to articulate his skeptical views within a peculiar vein of ascetics. Xalm.cAbd
al-Xabnr concludes:
When reaching forty, al-Macarrlshowed no increase in knowledge, in
the language which he had already mastered, the grammar with
which he was well-acquainted, religious sects and laws or schools of
philosophy upon which he pondered for long. In other words the
experience which proved as decisive as to change his life was not
intellectual but personal.
(Ibid. 300)Al-Macarrl’s Luznmiyymt, argues Xalm.cAbd al-Xabnr, shows unwitting attraction
to women figures and female metaphors, as if he were an “unrequited lover,”
unwilling thereafter to repeat his father’s wrongdoing in bringing him into
this life (Ibid. 301).
cAbd al-Xabnr and the emulation of independence
cAbd al-Xabnr’s engagement with textual clues to prove a personal element in
al-Macarrl’s poetry should not detract from his emphasis on al-Macarrl’s
independent growth. When read in terms of Stefan Sperl’s analysis in
Mannerism in Arabic Poetry, Xalm. cAbd al-Xabnr’s understanding invites
further discussion. While making “a concerted attack on all social or ideo-
logical hierarchy,” as Sperl argues, the Luznmiyymtdislodges whatever vies for
representation to enhance its own presence, “the only remaining force of
order,” or the “medium itself: speech, and with it the cultural heritage of lan-
guage.”^22 Certainly, cAbd al-Xabnr himself undergoes change. His article of
1980 is unlike, for example, his poem “AbnTammmm” of 1961.^23 In this
poem, he simply recreates AbnTammmm (172/788 or 192/808–231/845 or
232/846)^24 of the renowned qaxldahon cAmmnriyah (Amorium). The poem
draws on analogy to address present political scenes of failure and defeat. Yet
in the same collection of 1961, Aqnlnlakum(I Say to You), he develops, in
the poem that gives the title to the collection, a poetic mixture of irony and
apology. The underlying irony sustains a distance that enables the poetic
address to penetrate the polished surface of rhetoric and to undermine the
whole legacy of classical literature, including its approval of al-Macarrl’s
self-seclusion. The speaker is not al-Mutanabbl, nor is he al-Macarrlto choose
withdrawal from the world. He is not the “prince of poets” like A.mad
Shawql. He is a survivor who has suffered and undergone pain and trouble
“...to know the value of the letter / its emanating meaning when combined
to another.”
I know you are generous and well disposed
And that you forgive my negligence.POETIC STRATEGIES