THE ROMANTICS 142lust for life and his hedonism are expressed for the first time in an uninhibited
manner, totally free from a sense of guilt.
In the second poem in the volume, 'The Enamoured Moon' the sensuous
nature of Taha's poetry is again emphasized and the language acquires a trans-
parency and a soft silken quality admirably in keeping with the theme. Need-
less to say, this degree of transparency can rarely be found outside modem
romantic poetry. The poem is addressed 'to her who lies in her bed asleep,
wearing a thin garment and with the bedroom window open on a moonlit
summer night' (p. 231):
When the languid moonlight visits your chamber window
Coming to you shimmering like a dream or a radiant thought,
While you are lying on your chaste bed like a lily asleep,
Then pull together your uncovered body and protect your beauty.
For I am jealous of that enchanter whose light seems to have melodies:
Whenever black-eyed maidens hear him sing their hearts beat faster with
longing.
A rogue, whose caress is soft and who chases every beauty,
He is bold, and at the call of desire ever ready to storm castles.
The poem goes on in this vein, with the moonlight not simply personified
but the natural phenomenon raised by the poet's imagination to the
order of mythology. Yet despite the ethereal, dream-like quality of the
vision, despite the air of mystery evoked by the description of the moonlight,
this is a very sensuous poem indeed, and points forward to Taha's more earthly
and sensual work, especially of later years. The next poem is 'Khayyam's
Wine Cup' (p. 236) which is preceded by this significant comment:
Al-Khayyam was one of those poets who tried to probe the secrets of the
universe and glimpse the unknown but were denied their object
because of the limitations of the human condition. Consequently they
were plunged into grief and sorrow, which drove them to seek comfort and
consolation from their powerlessness and despair in the pleasures of wine
and women.This seems to shed more light on Taha than Khayyam for he is clearly think-
ing of himself as one of these poets. It is this feeling of kinship with the
Persian poet that drove him to imitate him in 'Khayyam's Wine Cup', where
he says of him:
Monstrous and unnatural,' they said [about you], 'A reckless lewdness
that is never sober!'
Little did they know what depths of sorrow rage in your heart, (p. 246)