Arabic Poetry: Trajectories of Modernity and Tradition

span the abyss

and stand on the porch

of a world to be.

(Ibid. 51)

The poem also plays on a positive religious subtext not only of promise and
faith, but also of the condition of exile. Strangers draw more love and sym-
pathy. As already mentioned, in Islam strangers are always beloved by God.
The Prophet was told to flee beyond immediate borders: “Was not the earth
of God spacious enough for you to fly for refuge” (Qur’mn, “Women,” 70).
Nevertheless, the matter is the same if one flees for the cause, “He that flies
his homeland for the cause of God shall find numerous places of refuge in the
land and great abundance” (Ibid. 71). On a metaphorical level, there is in this
verse a promise of life after death, too. As sojourn on earth is temporary, poets
identify with Sufis, as these follow the life of fugitives, always afraid of being
contaminated by petty concerns. ‘Azlz al-Sayyid Jmsim speaks of this life as a
mask for another. Now it is the smql(the cup-bearer) whose cup holds one’s
life on earth captive:

The world is a mask, you who blame,

life is a smql

you smqltake me out of your cup

and in time of forgetfulness, I will call on you to possess this moment

a shore searching for a fugitive

an eternal pavement

A night with nobody!

Sorrow!^59

The oscillation between obligations and needs, between party politics and
individual response, informs other positions and attitudes. Many writers have
passed or are passing through this experience. Some have already made up
their minds to suffer isolation and ostracization. In the words of Adam Schaff:

Is there anything strange in the fact that those who formerly submitted

blindly to all orders because they believed in their correctness

should, in the face of revealed abuses, now raise questions about the

individual’s responsibility for his actions and the conflict between

conscience and discipline? Is it surprising that such people should

raise questions about the role of the individual in the mass move-

ment, and about how he is to decide for himself in the case of

conflicts between what he is called upon to do and his own standards

of right and wrong?^60

Even a poet of SacdlYnsuf’s caliber may pass through this bewilderment,
as do many other writers who develop a sense of guilt for not measuring up

ENVISIONING EXILE