Release comes through this grounding, and the spark is ignited in the poem
as epiphany:
My elect state overwhelmed me:
I was seized by the yield
of the senses,
and the signs of epiphany;... the earth book tumbled through myriad exegeses.
(Ibid. 41)
Reversal poetics can work elusively within the poetics of the “nostalgic
prelude” (naslb) of the classical qaxldah, as for example in FadwmYnqmn’s “Lan
Abkl” (I Won’t Cry). The poem begins with a paratextual dedication to the
poets of the Palestinian resistance, “a present for the Jaffa meeting, 4/3/
1986.” Establishing a dedicatory relationship with a specific group of poets
entails a contextual and textual terrain where connections are established and
poetic transposition is sustained. In this context, no text is free from the
impact of the group’s poetic output, and a configurational site emerges. To
cite Gerard Genette, “The dedication... proclaims a relationship, whether
intellectual or personal, actual or symbolic, and this proclamation is always
at the service of the work, as a reason for elevating the work’s standing or as
a theme for commentary.”^22
FadwmYnqmn’s poem opens with the nostalgic prelude, at Jaffa’s gates
where the speaker has a glimpse of ruined habitations that remind the woman
poet of the damage done under occupation and confiscation. The use of the
classical tripartite division is found here too. The nostalgic opening sets the
tone for the second section, as the speaker describes the ruins that act on her
sensibility in preparation for the trouble and misery as suffered in this
meeting. Quoting the standardized “Qifmnabkl,” (Stop and We Will Weep),
of Imru’ al-Qays in his famous prelude, the poem halts at the deserted
dwelling-places and relics of habitation at Jaffa, where this speaker begged to
stop and weep, complained, and addressed the desolate encampment.
Between watching, surveying, and investigating the scene of havoc and
destruction, the mind is not satisfied with mere nostalgic recollections. It
poses questions regarding the inhabitants of the demolished abodes, the
friends and the loved ones:
They were here,
They had their dreams here once
Here they drew
projects for future life
Where is the dream and where are they?CONCLUSION: DEVIATIONAL AND REVERSAL POETICS