Arabic Poetry: Trajectories of Modernity and Tradition

anger at the human condition. In other words, the dedicatee’s decision to put
an end to his life is subsumed in a scene of frustration that resists death, nev-
ertheless, through its ongoing questioning note of defiance and opposition. It
is only when seen as a threshold for defiance beyond the limits of physical
death that such a dedication becomes functional. Otherwise, dedications may
turn into sites of displacement, for, in Derrida’s words, already cited, “the ded-
ication situates...the dativeor donormovement that displaces the text. There
is nothing in the text that is not dedicated, nothing that is not destined...”^79

Al-Mutanabbl: between al-Baymtland Adnnls

Not all poets share al-Baymtl’s vigorous sense of contestation. Even
al-Mutanabbl, in a poem written in 1963, is drawn back in al-Baymtl’s poetry
to suffer some castigation at one time and admiration at another for fighting
pettiness. This multifaceted critique distinguishes al-Baymtl’s readings of pre-
cursors. Rather than looking upon the precursor as a historical personage,
al-Baymtlreads al-Mutanabblas advanced to us through narratives. History
itself is no more than a number of narratives vying for ascendancy. While
some depict him as a poet of panegyrics, others look upon him as a rebel.
Voices are projected as positions in the poem to speak for their interest in the
poet, or their resentment and detestation. The fourth voice in the poem
speaks for the dominating discourse:

I cut the poet’s forehead with the inkstand

Spit in his eyes

Stole from them light and life

Pierced my sword into his verses

Corrupted his followers, and misled narrators

Made him a laughing stock for the court, the knights and their like.^80

What al-Baymtlretains is the poet as rebel and exile. This is the “first
curse,” and the most celebrated in the poem:

You are a mariner without a ship

You are in exile without a city.

Part of the curse is to roam around, but another part is to suffer misuse,
manipulation, and distortion:

In the voice of a generation whose banners were torn to pieces by defeat,

In a world meddled by merchants and politicians.^81

What metamorphoses out of these narratives is the image of the exile, in
perpetual regeneration, “his horse neighs in the evening,” on the lookout to
regain stolen cities (Ibid. 486).

DEDICATIONS AS POETIC INTERSECTIONS