on the left. The endeavor is revisionist in the main, for the “return of the
dead”^85 signifies their subordination to the will of the belated poet, as if
proposing to tell all that it is time to set things right and begin anew. In him
is born the precursor, but with further determination not only to abide, but
also to emend: “This is our ancestor’s consensus, while I, belated, listen and
follow suit.”^86
Rather than mere acknowledgment of lineage, the belated poet’s
interventions are no less revelatory than new gleanings from history: “Time
is sitting as a child in my lap to read what space inscribes in notebooks stolen
from the pockets of heaven” (Ibid. 23). These notebooks only remind him to
“... take shade along with his other ancestors / who shine forth, far and higher
than the gloom of murder and the venom of murderers” (Ibid. 37).
Revisionism here involves poetry in the very dynamics of reassessment.
History accordingly is a narrative, a text among many, whose impact and
presence are highly damaging for being manipulated to dominate. Beginning
with poets of Tammnzlpredilection, Adnnls soon evolves beyond them,
taking issue with the very writing of history in order to present an alterna-
tive poetic reading. This is not a sudden swerve in the poet’s career, for he
has been negotiating stations and stayings, to use Sufi terms, to come to
terms with issues that have been bothering him since his disillusionment
with the Tammnzls. One may cite his “Elegy for the Time at Hand,” as the
mid-way poem: “Now in the final act, disaster tows our history/ toward us on
its face.”^87 Although a station, the poem is not yet a visionary one, for the
speaker makes no claims to transcendence, “I see what any man can see:
libations at the graves of children, / incense for holy men, / tombstones of
black marble, / fields scattered with skeletons, / vultures, / mushy corpses
with the names of heroes” (Ibid. 47). As for the speaker’s words, “they become
a spear in flight, / unopposable as truth, my spear returns to strike me / dead”
(Ibid. 50).One might say that here is a lingering Sufi tone whereby the blame
becomes the speaker’s way into annihilation as a step on the road to Divinity.
Yet, there is also the poetic of affiliation and rapprochement. In paratexts,
poems or citations introducing the text, there is a function that may be
central to the text, or may stand for the text itself, as Derrida argues.^88 The
attitude is well recognized in Arabic writing. Ibn ‘Arabl(d. 1240) speaks as
follows of the poetic pieces that introduce each chapter in his Meccan
Revelations: “Consider carefully the verses placed at the start of each chapter
of this book, because they contain knowledge which I have deliberately put
in them. Indeed you will find in these verses things which are not mentioned
in the exposition of the corresponding chapters.”^89 In keeping with this
tradition, Arab poets have managed to cement an association between texts
and figures. On the other hand, dedications may well be in keeping with this
positive attitude, for there may be fewer anxieties than the ones already
discussed. This is the case with Ma.mnd Darwlsh in the quatrains which
he dedicates to the Palestinian woman poet FadwmYnqmn, in reply to her
DEDICATIONS AS POETIC INTERSECTIONS