Deep into the enchanted darkness
She couldn’t imprison spring in her orchard
I saw a flowering branch in the gloom,
Leaning over me
From the top of the wall of light
I cried, the spring then returned
And I was still at the gate of the orchard
Praying for its flowering branch,
For the light which comes from inside,
For the colors
Carrying my vows to the capital of the empire
And the stone of wisdom and the legend
Perhaps the polar star
Will become a bridge for me on the infernal river of love
So I can cross the desert
Walking behind my camel, dawn preceding me to Bukhara
I return, carrying my vows to Damascus
Pursued, starved for love
Writing my ten mu‘allaqmt(odes) upon its wall.^20The poem makes use of a mixed register of Sufism and love poetry, but its
mu‘allaqmtare no more than short poems, with scattered references to ancient
poetry and geographical markers. The overall effect gathers its power from a lyri-
cal strain as centered in the speaker’s yearning for love. Beneath this Romantic
agony there is also a deliberate parody of the poetics of allegiance, for the vows
that the speaker claims to have for the imperial center amount to no more than
this personal yearning. In other words, the poet follows up the ra.ll(journey)
part, across the desert and toward the capital of the empire, only as an infatuated
lover led by singing, with no definite signs of settlement. The Romantic agony
gathers momentum through this dispersion of effects and the acceleration of the
endless journey. The act of writing becomes one of displacement; for only in
textual domains can the poet ensure a culmination of desire. The act of writing
on the wall parodies the pre-Islamic ode, supposedly suspended on the walls of
Mecca, while focusing on the written terminus of an endless quest.
The practice of reversal poetics received subtle endorsement in the poetry
of Ma.mnd Darwlsh, especially in his poem “Eleven Planets in the Last
Andalusian Sky” in his 1990 collection A.ada ‘ashara kawkaban(Eleven
Planets). Well-acquainted with classical and Andalusian poetic traditions,
Darwlsh navigates easily among forms and images, giving these a modernist
sweep that is in perfect concordance with a scene of rupture, loss, devastation,
and enormous challenge on every front. Only in his poetry can we claim that
the classical works as a sustained underlying subtext to energize and feed a
modernist poetics in times of discord. Another example of a different caliber
is a poem by Amjad Nmxir. A Jordanian Bedouin by origin, he is not after
CONCLUSION: DEVIATIONAL AND REVERSAL POETICS