THE EMIGRANT POETS 192fell ill in 1942, after which date he ceased to write poetry, and died in 1946.
His poems were collected and published in 1946 in one volume called
Troubled Spirits,^5 * though apparently some of his work remains unpublished.^35
The title of his Diwan is in fact indicative of the nature of its contents.
'Arida's poetry is an expression of the quintessence of romantic sorrow: to
him more than to any other Mahjar poet Shelley's words are applicable: 'Our
sweetest songs are those that tell of saddest thought'. His poems deal with
the dark side of life, with loss and uncertainty, with the cruelty of fate, with
poverty and misery, parting and pain, loneliness and all kinds of human
suffering. The loss of his young brother after the war, on whom he wrote
a moving elegy,^36 had a profound and lasting effect upon the poet's whole
attitude to life. Besides, his constant failure in business did not help to change
his outlook. In his poem 'The Poet' which he addressed to Jibran (in 1914)^37
the stress in his conception of the poet (and of Jibran's role) is not so much
on his love of beauty or the sympathy or affinity between nature and the
poet as the poet's sensitivity to human suffering and his rebellion against
social injustice, hypocrisy and corruption. This is how the poem starts:
He walks without seeing what lies before him.
His spirit dwells in the sky above the clouds.
His ear listening to a secret whispering
Which is the cause of this smile on his lips.
As he walks the meadow lovingly reveals to him
Its roses and its lavender.
The nightingale perched high on the tree
Calls out to him to listen to its song.
Shades beckon to him offering him shelter
Where silence has pitched its tents.
But on he goes, unconcerned.
Saying, 'This is no place for me.'
His destination is wherever Truth
Is found weeping, tied, gagged and silenced.
There he goes to set her free...
Or hastens to wherever misery lurks
And despair spreads out its gloom
There no nightingale sings, no shade is found.
No joy, no comfort, no safety.
The theme that sorrow should have a claim on the poet's attention prior to
beauty recurs in 'Arida's work.^38
'Arida was troubled and nauseated by having to live in a society where
money seems to be the only dominant value. His poetry is full of condemna-
tion of the materialism of American society, and all his life he dreamt of
returning to his native town in the Lebanon, Hims, which he called the City