shaykhs or jurists). In this vein, they focus also on distorted lifestyles, mixed
agendas, and superficial amalgams of ancient and modern attitudes. In the lat-
ter mood, the Palestinian Murld al-Barghnthl(b. 1944) writes “Al-Qabm’il”
(The Tribes 1978) that pictures tribalism as a state of mind. Using the
“tent” as a trope for a Bedouin frame of mind that makes use of the offers of
bourgeois life, the speaker says:
Our tribes regain their charm:
Tents and more tents
tents of tranquil stone, their pegs are tile and marble
inscriptions on the ceiling, velvet paper covering the walls
the family portraits and “La Giaconda”
facing a tablet with inscriptions
to repel the evil eye
beside the diploma of a son
framed in gold, coated with dust.
Tents, and a glass window
it is the trap for young girls, who look out from it and tremble for fear
their young sister or brother might tell the grown-ups.
Vapor rises from the tea, whiskey and soda
and “I do not like wine” and “excuse me”
“did you manage with the fourth wife?”
Tents and more tents
the chandeliers illuminate opulent furnishings
flies of speech dance through them
In and out of brass gates draped with chains
Our tribes retain their charm
now that the tribes are out of date!^87Irony and juxtaposition hold the poem together in a secular terrain. The main
thrust of the poem lies thematically in its focus on a bourgeois temper of
contradictory beliefs and applications, tied to an old mentality and sham set
of ethics and moralities while clinging to Western icons in a pretentious
stance of modernity.
This crystallization of socio-political issues may confirm what Nizmr
Qabbmnlcited as a paradoxical temper. Yet, the Palestinian Murld Barghnthl
depicts a specific case: the mixed morality and outlook of the emerging bour-
geoisie. His subtle irony exposes a class that has become the main target of
social and literary criticism, and the butt of narrative satire. Poetry goes fur-
ther to question mixed agenda and expectations. The persona in the
Jordanian Amjad Nmxir’s (b. 1955) poem “Manfm” (1982, “Exile”) would like
to think that the recreation of an indigenous lifestyle in a foreign land can
be quite accommodating and salutary.^88 In “Exile,” which was written while
he was in Beirut, the persona comes to realize, however, that memory and
THE TRADITION/MODERNITY NEXUS