I bequeath you my desolation...
My bread...
And my cup...
Just leave me the ecstasy
For I am thirsty...Oh friends
.................
.................
A bulbul [nightingale]of transparent glass
I teach twittering in the morning
I offer him some of my sorrow...
And let him free
A rose of dust
Opens up at night.
And I pluck it in the morning
A phantom woman
I become her lover
Hiding her charms in sleeplessness
So, come join my sleeplessness...
Oh poets.
(Ibid. 107–15)
amld Sa‘ld’s lyricism builds on his early poetry of the late 1960s with its
recall of Shi‘ite rituals, various personages, and life in Baghdad. Nevertheless,
he distances himself from his generation’s affectations and claims for sophisti-
cation. In a poem addressed to his colleague and friend, the Iraqi poet Smml
Mahdl(b. 1940), >amld Sa‘ld subtly argues against the effort to problematize
a scene or a life. Language in this instance recovers a self that is lost in clichés
and sophistry. Using a parallel structure, the poet sets a multiple perspective to
uncover both the complex and the ordinary. While both can be the objects of
poetry, the intimation throughout is toward spontaneity and effortless sweep.
“Al-mu‘,ilah” (The Problem), dedicated to SmmlMahdl, begins as follows:
He asked his friend for a loan...and bought with it
Three plants of bitter orange
He planted them in the house courtyard...he borrowed from his lady
neighbor a table
And he made a seat out of stone
He said:
Now I am done with the problem of the garden
.........
.........
He saw a kid plucking a lemon from the vizier’s garden
He cursed him in private, to himself,
And he said: you swinePOETIC DIALOGIZATION