preceding the rhyme consonant. The deviation from the invariable rhyme
consonant means greater variety and freedom, but its application to prosody at
large indicates a daring experimentation. These operate especially in the devel-
opment of the long serial poem, with its aperiodic form, resistance to linear-
ity, closure, and formalist totalization. Its emphasis on difference, discord, and
dissent differentiates it from the periodic form, with its concords and harmo-
nious pairing of meter, rhyme, and imagery.^38 These are also present in his
polysemous accentuations, the neoclassical qaxldah combinational matrix
whereby every component relates to the whole, but without the tight conven-
tions of the qaxldahas a classic artifact.^39 His Al-Fuxnl wa-al-ghmymt flta.mld
Allah wa- al-mawmeiz(Chapters and Endings about the Glorification of God
and Admonition) was deliberately written in rhymed prose to give the poet
the freedom to develop strophes with a specific ending, so as to belong to each
other while standing independently. Each distinctive rhyme contributes to the
wholeness of the chapters, which bewildered many of his contemporaries.
Both ancestors offer positions and poetics, attitudes and inviting applications
of means and visions. Both had their own understanding and selfhood against
conventions and worn-out beliefs. For Adnnls, al-Mutanabbl“... distinguishes
himself, and presents his person as a whole universe of certainty, assurance, and
sublimity, in the face of others and against them.”^40 To al-Baymtl, these others
are the ones al-Mutanabblknew and challenged as faces of a corrupt system,
bent on discrediting poetry, relegating it to shows of subordination and pane-
gyrics. In his poem, “Mawt Al-Mutanabbl,” there are a number of voices,
along with historical records. The poet’s voice navigates among these in an
effort to make a case for his independence and integrity. The poem appeared
in 1963, as part of his collection Al-Nmr wa al-kalimmt(Fire and Words). It is
divided into ten sections under the following titles: the first curse, the first
voice, the second voice, the third voice, the first voice, the fourth voice, the
second voice, the elegy, the second curse, and the poet after one thousand
years.^41 The fourth voice stands for the dominating discourse.^42
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^43Whenever properly contextualized, both ancestors offer the following
positions and stratagems, including raids on other cultures and texts that
deviate from hegemonic poetics and vie for a larger space of their own:
1 An instant of modernity, an understanding of life and time as an ongoing
struggle, as rupture and crisis, to use Stephen Spender,^44 against fixity and
theocentricity, or (lmhntiyah) in Adnnls’ terminology.^45
THE TRADITION/MODERNITY NEXUS