A Critical Introduction to Modern Arabic Poetry

(Greg DeLong) #1
BARUDI 25

arise naturally and organically from the individual experience itself. Breaths
are related to the poet's breath, already mentioned in the poem, and the idea
that man is a prisoner of Fate is suggested by the poet being actually a prisoner
himself at the time. By generalizing his own personal situation, by making his
own individual fate the fate of all mankind, the poet is in fact fortifying
himself to face his situation, thus becoming better able to be patient and
endure his predicament. Barudi's use of what is, at one level, a purely literary
convention, a mere stylistic feature of classical Arabic poetry, in reality turns
out to be a source of comfort, of psychological security and sustenance. I
cannot think of a better example of the functional use of the ancient poetic
idiom in modern neoclassical Arabic poetry. Here there is no clash between
the old and the new; on the contrary, the old is a source of strength for the
new.


Barudi was a conscious innovator, who even experimented with verse
forms.^21 But in his attempt to break new ground he sometimes employed
naive and unsuccessful methods. His search for novelty drove him to use,
sometimes with childish effect, imagery derived from the field of modem
scientific inventions or discoveries, like electricity (U23), photographic
apparatus (i,28,134), or the railway train (i,21). Here again, although he was
preceded by al-Tahtawi^22 , he exercised an influence on succeeding neo-
classical poets desirous of being regarded as 'modem', like his great admirer
Hafiz Ibrahim. But the mention of scientific discoveries or modern inventions
does not, in fact, confer the quality of modernity upon Barudi's poetry, nor
does it form any really valuable contribution on his part. What makes Barudi
the first poet of the modern Arabic renaissance, or the first modern Arabic
poet, is his ability to express vividly his powerful and earnest personality
through the old idioms, and indeed at times in spite of them. He himself was
aware of the fact, for in one of his poems he wrote:


Look at my words, therein you will find my soul depicted. (n,414)

Furthermore, by raising poetry above the level of mere verbal jugglery and
intellectual frivolity, by concerning himself in his poems with his own im-
mediate experiences, Barudi was a substantial innovator in Arabic poetry. At
last, after centuries of decadence during which it suffered from a fundamental
lack of seriousness, Arabic poetry was once more brought to bear upon the
serious business of life.

Barudi's neoclassical manner of writing was soon followed by a large
number of poets who until the past two decades were the best-known modem
poets in the Arab world: Isma'il Sabri, Ahmad Shauqi, Hafiz Ibrahim,
Waliyy al-DIn Yakan, 'Ali al-Ghayati, Ahmad Muharram, Muhammad Abd
Free download pdf