as the qaxldahpractice has not been outworn or rendered obsolete by time. Its
rhyme scheme should not be cited as necessarily negative. The popularity of
al-Mutanabbl, he argues in the same poem, indicates that the appeal of poetry
in the classical mode continues (Ibid. 358–59).
However, how does al-Jawmhirladdress al-Mutanabbland al-Macarrl? And
to what extent does his poetic recreation differ from that of his modernist
counterparts? In another poem (1935) recited in absentia in Damascus,
al-Jawmhirlretraces al-Mutanabbl’s personal history and career.^8 In it sooth-
sayers inform al-Mutanabbl’s father about the son, the miracle, and the genius,
“Who has signs of immortality,” “What a soul is this which looks upon
life without challenge as worthless?” (Ibid. 283). His Mutanabblis unequalled.
“What a sea of eloquence, surging with flowing waves of meanings.”^9 As for
those who relate talent to affluence, “Brilliance is too sublime to be contained
in an elegantly-built mansion/But a poor dimly lit cottage may offer a
prophet to the world” (Ibid. 283–84). The emphasis on this aspect of
al-Mutanabbl’s life should not be bypassed cursorily, for it fits into al-Jawmhirl’s
advocacy of leftist politics to protect the underprivileged and the downtrodden.
Even his al-Macarrl, in the celebrated poem of 1944, is a poet and intellectual
of great acumen and modesty. “on a mat...with a jug of water to sustain him,
a mind and shelves of books.”^10 Yet this old man surprises and destabilizes
attitudes and habits of thought in a world “on which he ponders with
compassion and care” (Ibid. 84). That celebrated poem follows, to an extent,
the qaxldah form, as bequeathed in the formulation of Ibn Qutaybah
(d. 276/889).^11 Nevertheless, like his cAbbmsid precursors, there is no ra.ll
section in al-Jawmhirl’s poem, and the whole Jawmhirladdress is bipartite
which focuses on the naslband the madl.. As there is no beloved mistress, the
site itself, Macarrat al-Nucmmn (near Aleppo), al-Macarrl’s hometown,
assumes the qualifications and connotations of both the abandoned encamp-
ment and the beloved mistress. “Halt at al-Macarrah and gently wipe its
dusty cheek / and recall, and be inspired by, the person who overwhelmed the
world with his talents.”^12 As usual with al-Jawmhirl’s dedicatory poems, the
panegyric is a threshold for identification, and the speaker usually creates a
present site, a configuration of multivoiced opposition whereby dissidents
can voice their discontent. Al-Jawmhirl’s poetics derives its strength from
belonging to tradition in its eloquent rhetorical manifestations of rebellion
and opposition as accommodated presently for contemporary concerns.
Al-Macarrlis a great dissolver of habits, traditions, and conformity, another
Messiah in the terrain of culture. “The revolt of thought has a long history
which speaks of a thousand Messiahs who have been crucified for its cause.”^13
The qaxldahform with its traditional resonance receives a new impetus under
circumstances of urgency. Immediacy offers these recollections some warmth,
whereas the very performance, the eloquent Jawmhirl recitation, invokes
historical transference by which the past and the present exchange place. His
POETIC STRATEGIES