in the bleak winter sky.
And then the city drowsed upon its affairs.
An emphasis on strong verbs rather than pleasing adjectives,
effective variation of line length, and precision as well
as profundity of thought add weight to Sayyab's passionately
musical outpourings, unrivalled in their beauty and
prosodic originality in modern Arabic poetry.
"It is certain that Western writers are those who
inspired our poets to return to the world of myth, whether
or not they wished to be so influenced," <Abd al-Rida 'Ali
31
has contested.
That this was, indeed, an influence attri
butable to initiators of the modern movement in Arabic
poetry with international literary tastes is confirmed by
Sayyab's own testimony.
69
70
Following
In "Love
Odysseus' spindle.
,Awad's
71
72
The Influence of
that
But
More impor
The
73
74
Hawi's adjustment
Breaking with
Shi~r
in
75
A fundamental
The
76
More
over, the Arab poet maintains a strong bond with the land,
a passionate sense of identification with it and duty
towards it.
77
its soil
My heart is a sun when the sun throbs light
My heart is the earth, brings forth wheat and flowers
and pure water,
My heart is the water, my heart is a stalk of wheat
Its death is resurrection: it lives in him who
eats of it.
Juxtaposed to a poem in the vein of Hijazi's "We Have
Nothing" (1958; p. 207), where an intrusion of realism in
the form of hunger pangs jolts an idyllic depiction of
village life, or with Adonis's "The Crow's Feather," for
that matter, which depicts a parched city and countryside
awaiting a long overdue spring, Sayyab's lush dream of
Jaykur and concluding vision of the city's sufferings trans
formed into pangs of childbirth bear elements of a romantic,
as well as Edenic and apocalyptic, tradition.
There is, however, little of the conventional in
Sayyab's recourse to religion or romanticism.
Wrote the
78
Significantly,
r~gime.
In Sayyab's poems it is
79
Death" and "A City Without Rain" are the titles of only a
few which indicate a central preoccupation with water.
"Song of the Rainll (p. 243) contains all the submerged ele
ments of the Tammuz myth, and illuminates the dual value
of water, which may slake the thirst of the wasteland
only if its great blessing is fairly distributed.
So far from being the extravagant compliment of a love
poem, the opening lines of IISong of the Rain ll are the
speaker's address to his native Iraq, whose eyes, viewed
from across the bay, might quite literally be "two palm
forests at the hour of dawn ll and command the powers of
fertility to make lithe vineyards sprout leaves. 1I
From the
From this point the water images become fretful and storm
80
81
most elemental myth; the rain may fall, but Iraq is sucked
dry by a thousand small such monsters, "snakes" or men who
rob the nectar from each flower fed by the Euphrates.
The benefi
cial rains may pour, but they pour tears: and the sea is
enraged against mankind.
(c) Modernism versus the Religious Sensibility?
Wishing to view a completed Tammuzian cycle in Eliot's
The Waste Land, Arab poets and critics have searched
assiduously for signs of promise and rebirth in the poem,
and have tended to overemphasize them where most Western
scholars have accepted a bleaker statement, turning to
Ash Wednesday and The Four Quartets for a prospectus of
82
salvation.
83
The chapel in
As a
84
He throws
his books in the fire, walks out into the street to join
in the mainstream of daily life, and invites "the poor, the
sick, the strangers / The broken-hearted and broken-limbed"
to eat from his table "a crumb from the wisdom of the ages /
dipped in the joyousness of our foolish age."
The concerns
they
"The
85
This practice
86
it is one's jailor.
(po 248)
87
Having
"There
88
Yet they
89
tion.
The grum
90
The spiri
91
A sense of expectancy
The
92
angry,
In
In a poem of 1948,
93
What else
In an extended metaphor
IV.
Its catchword, as
Consequently,
95
96
reborn."
Extravagant and truculent this language undoubtedly
is:
("lampoon"), into
The
The lam
97
Praise is no longer
Scenes
poet may face grave consequences for speaking his mind upon
issues of particular tension in too obvious terms.
Yet no
98
Thus,
Well known
99
Politi
(p. 164).
Sometimes the
100
An appreciation of the
101
Raising
The conviction
Consequently, Arab
While
Social differences
No other
102
103
104
1967.
Despite the close supervision imposed upon their
work, the new generation of Palestinian
poets living inside
,
Israel does not seem to write in artistic isolation from
their contemporaries elsewhere in the Arab world.
It is
surprising how many ideas from this outer world have crept
into the poetry of al-Qasim and Darwish in particular.
One
105
in isolation.
I want nothing
106
Fadwa Tuqan (p. 365), which conveys the raw essence of the
solitude, powerlessness and dejection experienced by a
prisoner or an exile, admits a glimmering of light in the
consciousness of this brotherhood:
prisoners of fate.
and tears
reu~ion
107
108
The majority
ll
109
Urgently
110
III
inroads have
lutes overturned.
Notes
on-the Introduction
Dar al
(Beirut:
al-Mu'assasah
4 l.'b'd
l.
5 "Macrakah aI-Yamin wal-Yasar fi aI-Shier al-cArabi ll
[liThe Battle of the Left and the Right in Arabic Poetryll] ,
Majallat al-Ma~rifah l I s t issue (Damascus, March 1962),
p. 99.
(Beirut:
113
(Cairo:
1i1-Kutub, 1973).
9A1-Shier a1-Hurr, Qadaya Wamawaqif
Issues and Stands]
(Cairo:
[Free Verse:
'Ashar
(Beirut:
1i1-Ma1ayin, 1964).
3rd ed.
(Beirut:
15'b'd
pp. 40-41.
~.,
16Qissati Ma'
ed.
(Beirut:
114
p. 46.
l8'b'd
~.,
p. 15
19Qadiyyat al-Shier al-Jadid [The Present Situation of
the New Poetry]
(Cairo:
(Leiden:
(Beirut:
(New
(Beirut:
Univ. of
115
(Chicago:
American
A Study of
Three Conti
(London:
(Baghdad:
1978), p. 25.
(Baghdad:
116
pp. 223-24.
34t1Modern Arabic Literature and the West," in Critical
Perspectives on Modern Arabic Literature, p. 12.
a lecture delivered at five British universities:
Originally
Oxford,
[tlEliot's
In English:
117
(N.Y.:
p. 47.
39Anatomy of Criticism:
II
(Beirut:
Three Con
858-879.
46 This English translation appears in An Anthology of
Modern Arabic poetry, selected, ed. and trans. by Mounah A.
118
(Oxford:
(Baghdad:
PART TWO:
121
Nazik al-Mala'ika
(1923
Born in Baghdad to a prominent family (her mother was
the poet Salma 'Abd al-Razzaq), Nazik al-Mala'ika graduated
from the Teachers' Training College in the same city with an
Honours B.A. degree. In 1950 she went to the United States
to attain a Master's Degree in Comparative Literature from
Princeton University.
al-Mala~ika
was conscious
Qararat al-Mawia
122
Al-Mala'ika
al-shi~r
al
hurr -[metrical free verse] had been interpreted with too much
license by the new generation of poets, and advocated a
return to the conventional graces of metrical poetry.
123
revolution-
Inflicted my cries of disgust upon it
in my dark song-
Sustained it with the sleep of the dead,
And drew a curtain of ghosts and gloom
around it.
... /
- by Nazik al-Mala'ika
(May 12, 1952)
125
We shall dream
That we climb to explore the mountains of the moon
And play by ourselves with the loneliness of eternity
Far away where no memories can reach us
Where we dwell beyond the limits of the mind
In dream
We shall be metamorphosed into two children on the hills
Innocent, we will run over the rocks and feed the camels,
Fugitives with no house but a shelter for dreams
And as we sleep we will dip our bodies in the sand
.. ./
We shall dream
That we walk to yesterday and not tomorrow
We shall reach a Babel with the dew at dawn
Two lovers carrying the oath of love to the temple
Where a Babylonian priest will bless us with a holy hand
126
127
Buland al-Haydari
(1926-
was
dissatisfied
attempting to
fi~l-Ghurba
128
Journey of the Yellow Letters
In the
Daily present
... /
In the idols,
In the sultan's whip
In God, in Satan
But not once in a man
- by Bu1and a1-Haydari
(Sept. 1968)
129
130
In
the lips,
- by Buland al-Haydari
(Sept. 1968)
131
132
Waiting Sails
... /
- by Buland al-Haydari
(Sept. 1968)
133
134
(1926
'Abd al-Wahhab al-Bayati is regarded as one of the most
"committed" Arab poets and as a leading figure in the socialist
realist movement in modern Arabic poetry.
wander
European countries.
as well as in his
In
135
Broken Urns
.. ./
136
(ItBroken Urns"--con' t)
137
from nowhere
I have no history, no face, from nowhere
under the skies in the wailing of the wind I hear it
call me:
"Come!"
II
Come!"
. . ./
138
... /
139
140
It deals with
Sha
dies] (1941), Nid~ al-Qalb [The Call of the Heart] (1944), and
Ghalwa)
141
Evening Prayer
Of heavy grain.
. .. /
142
(1941)
143
Lewis 'Awad
,
(1915 J
An Egyptian poet, critic and editor, Dr. Lewis cAwad was
educated at Fouad I University in his native country and pro
ceeded to Cambridge and Princeton.
His
He was
144
. . ./
145
146
Michel Trad
His publications
147
It's a Lie
Lies!
What lies!
148
Shadhil Tagah
(1929-1974)
Born in aI-Musil, Iraq, Shadhil Taqah graduated from
the Teacher's College in Baghdad with a B.A. in Arabic
Literature and returned to teach that subject at secon
dary level in his home town.
After
anoth~r
In 1968 he began a
In June of 1974 he
149
150
They say
one day a false prophet
will come to us
bringing the grown-ups sugar and cakes
and sympathy,
enticing the children with broomplants and ambergris
He will talk and talk
and point out a mountain of rice
where he will lead
the hungry, and weep
But his frozen tears will not flow far
and the distant rice will be hard to find
though hungry armies journey to the mountain
the sun scorching their souls by day, and the lonely hills
beckoning with rice, cakes and sugar,
broomplants and ambergris
without end.
Only a mirage will be there-
only a mirage.
II
151
in his history
There was a madwoman, and her lover too
and there was a lady singer who wearied of the riights,
wearied of men's love
and wearied of this new triumphant prophet!
III
They say
the Singer asked him,
in our midst
Come to my tavern,
drink my wine,
speak to us-
and we shall sing and play and drink.
IV
And they say
in the tavern that sleeps
on the top of the hill
pleasure and drink undid the prophet's secret
And while the men slept
he bared his heart to her:
there was a confession
. and a defeat
152
v
They say
such and such, and the inevitable happened
In the morning a cross was planted on the hill
a false prophet dangling from it
with his second eye plucked out!
- by Shadhil Taqah
(June 1965)
153
Nizar Qabbani
(1923
Born in Damascus, Nizar Qabbani graduated from the
College of Law of the Syrian University in 1945 and proceeded
to rise in the diplomatic service to the rank of ambassador.
Over the years his posts took him to many cosmopolitan centres,
from Beirut and Cairo to London, Peking and Madrid.
Enjoying
have
154
personal tragedy.
Among Qabbani's many publications are Qa1at 1i a1-Samra~
[The Golden Skinned Girl Said to Me] (1942), Tufu1at Nahd
[Childhood of a Breast] (1948), Qasa)id [Poems] (1956),
Habibati [My Beloved] (1961), Hawamish c a 1a Daftar a1-Naksa
[Marginal Notes on the Book of Defeat] (1967), Shu (ara~ a1
Ard a1-Muhta11a. A1-Quds [Poets of the Occupied Land:
Jeru
155
Bread, Hashish, and One Moon
... /
... /
157
a cluster of diamonds
the millions whose senses have been dulled."
... /
158
II
Tawasheeh,"
Our East.
His
epic poetry about the tribe's battles and his personal duels
is representative of a decline in quality of classical
Arabic verse, although it has perpetuated a body of popular
legends around his name.
159
I lament
I lament
II
III
My poor country,
IV
.../
160
We entered it
We entered it
VI
VII
The situation
VIII
IX
. .. /
161
Nor circumstance,
XI
XII
But crept
XIII
My friends,
My friends,
. . ./
162
To write a book,
XIV
But,
XVI
... /
163
Idlers,
We sit in mosques
XVII
Oh my master Sultan,
Master Sultan,
... /
164
master,
My master Sultan,
You have lost the war twice
Because half of our people have no tongues.
What is the worth of a people without tongues?
Half of our people
Are beseiged like ants and rats
Inside the walls.
If someone would grant me passage
Through the soldiers of the Sultan
I would say to him:
XIX
We need an angry generation.
We need a generation that ploughs the horizons
And excavates history from its roots,
Excavates thought from the depths-
We need a future generation
With different features
That does not excuse mistakes, does not forgive,
Does not bow down
And has not learned to lie.
. .. /
165
We need a giant
Generation
Of departures.
XX
Children,
From the Atlantic to the Indian Ocean, you are
the green wheat:
You are the generation that will smash the chains,
Snuff the opium in our heads
And kill the illusions.
Children, you are--still--innocent
And, like the dew, pure;
Do not read about our defeated generation.
Children,
We are failures . useless as watermelon rinds,
Decaying like old shoes.
Do not read our news,
Do not revere our monuments,
Do not accept our ideas.
We are the generation of influenza, syphilis,
and tuberculosis;
We are the generation of imposters, dancers
on the ropes.
Children-
. .. /
167
Jerusalem
On Sunday mornings?
On Christmas night?
Who repulses
~vho
salvages man?
... /
(" Jerusalem H
Jerusalem, my city
Jerusalem, my love
Tomorrow, tomorrow the orange trees will bloom
And the green wheat will rejoice
And eyes and olive trees will laugh
Migrating doves shall return
To the purified roofs
And the children will come back to play
Fathers and sons will meet each other
On your tall hills, my country,
Country of peace and olive trees
168
169
... /
(II
In one book?
171
Unemployed
172
Love Compared
173
174
The Nipple
cluster of silk
o swing of scents
In a pool of perfume
Whispered word
Written with light
Brown, or red, or
The colour of my feelings
Or a frozen kiss
In your little breast
.. ./
175
Gathered, held
In a silvery bed
In colourful pageant!
Warm, as though
Cast on my consciousness
seed of pomegranate,
... /
176
I.
(b)
178
Muhammad al-Maghut
(1930
A Syrian born poet now residing in Lebanon, Muhammad al
Maghut possesses a highly individualistic talent in the
field of his literary experimentation, non-metrical free
verse.
179
When the Words Burn
Lebanon is burning-
It leaps, like a wounded horse at the edge of the desert
My country sinks,
To a voiceless motherland
Arabs-
Floury mountains of passion,
. . ./
180
I am a strange man, I offer my chest to the rain
. .. /
( If
181
My brothers,
- by Muhammad al-Maghut
(Summer 1958)
182
The Postman's Fear
Prisoners everywhere,
Send me all you've seen
Of horror and weeping and boredom-
Fishermen on every shore,
Send me all you know
Of empty nets and whirling seas-
Peasants in every land,
Send me all you have
Of flowers and old rags,
Of torn breasts,
Pierced abdomens
On human suffering
To present to God
I have a fear
- by Muhammad al-Maghut
(1970)
183
I have tears.
On its roof
- by Muhammad al-Maghut
(1970)
184
Ice and Fire
But I am thirsty-
I may collapse at any moment!
I smile,
Drifts of dust,
And listen:
Thirsty,
Oh, my God:
. .. /
185
Yawning in bathrooms.
My God:
(1964)
186
The Orphan
- by Muhammad al-Maghut
(1970)
187
No farms, no whips.
We stood swordless
And motherless under the electric light
... /
188
God!
You exhausted moon,
You travelling deity--like an old horse!
They say that you are everywhere:
On the threshold of the brothel, in the screams of horses,
Between the bright rivers
And under the leaves of sad willow trees.
Be with us in these broken eyes
And leper's fingers;
Give us a desirable woman in the moonlight
So we may weep,
And hear the roaming of fingernails, the moaning
of mountains-
. . ./
189
.. ./
... /
191
t he
... /
192
. ../
193
. . ./
- Muhammad al-Maghut
(April 1959)
194
195
Unsi aI-Hajj
(1937-
In poetic
from the tenets of metrical free verse into the realm of the
prose-poem, which retains no trace of the patterned poetic feet
tafCilat
Al-Hajj's collections of prose poetry include Lan [Never]
(1960), al-Ra's al-Maqtu'
196
The house
and God,
The house and the spirit
... /
The house and the Word, the house and the need
And the sun.
The meat takes the shade hostage and runs
- by Unsi aI-Hajj
(1960)
198
I am afraid
- by Unsi aI-Hajj
(1961)
199
A Plan
Come,
my love.
- Unsi al-Hajj
(1960)
200
Muhammad al-Fayturi
(l930-
After a
Min Afrigiya
201
He Died Tomorrow
He died
not one night did the moon appear over his grave.
He died tomorrow
a filthy corpse,
neglected shroud.
Like a dream
He died .
.. . /
--My son!
202
and clamouring,
Corne back
II
My
father is innocent!
too~.~
. .. /
What is it
youfre carrying?
.... /
204
a noose
205
In the
but changed to free verse soon after his move to Cairo and
exposure to the modern
c~!~ents
of literary thought.
In a
In his
206
A Song of Waiting
207
We Have Nothing
Eyelids trembling,
Downcast;
Constantly broadcast,
But it spoke
. . ./
208
209
a sink
A small alcove,
an ashtray
and a presence
feel
... /
210
(tl
and self-contemplation
All is mirrors
dancing on streams
It was not me
211
Sa'di Yusuf
(1929?
Surprisingand
Yusuf's
book, Ba'idan 'ani s-sama)i l~4Jla [Far from the First Heaven]
(1970) delivers a typically harsh symbolic statement:
the
Diwan in 1979.
l-~Akhira
212
Six Poems
I
to a friend I understand
II
Sometimes I ask:
Would it be merciful
III
to alleys
IV
know me?
213
VI
In Somerset Maugham
- Sacdi Yusuf
(1972)
214
The Fence
- Sacdi Yusuf
(1976)
215
Khalid al-Khazraji
216
Beirut, My Love
Beirut, my love,
Is pale
Oh, my love,
.. ./
217
In the houses,
In the seas;
Is a star,
The bullets
Like a flame,
Beirut,
... /
218
219
Of grass fall.
To a field of bullets.
.../
Cities!
220
The women go on
The city
- by Khalid al-Khazraji
(Sept. 1977)
221
222
Suzanne
sometimes wonder
Suzanne and I
meet frequently
We listen to music
- by Bandar(Abd aI-Hamid
(1978)
223
224
The Game
225
Ghada al-Samman
(1942
Ghada al-Samman was born in al-Shamiyah, a small town
near Damascus. She was raised by her father--a university
professor, dean, and Syrian Minister of Education--owing to
the death of her mother while she was still a young child.
Dr. al-Samman encouraged his daughter to read widely in both
Arabic and French literature, but insisted that she study
science in university.
226
Imprisonment of a Question Mark
o stranger,
Where
after it is extinguished?
Tell me where:
- By Ghada al-Samman
(July 21, 1976)
227
Imprisonment of a Rainbow
I love you,
but I dread imprisonment
as the river hates
at any pOint
Be a waterfall, or a lake;
Be a cloud, or a dam;
You might
a~rest
me for a time,
I love you,
or a cloud, or a dam.
Love me as I am,
a fleeting moment.
. .. /
Am
to
solid matter.
Love me as I am;
Take me as I am,
- by Ghada al-Sarnman
(Jan. 1, 1975)
228
229
Amal Dunqul
(19ifO-1983) .
The Egyptian poet, Amal Dunqul, has written ostensibly
traditional poetry with romantic themes and a strong degree
of metrical regularity.
230
The Murder of the Moon
I sat down
To ask him about the hands which betrayed him
--But he-didn't hear me,
He was dead!
... /
231
( II
To the countryside.
My brothers:
--My brothers:
They said:
Enough;
Evening fell
--My brothers:
232
In the flesh!
Who is it that lies on the floor of the city?
A stranger, they said,
Whom people took for the moon
And killed and wept over,
And repeated:
II
- by Amal Dunqul
(1974)
II.
Tammuz Rediscovered
234
(1926-1964)
Badr Shakir al-Sayyab was one of the first exponents
of free verse in modern Arabic poetry--and unquestionably
the most influential, providing a coherent model for the
metrical, thematic, and mythological innovations which
had begun to revolutionize Arabic poetry by the mid-fifties.
Born in Jaykur, Iraq, Sayyab was educated in Arabic and
later English literature, first in Basra and then at the
Teacher's Training College in Baghdad.
He taught school
Profoundly disturbed
and
gradual paralysis,
AI-Munis al-'umya)
235
this respect.
with instant acclaim among Arab poets and critics, and was
the genesis of what has been termed the Tammuzi movement in
Arabic poetry of the following decades.
Sayyab's subsequent volumes of poetry include Al
Macbad al-Ghariq [The Drowned Temple] (l962), Shanashil Ibnat
al-Chalabi [The Balcony of the Chalabi's Daughter] (1964),
and Iqbal [the name of Sayyab's wife] (1965).
His Diwan
236
River of Death
Buwayb ...
Buwayb ...
The bells of a tower, lost on the floor of the sea
The water in the jars, the dusk in the trees
And the jars sweat bells like rain
The crystals melt, murmuring
"Buwayb
Buwayb!"
my
. .. /
0 Buwayh .
II
Buwayb
Buwayb,
... /
238
(1956)
239
.. ./
240
I was a beginning:
In every pit
A drop, a droplet.
... /
241
You proceed from the world of death, but death comes once!
So said our fathers, so they taught
USj
can it be false?"
This he thought when he saw me, and this his glance said.
A step--another.
The rocks cascade on my chest.
Didn't they crucify me yesterday?
Who knows that I am?
Here I am in my grave.
Who knows?
A step . A step.
and my sleeve
into a blanket
When I warmed the bones of the children one day
with my flesh
When I undressed my own wound to bandage the wounds
of others,
The wall fell between God and myself.
. . ./
242
243
. . ./
244
She is there.
II
bay,
II
bay,
... /
(H
giver
"
.. /
246
II
... /
Drowned emigrant
From the high waves of the bay and from the deep.
" Rain .
Rain .
Rain .
II
(1956)
248
[From]
~I]c:i
call on passersby:
... /
249
250
Yusuf al-Khal
(1917-
for New York, where he worked with the United Nations Secreta
riat and in his own export business, and edited a newspaper
called al-Huda.
As a research assis
251
He published
poets
252
You say:
quails~
when it is lit
We strike the forehead of dawn with our hands, and bring forth
To the sea.
253
II
In my path,
Crocodiles and phantom crocodiles
My house is crowded with owls and crows
Black clouds augur flood and death
And at the roadside bones are drying
In shame, in lone1iness--in time.
Is this naked crawling thing a man?
A man in the image of God?
I see him ripped from the flesh of Satan,
Slaying the dragon in the forest, spilling
Its blood on the ground to quench
The conqueror's thirst
For unbegun worlds.
I see how he carries the earth between his hands
Hurls it in a maze, and builds a hut
Of steel to hide from death, to hide
From the secret.
254
III
Our sins!
. . ./
255
Whose bread did not fill us, whose wine did not intoxicate us.
IV
Will death reach us, perplexed as we are?
Blasphemers!
As it saved Isaac,
256
The donkey
in a machine,
And the sky is unpredictable as ever.
I am silent when I speak.
The woman by my side is a mere dress.
I will drink a cup, though the cup is empty.
I will smile
though my mouth
has no lips.
II
For a thousand years I've been chewing the leaves of the Yemen
I've gone
without a face.
My mask is a tombstone,
... /
(If
257
My money is counterfeit,
my head is hairless,
III
keep on dying
and not die?
If
will return"?
There is no
Being
immortal, how
shall I conform?
... /
like rivers in
a dream.
IV
I will blindfold myself and walk as a cripple on the earth.
The man next door
is a wall of smoke.
al-Hutay'a~
I am an enigma.
ascending.
*The poet Jarwal ibn-'Aws (d. 678 A.D.) was given his nickname,
al-Hutay)a, for his short and ungainly figure. Suffering also from
a doubtful parentage, he became particularly adept at satiric forms
of poetry, though brilliant in all other forms as well. He did
not hesitate to satirize himself, his mother and father, or his
guests and his guests were quick to retaliate in verse.
**Al-Hajjaj ibn-Yusuf al-Thaqafi (b. 661 A.D.) was appointed Governor
of Arabia for his military exploits (692 A.D.) and was the heavy
handed viceroy of the Umayyads. Dispatched to quell the dissatis
fied factions in Iraq, as Philip K. Hitti reports, "The unexpected
arrival of al-Hajjaj at the famous mosque of aI-Kufah, in disguise
and accompanied only by twelve cameleers, his brusque mounting of
the pulpit and removal of the heavy turban which veiled his face,
and his fiery oration, are among the most dramatic and popular epi
sodes recounted in Arabic literature." (History of the Arabs, p.207)
259
The tree
VI
Listen:
in the temple.
I am a miracle-performing madman.
speaks of me.
And my wife-
Even my wife has left me.
VII
My neck is wooden, and my head is a wad of hay
on a newspaper dummy.
Strike!
I am a Babylonian.
My dogs bark
Do not hesitate.
My people aspire
to the sky; how can they come down to the valleys?
The smell of their skin is rank, and none of them walks in
the light.
Strike!
My neck has no
261
VIII
Don't dance on my grave--I am not dead yet!
I have been watching since dawn, and there is no gentleman
in the crowd.
The rats are an army in the King's state.
have legs
sunk in a bed of mire.
Whose hazel eyes are these?
Whose are these shaking bellies, reeling like a reed in the wind?
"I am the calm forest,"
If
I am the crossroad,
If
IX
Before the blind we count on our fingers, and before the sultan
262
- by Yusuf al-Khal
(1960)
263
Khalil Hawi
(1925-1982)
Khalil Hawi was born in Shuwayr, Lebanon.
He studied
He has written
In his metrical
ween the values of the East and the West) and in rhythms
264
al-Ju~
265
The Cave
. . ./
("The Cave")
266
Be!
11
and it is.
... /
("The Cave")
267
" Behind the eaves, behind the desert of the shore . "
" A spade, a fiel.d, a Zibrctry and a house. "
... /
("The Cave")
268
269
sad laughter
. . ./
( If
The Magi
in Europe" )
270
. . ./
(fl
The Magi
in Europe" )
271
272
The Prisoner
. . ./
273
. . ./
274
275
He has
In 1957 he co
Shier
al-Khal
with Yusuf
In
276
As his
Since this
He is a noted
277
horizon~
Between us
If
God,
o God,
in our veins
the light
We dread a tomorrow
Where life must be started allover again."
oblations
. .. /
278
Dust.
"Noah, save
The living!
II
... /
279
Death is
A familiar despair;
we have accepted
280
A Dialogue
Or Satan's pit.
281
The Fall
(1961)
282
In my book I walk
283
The Road
An idol of dust,
284
A Vision
As flesh.
I rend it on paper.
An ancestry of rags.
. .. /
( "A Vision")
285
Am I a stalk of wheat
286
("A Vision")
- by
(1961)
287
I live in my eyes,
I eat of my eyes.
II
288
I sit awaiting
A forgotten rendez-vous.
III
I want to pray
IV
... /
289
290
With my dust.
coming to us-
In the rain-laden winds I knew,
Despair itself knew you were
coming to us
And knew you a revered prophet.
So we knelt
And called:
"You who are coming to us,
Lost, trailing fire and exile-
We accept you as a God and a friend
In the mirrors of the stone."
.. ./
291
292
The
1-law~
I looked towards
Then
. . ./
293
There is a language
And I sink.
. . ./
294
" Quraish
Am
" Quraish,
. .. /
( If
295
In the crevices
I seek the shade,
I feel the minutes,
I shake the breast of the
wild~erness-
I walk on
Sharper than the arrow, sharper.
I wound the pebbles and the dust.
. .. /
I pray,
... /
297
In his weddings,
(fl
Awakened,
is now in my eye.
A sign
In my forehead weaves
A river of nets,
In my forehead flows
A river of incense
. .. /
A fireplace,
. . ./
anthem~
300
301
bewilderment
He introduced Badr
302
Ukhra [A-rag and Other Stories] (1956) and the novels Surakh fi
Layl Tawil [Screams in a Long Night] (1955), Al-Safina [The
Ship] (1970), and, in English, Hunters in a Narrow Street
(Heinemann, 1960). His critical essays have been collected
in al-Hurriyya wa l-Tufan [Freedom and the Deluge] (1960) ,
Al-Rihla al-Thamina [The Eighth Journey] (1967), and Al-Nar
wa l-Jawhar [Fire and Essence] (1947) .
303
Beyond Galilee
And hemlock.
Give me shade!
For whom
304
. . ./
305
. .. /
" And tears are a stream that runs in the mud .. "
Which one; which one?
Is it she who has worn a black garment
To declare mourning
(1959)
Jabra-~
307
The City
In untroubled sleep?
At the doorways
. . ./
308
( "The City")
A thousand worms
II
This nothingness
~t
day's boredom,
... /
(liThe City")
309
III
I heard the street whimper itself to sleep,
I saw the houses pile bones
Upon bones;
I saw their inhabitants, hunted by dreams
Raise their empty hands and,cry:
"If only the storms would cease to rage!"
Wouldn't storms lift the shadow
And rid them of ghosts
That the sap might flow from their roots
And fill the branches with buds and flowers?
. . ./
("The City")
310
Hurry along,
We are building
. . ./
(liThe City")
311
To build alleys
Of thousands of trees.
No,
I woundeg.
Has wounded .
Like hammers
... /
312
("The City")
IV
Look at the deserted street in the dark.
Darkness mantles the shops
And the light never finds them--the doors are fitted
With forbidding latches.
The passerby bows under the pain
That grips him afresh at every door.
. .. /
("The City")
313
Descend
From the heights
Pregnant with the tides of the sea, and efface
All rotting things from sight.
Open the doors of the city to the great sea;
Sweep out
And blood ..
II.
(b)
315
He attempted to
316
Ma~sat
a1-Hallaj
317
The Saint
. . ./
(rr
The Saint II
318
They told me
That the river is not the river, and man is no longer man
That the hovering of this star is music
That the truth of the world dwells in a cave
That the truth of the world is in a calloused palm
And that God has created man, and gone to sleep
And that God was in the doorkey to the house
And that you should not ask a drowned man flung on his face
in the sea
To fill his stomach with grass, and seashells, and water.
Such a man was I:
And one morning I saw the truth of the world
And heard the music of the stars, the waters, and the flowers
I saw God in my heart one morning
When I awoke, threw the books in the fire, and opened
my window.
In my soul was the scent of dawn; I went out
To look at the strollers in the streets, and the people
seeking food.
In the shadows of the gardens I saw flocks of lovers
And in a moment
I felt my feverish body pulse like the heart of the sun,
I felt the chambers of my heart fill with wisdom.
Then I knew I had become a saint
. .. /
319
And my mission
Was to bless you all
(1961)
320
I am living in a wilderness.
With roses
. ../
321
Embracing my downfall,
Went forth
To die alone
322
Salem Haggi
(1937?
An Egyptian poet and devoted student of Salah 'Abd al
Sabur, Salem Haqqi has written mostly traditional poetry in
the past, but of late has turned his attention to metrical
free verse with greater effect.
Besides contributing to
323
Sinbad's Last Journey
,.
(In Memory of Salah ~Abd al-Sabur)
What will quench death?
Our stream is dry
The water displaced, the river cleft
Not a drop is left in the cup ...
Our land is in ruins
The fields parched and wasted,
The nightingale has deserted his nest .
Even sound has ceased.
All things around us now are dead.
The star has mounted far up into the sky
And all at once dusk has fallen
Be fore evening.
Oh, you who harvest a flower from us every day-
Every day, a flower-
Death, who never has enough
Of the poets' blood!
A Sinbad
Set sail to roam the seas
And the deserts,
To roam the earth and the shores and the distant isles
Where none had set foot before,
Seeking the wisdom of verse and speech,
Observing the lives of men-
He has not rested since he returned
From the land of elephant riders,
... /
( If
324
Carrying gifts,
Carrying food,
As he returned before
... /
325
( " Sinbad' s Last Journey")
Sinbad,
Zahran
l~ves
on
326
Isam Mahfuz
(1939
Poet, journalist, and man of letters, Isam Mahfuz
was born in Lebanon.
Among
al-~ayf
and
327
A Birth
Between walls
there are lean young fingers
wasted with loneliness and longing
and the day's fatigue.
The shy wife does not refuse,
not a word does she say ..
And tomorrow the fields will shiver.
The fireplace
is a shivering infant's mouth;
the evil moon
creeps through their window and rests
on the heads of five little ones
eating dreams on a straw mat.
The edges of the shadows
gather
over houses with extinguished eyes.
The fireplace
chews the last cinder into ashes,
while the earth still breeds.
II
The airports of dreams in the evening
open the skies for me;
In my forehead the earth builds
(" A Birth" )
328
a bewitched gate
that sits coin-like in a corner of the sky.
The softness of the evening
is Jacob's ladder to heaven-
But the shadows of years upon years
turn in a young girl's disappointment,
and sweep all dreams away.
III
Darkness swells in my lungs,
Words soar in my mouth.
My eyes burn out like two cinders
and the spark of peace falls into ashes.
Isis spits on my forehead,
Time has cursed my dust.
What is left for me
on these wind-swept shores?
Love scorned,
an aborted woman in the jaws of the grave,
and the wounded flesh
bleeding in Venus' arms.*
329
Riyad Najib
al-~ayyis
(1937
The Lebanese poet and critic
paper from 1964 until 1966, and is now the chief foreign
correspondent for Al-Nahar.
He has been an active contributor of poetry, book
reviews and translations from English to Shier [Poetry]
magazine, and published a collection of his poems, Mawtu
l-Akharin [The Death of Others] in 1961.
Al-Rayyis' poetry
330
... /
331
... /
332
III.
Resistance Poetry
334
Mahmud Darwish
(1940
The free verse poems (both metrical and non-metrical)
of the Palestinian poet, Mahmud Darwish, deal predominantly
with Palestinian resistance and struggle.
and
Unlike
many poets Darwish may claim to have lived his poetry, for
many a time he has faced imprisonment by the Israeli
autho
Lover from
335
I Love
336
To the Reader
reader,
This is my suffering!
Of fire
337
~~
of jasmine,
Saleswoman of death, and aspirin!
My face is a dusk,
My death is a fetus
And I want nothing
From the country which has forgotten the
emigrants' accent
Except my mother's scarf
And reasons for a new death.
338
339
Of Poetry
II
Our poems are without colour,
Voiceless and tasteless.
If poetry does not carry a lantern from house
to house,
If the poor do not know what it "means"
We had better discard it!
It is better that we seek immortal silence.
(" Of Poetry II
III
Some say,
Then I am a poet .
340
341
The Prison
342
The Curtain Falls
am tired now
... /
343
Into my flesh
Oh, my blood .
Yet I say:
Ladies-
Dear ladies-
Gentlemen!
And therefore
I resign!
344
I will
If I must, hold death back
Burn off the tears of the bleeding songs
And strip from the olive trees
all unnatural branches.
If I sing for joy
Behind fearful eyelids
It is because the storm
Has promised me wine, new toasts
And rainbows,
And because it has swept
The voices of lazy birds
And borrowed branches
From the trunks of the straight trees.
I will, then,
Take pride in this wound of the city,
The canvas of lightning in our sad nights.
Though the street frowns in my face
It protects me from shadows and malign glances
So I sing for joy
Behind fearful eyelids.
When the storm struck in my country
It promised me wine, and rainbows
- Mahrnud Darwish
(1967)
345
Identity Card
Write down:
I am an Arab
My I.D. number, 50,000
My children, eight
and the ninth is due next summer
--Does that anger you?
Write down:
Arab
I work with my struggling friends in a quarry
And my children are eight
I chip a loaf of bread for them,
clothes and notebooks
from the rocks
I will not beg for a handout at your door
I will not humble myself
on your threshold
--Does that anger you?
Write down:
Arab
A name with no friendly diminutive
A patient man, in a country
brimming with anger
My roots have gripped this soil
("Identity Card")
346
... /
("Identity Card")
347
Write down:
Arab.
You have stolen my ancestors' vineyards
and the land I once ploughed
with my children.
You left my grandchildren
nothing but rocks
--Will your government take
those too, as the rumour goes?
348
Samih al-Qasim
(1939
Born in Zarqa, Jordan, of Palestinian parents, Samih
al-Qasim grew up in Rama and Nazareth.
349
my country, tremble
And forgive me
Descending, with death at my heels;
Forgive me my anguished scream for this shameful kneeling;
Burn me, burn me so I may shine!
. . ./
350
("Come, Together We Shall Draw a Rainbow")
I was descending,
And grief was my only lifeline
The day I called from the far shore
The day I bandaged my forehead with a poem
From the pipes and the market of the slaves.
Who are you?
... /
351
It
Ruin It
I said,
I said,
II
You said,
I said,
... /
352
("~ome,
And we cried-
Like two strange children, we cried
The cooing pigeons that wait in cages
Cry, the cooing pigeons that return in cages
Cry .
Raise your eyes!
cry,
and
sing.
... /
It
Ruin"
- by Samih al-Qasim
(1969)
354
Heavier in weight
darkened love
I will lose consciousness
And disappear from view.
The audiences will watch the ritual of my death
And the trail-blazers and poets will envy me.
But you will have a new pearl to throw in your
martyrs' box.
Have no regrets:
As death wishes .
I love you
355
Fear
It is dawn.
I tuck the warmth of the blanket around you
And steal like a domestic cat
Lightly over the summit of the world.
Corne, prepare the coffee!
I move to your side,
... /
("Fear")
356
Calling:
Come, wake up
- by Samih al-Qasim
(1980)
357
. . ./
I will resist.
- by Samih al-Qasim
(1967)
359
So
- by Samih al-Qasim
(1967)
360
Descent
(" Descent" )
361
362
To bring me back
Discover me;
Discover me!
Come out,
When you are falling between the light and the darkness
(,I
363
- by Samih al-Qasim
(1982)
364
Fadwa Tuqan
(1917
Born in Nablus, Palestine to a literary family, Fadwa
Tuqan completed her secondary education there.
could not attend university
Since she
His death in
It is
ACtina
365
The Rock
. ../
and travelled in
every direction.
I played,
I sang
in the streams of youth
I held up my cup
and greedily drank
until I was absent to the world.
How the world of pleasure deceived me,
my pain and my misery in its lap!
I have escaped from
the world of my feelings
and danced, swift as the birds,
laughing in madness.
Then from
If
I am here!
You will not escape. There is no refuge!"
366
bleeding, sweating
I keep on:
I seek comfort
367
368
Mute,
it follows me
Its shadow dogs my steps
in its arrogance
over my chest!
My spirit is
locked;
I am
alone in my struggle
alone
with pain
with time
with fate
alone
There is no refuge
- by Fadwa Tuqan
(1957)
369
Cairo and
Amman,
370
Passport
To my last words.
An oasis, or an island.
Last words:
for wine,
I have kinfolk in your houses
And forgotten
tryst~
.. ./
( "Passport fI
371
(1980?)*
372
MuCin Basisu
u~i
(1979) .
373
A Traffic Light
green
stop
go
374
To a Lady Tourist
*Salah aI-Din ibn-Ayyub (b. 1138), King and Sultan of the Fatimid
dynasty and great champion of Islam against the European Crusa
ders, is one of the most celebrated figures in Islamic history.
He was a chivalrous and enlightened ruler as well as a great
military leader. At the famous battle of Hittin (July 3-4, 1187
A.D.) he vanquished the Frankish army and soon afterwards recap
tured Jerusalem, then the capital of the Latin kingdom, thus
inciting Europe to gather its forces and launch upon a "third
Crusade" (1189-92).
**The Egyptian name for the famous sculpture of the Great Sphinx
at Al Jizah, which represents the incarnation of the Pharaoh
as the sun god, Ra.
376
Sadiq al-Saligh
In his volume
Al-Sa'igh
377
A Spectacle
378
Dryads
Come,
we are many balconies
we overlook the carnival of ages
Whenever the morning casts off its hours
a rose conceives, and shakes out
ribbons of light
- by Sadiq al-Sa~igh (1971)
379
One day
we will fall asleep in our white clothes
But you will rise
to cover us
calling upon the dead,
upon the kingdom of the poor
Some day ..
It
... /
380
He will come
to lead the prisoners and the weary
along the paths of truth. "
IV
For a moment I thought of running to find
exile at the end of time-
A ball rising above the screams of the playground-
For a moment I thought of exiling myself
in your womb,
the womb of my native land.
I thought, and walked against the wind
I strode through your closed cities
I crossed fires, and roamed the seas
I travelled with the migrants,
I cried at the weeping wall
And always you shadowed me,
your illness on my mind,
the bullet holes in your forehead-
And sleeping on my arm, you cried:
Where do the winds go?
Where have the geese flown?
Sleeping on my arm, you cried:
I am dying, lonely and ragged.
Mark your borders and flee,
But leave me the borders of your ruins!
. . .!
v
I measure the skies in my heart,
I measure the massacres with my tears
The earth grows away from me
The wind pulls away from me
while a voice sings in the distance,
11
Murderers!
381
382
Kamal Nasir
(1925-1973)
A Palestinian poet born in Birzayt, Kamal Nasir
received a Bachelor of Arts degree from the American Univer
sity of Beirut in 1945
+~~
nian poetry, Nasir's is charged with emotion and pain; yet its
cultivated vocabulary and symbolic thrust distance it consi
derably from the direct and colloquial style favoured by
poets like Mahmud Darwish and Samih al-Qasim.
Nasir's collected poems were published in 1974 with an
extensive introduction by the Egyptian critic Ihsan (Abbas
under the title Al-Athar al-Shi(riyyah al-Kamilah li-Kamal
Nasir [The Complete Poetic Works of Kamal Nasir] (1974).
His
383
- /
384
385
Tawfiq Zayyad
In his predominantly
Shuyu'iyyun [Commu
386
Six Words
roses sprouted on
on a blood-stained
tank
II
What murders
the secrets
in a struggling people?
Is there a war
... /
Truth
will never
die
A Telephone Call
as long as
she wa a a . anders
VI
Salman
Said Salman to us
My dears,
388
389
Tawfiq Sayigh
(1923-1971)
Born in southern Syria, Tawfiq Sayigh grew up in Tibe
rias, Palestine, where his parents moved while he was still
a baby.
He frequently draws
It strives to reflect
390
391
Come closer,
And as I jump on your smooth back,
Kick the earth, and shriek against the sky.
Scatter dust and make the universe rumble,
And run
Run,
Climb mountains, cross valleys,
Race the wind, the birds, the light
And lovers' promises.
Run where you will:
Don't stop for red lights,
Don't ask the way;
.. ./
392
Run
Though a thousand spurs rake your sides
Run!
do
. . ./
n )
393
. .. /
394
the
Types A, Band 0;
bull's urine
And the blood of syphilitics that trickles
Filthily drop after drop;
Of my friends' and neighbours' blood,
Of my wife's blood
And that of the child on her arm, and another
395
II )
396
unborn.
Fields of my blood-
Meadows that stink of an
All-encompassing hatred
Of those who are near, and those who are far,
Of those seen and unseen
Hatred of him and of her,
And of myself.
Run; run!
All obliterated
As you run.
To lofty terraces
... /
397
In a sleep-intoxicated garden,
To the Sundays of our weeks
To the evenings of our days;
To a crooked alley
That looks to all a familiar island on a map
And the naked rocks
They think are fertile soil.
Do not head me off
To a sleep-intoxicated garden
Where the stars are spying eyes
And the singing, hissing;
Where the flowers are all of paper and ribbon
Blurred reds, yellows, whites,
A drizzle of blood and vomit and death;
Do not head me off
To a garden thronged
With rings of dancers
Their arms and breasts
Mummified for centuries
And fixed upon bodies
That rotate them like machines
uttering their unintelligible prayers
In a strange language
To unknown gods
All dance, and uproar
. ../
II )
398
And machines:
Rehearsed rituals
The couple cracked by a shiver
A sacrificed innocence
Baptism of sin and knowledge
A nuptial tie that makes the two one
And the one zero,
A beautiful song that rises
Higher as you approach and neigh
To close off their festival and their ceremonies,
Running strong-backed and sure.
Run,
Run with me
o new Scheherazade
Who enthralls a Schahriah every night
And sucks him to ruin!
Run
o open womb
Damp with sweat
In which the genitals are limp and gelded.
Run with me
And I with you;
Together we pant
Leap and descend,
. ../
(It
It )
399
Move:
Both of us
- by Tawfiq Sayigh
(Autumn 1960)
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