ADUNIS AND THE NEW POETRY 235Adunis's commitment, however, differs radically from the political com-
mitment of, for instance, Marxist poets. In 1967 he wrote:
The poetry that aspires to nothing more than serving the Revolution and
describing its aims and achievements in an optimistic spirit, at times to the
point of naivete, is a poetry that in the end betrays the spirit and meaning of
Freedom and the Revolution.For by its nature the Revolution is constantly in need of reexamination and
renewal, lest it should become frozen into institutions and achievements, and
it can be renewed only by 'a creative critical force which will give it another
dimension or a further impetus', by
creativity and freedom, the spirit of questioning, inquiry and progress, by
poetry -which is constantly beginning afresh, constantly moving, arousing
and suggesting. By definition the poet is a revolutionary ... he can only be
on the side of change (pp. 116—17).In 1969, in an important address to the Soviet Writers' Association, he said:The role of the poet is to replace the language spoken by present society
with a revolutionary language. For the present language, like present society,
is something inherited: they both belong to a bygone age and must be super-
ceded (pp. 179-80).
And again in 1970 he says, 'It is impossible to create a revolutionary Arab
culture except by means of a revolutionary language' (p. 199).
The progress of Adunis the poet can fairly be described as the story of his
attempt to create this revolutionary language: it is a journey from the poetry
of direct social and political protest to that which suggests more than it states,
and sees a deeper significance in phenomena, a hidden meaning behind the
form linking it to mysticism and surrealism.^51 The revolutionary stand which
he adopted in the 1950s, when together with Yusuf al-Khal he edited Shi'r
magazine (1957), he came to regard as not sufficiently revolutionary in the
1960s and he dissociated himself from the magazine. In his own avant-garde
magazine Mawaqif( 1969) he claims that his intention is both to complement
and supersede Shi'r in the sense that the aim is now not simply to establish
the new poem, but a new writing altogether, which is an exploration of the
unknown, in which the emphasis is on total originality and creativity, and
traditional distinctions between literary forms like poetry, drama and nar-
rative disappear.^52 How far he has succeeded in this unrealistically ambitious
objective of creating metapoetry and metalanguage is very doubtful. What is
beyond doubt, however, is the enormous influence his 'surrealistic' style has
had on younger poets throughout the Arab world, sometimes with happy