Bustmn cM’ishah(Aisha’s Orchard 1989), collapsing notions and significations to
applaud the very position of sacrifice as exemplified in the figure of the martyr:
The martyr of the nation
Ascending from the bottom of creativity
Was drowning in the light.^132Whenever the martyr and the exiled poet exchange roles, myth and religion
are no longer separate in an integrated symbolism, as in “False Critics”: “But
the poet on the cross of exile / Carried the sun and flew” (Ibid. 279).
Whenever there is a defiant tone to establish a reality of love, it degenerates
into poor rhetoric, as in his poem “Al-’Amlrah wa-al-ghajarl” (The Princess
and the Gypsy) in Kitmb al-Ba.r(The Book of the Sea 1973). Indeed, Lorca’s
stamp loses its force in such rhetoric:
My love is bigger than I
Bigger than this world
The poor lovers
Crowned me king of vision
And a man of banishment and exile.^133Al-Baymtl’s Kitmb al-Ba.r(The Book of the Sea) bridges the gap in his
poetics between the exoteric and the esoteric responses to exile. In the “Sayyidat
al-aqmmr al-sabcah” (Lady of the Seven Moons), visions overtake him and
he responds with rapture. The speaker is the woman, and her prophetic pro-
nouncement counteracts fear or sadness. In a paradoxical reversal, the speech
runs as a prophecy that the enveloping poetic voice accepts and cherishes.
Exile is loneliness and physical annihilation. She says:
In a dream
I see you on the sidewalk of the white cities
Walking alone
Dying alone in banishment and exile
She said: I love you.^134To understand the association between exile, rapture, and love here, we need
to explain al-Baymtl’s catalysts, his dominant images of the figure of love, not
only as solace but also as the source of creativity.
Love as counterbalance to failure is there in many poems, but the poet
makes no easy assumptions regarding his agony. In (Carrying my Death and
Leaving), he says, “Lmrmhas left after my departure / Lost among the crowds
of this world.” Nevertheless, this loss stands for a bereavement of some sort,
as all the images of beauty and love like Khuzmmah, Lmrm, cM’ishah, and
ENVISIONING EXILE