ADUNIS AND THE NEW POETRY 239the story around which the poem is built, which shows how Mihyar, after
being put to death and dismembered by the orders of Taimur (Tamburlaine),
returns to life in order to plague the despot, we clearly see the martyr or
Chirst-like figure of Mihyar, the poet, into whose conception elements from
the myth of Adonis have entered. Likewise, episodes and characters from
early Islamic history are used to indicate the relation between the artist and
authority: for instance, Hajjaj, the bloodthirsty Umayyad governor of Kufa,
is the tyrant while the martyr al-Husain is the Christ-like poet. Some of the
dramatic scenes are striking: for instance in 'A Woman's Funeral' (n,279) the
ritual burning of a woman sacrifice is rendered in poetry of strange and un-
canny beauty.
The Stage and the Mirrors touches again upon the poet's primary concern,
for instance, in these lines from 'The Mirror of the Earth':
That which persistently haunts my heart
Uproots palm-trees, domes and bells.
Strikes the face of the earth,
That dissenting blood, that dissent
Is but another yearning, another flame
In the name of the rising tomorrow, in the name of the earth. (n,362)In the final poem in the volume, in which he makes a complete identification
between himself and his people, the poet poses the question:How do I walk towards myself, towards my people
While there is fire in my blood and my history is a heap of ruins?Then he says:
Histories are mirrors
Civilizations are mirrors
They are all breaking...
I can hear voices singing in my ashes
I can see them walking like the children of my country. (n,575)
He wishes his song to be 'like the edge of a knife, wounding the cold city with
its hoarseness and weeping' (n,555). This is not the voice of despair: even
though the poet confidently prophesies the rise of 'the sun that loves to
destroy and annihilate', the annihilation is not final, but it is essential for the
present order to die before another is born (n,563—4).
The next volume, significantly called Time Between Ashes and Roses (1970),
contains a poem entitled 'Prolegomenon to the History of Kings of Petty
States' (1970), described as a greeting to Nasser, 'the first modem Arab leader
who worked towards ending the age of Kings of Petty States and beginning