meant to detract from the dedicatee’s presence. Embarking on the completion
of >mwl’s texts, and sublimating his own register in the contested terrain of the
elegy, the belated poet, al-Baymtl, keeps both the elegy and the past behind, to
create a threshold for a present that belongs entirely to him as the sole survivor.
This threshold is one of modernity, for the poet gathers a register to meet the
demands of the present, an act that recognizes the latter’s significance. In
Foucault’s words, “Modernity is not a phenomenon of sensitivity to the fleeting
present; it is the will to ‘heroize’ the present.”^76
The case is even stronger when the elegy is read against al-Baymtl’s other
poem, “Al->ixmr” / “The Siege,” dedicated to Khalll >mwlas well. Although
written in memoriam, the poem is plunged into al-Baymtl’s well-known regis-
ter, with its fragments, allusions, and sweeping criticisms that culminate in
a view of poetry that is entirely his own. Its conclusion is no less than an
assertion that life is a struggle and that surviving death entails no recovery,
for this universe is life in death. In other words, suicide is the easier choice in
comparison with the ongoing nightmare:
Booked: All Earth Exiles, Prisons,
Torture and Madness Dungeons
Clowns’ Masks
Wine Bottles and Poison Jugs
City Restaurants / Spoons / Dishes
Metric Poems / Classical Monorhymes
Inquisition Courts
Theatre Tickets / Asylums / Graves
Love Being / Light Domes
Kings’ Tombs
Capitals of Treason / Theology
Where for a poet to go?
Who has survived death to die.^77The concluding question veers away from the avowed dedication of
“The Siege.” “Where for a poetto go?” sets the whole universe against poetic
endeavors at large. Every item, every place, every occasion is used, controlled,
occupied, invaded, and owned, leaving nothing free. Survival in the physical
sense is ironic, for it is life in death that becomes the norm of existence. On
the other hand, the question plays also on al-Baymtl’s use of “death.” While
such a life of coercion and manipulation is another name for death, al-Baymtl’s
alternative is the other meaningful death that takes a stand against the tides
of oppression, domination, and control. “Another birth is death, it is coming,”
he says of Nmzim >ikmat’s death.^78
Al-Baymtl’s dedication of “The Siege” runs simply as follows: “To Khalll
mwl, in Memoriam.” This specific mention lends the text some urgency, to
be sure. Nevertheless, without it, the poem still voices its frustration and
DEDICATIONS AS POETIC INTERSECTIONS