Arabic Poetry: Trajectories of Modernity and Tradition

with the martyred mystic al->allmj (d. 922/309 H) al-Baymtl’s “cAdhmbmt
al->allmj” (The Sufferings of al->allmj) shows another pattern of dedication,
whereby the poet’s register subsumes the Sufi text, involving it not only in a
matrix of modernity, but also weaving it into the poet’s own discourse against
advocates of traditionalism. Thus, for instance:

How gloomy is the night if the morning dies out

And throngs of flies, fly hunters

Eat the bread of the hungry toilers.^36

As a pejorative term, “fly hunters” recurs earlier in an article by al-Baymtl, in
which he calls advocates of traditional thought, and defenders of the qaxldah,
along with his other opponents, mere “fly hunters,” whose emphasis on rhyme
and rhythm is merely a mask to hide their blindness to the dynamics of trans-
formation and change.^37 Nevertheless, in the same poem, the poet identifies
with al->allmj, for both see in physical annihilation a beginning of salvation:

You passed a death sentence against me a thousand years ago,

And here I am asleep,

Waiting for the dawn of my salvation, the time of execution.^38

It is worth mentioning that death signifies rebirth to al-Baymtl, for poetry
assumes a regenerative power of its own, as his poem “Dam al-shmcir” (The
Poet’s Blood) stipulates:

The poet’s voice grows louder than the chorus’ weeping

Alone, siding against death, and miseries

Of mortals; with its black happiness

Roams the world, in exile

To be purified, nameless, but has all names

Transforming by an eternal law

Killing this gloom, overcoming it with poetry.

(Ibid. 409)

Dedications as paratexts: al-Khml

Whether taken as total identifications, sites of indirection, or paratexts, these
poetic engagements emphasize both faith in the vocation of poetry and the
commitment to transformation and change, fathomed and anticipated by
poets. Thus, Ynsuf al-Khml, for example, dedicates his Al-Bi’r al-mahjnrah
(Deserted Well) to Ezra Pound, implying that the poet, no less than the
dedicatee, also suffers for embarking on innovation and change:

We asked you a fig leaf, for we are naked

We have sinned against poetry, forgive us.

DEDICATIONS AS POETIC INTERSECTIONS