Arabic Poetry: Trajectories of Modernity and Tradition

So was L‘Akhdar Ben Youssef, shattered, and confused, as:

He had not slept for six days.

And could not write a poem.

And so reckless as to have in print whatever he wrote.^18

This dialogic works effectively through prosemination, for embedded narratives
and poetic pronouncements fuse into the depths of the poet, the other hidden
half that is addressed by the muffled voice. What we hear in the end is the
subdued tone of a person who works on the poem now. The poem is one of
hesitation, for the early youthful passion is gone, and a critical hesitant mind
takes over, questioning the validity of poetry amid noisy claims. The poem
grows as an immediate experience: sitting, watching, recollecting, and probing
his disappointment, as he grows old.
The poem may be worth comparing to Ma.mnd Darwlsh’s
“Al-Mutanabbl’s Voyage into Egypt.”^19 Although seemingly retracing the
ancestor’s experience with Kmfnr, Darwlsh manages a middle ground between
Adnnls’ projections onto al-Mutanabbl and Sa‘dl Ynsuf’s discontents.
Voicing here negotiates a compromise that makes use of various readings of
the ancestor’s position and genius. The readings enable Ma.mnd Darwlsh to
reflect with ease on current politics, including accusations from comrades and
radicals that imply poets should keep to a neatly defined politics of commit-
ment. The poem may provide justifications for the great ancestor al-Mutanabbl,
and obliquely dispute partisan criticism.

I sell the palace a song

I break the palace

With a song

I lean against the wind and wound

And am not sold.^20

Another way of identification and voicing takes place behind a historical
figure. As poems in this respect are many and mostly function in terms of
distant masking, I will devote this discussion to an early poem by the Iraqi

amld Sa‘ld (b. 1941), “Wajh ‘Ammmr Ibn Ymsir” (The Face of ‘Ammmr Ibn
Ymsir), which was written in the 1960s. The poem addresses the historical
figure, ‘Ammmr Ibn Ymsir, the companion of the Prophet Muhammad,
who lost his life in 657, fighting on the side of the Prophet’s cousin ‘Allat
Xiffln in 657. Based on historical accounts of a life of self-denial, sacrifice
and faith, the poet establishes the companion’s life since early days with the
Prophet, fighting the influential tribe of Quraysh, and migrating with
the Prophet to Yathrib (Al-Medlnah). The speaker is keen on establishing
a lineage with him, a lineage of faith and sacrifice, not blood kinship. It is

POETIC DIALOGIZATION