BARUDI 21When Barudi imitates creatively, as indeed he does quite often, he ceases to
be a mere echo of the great poets of the past, and the effect of his poetry then
becomes a subtle one. By introducing details from modern life or elements
from his own concrete situation into the conventional structure, the poet
manages to do two things at once: he expresses a real personal experience
and he places his work within the context of the larger Arabic poetic tradi-
tion. For instance, he opens a poem (i,79) with the traditional preparation
for a journey — but the journey is an Ottoman expedition to fight the Greeks,
and it is the hooting of a train that announces the imminent departure of
the poet and his companions, and their parting with their loved ones, and the
poet makes a point of emphasizing the absence of camels. This juxtaposition
of the conventional and the new, the traditional and modern is often cun-
ningly used. In his love poetry the occasional introduction of an almost
colloquial and homely expression or a local name or setting^14 suddenly
breathes life into what otherwise might have remained a dead convention,
thereby making it relevant to the poet's time and place.
Related to this is the occurrence of a lively description, an accurate observa-
tion or an original perception in his bucolic and nature poetry, even at its
most traditional and imitative. A graphic description of palm-trees, laden
with red dates and soaring in the sky like beacons of fire (i, 15 3), or a cock at
dawn, for example.
Standing on the wall, unawares, intent on dispelling the
sleepers' dreams.
Strutting in a brilliantly decorated gown, ample at the
waist and with pendulous sleeves,
Looking disdainfully with a proud air about him, like a
crowned monarch. (i,124)
Even his gnomic and moralistic verse is not entirely devoid of this feature.
In a poem, the main theme of which is the mysterious wisdom of the Creator
(n,6—64), there is a description of a hawk, a lion and an adder rendered in
vivid detail. The account of the hawk swooping over its prey, in particular,
is rendered with much feeling and pity for the hapless victim.
Barudi's forceful personality and energetic mind continue to break through
the conventional phraseology. The language may be traditionally rhetorical,
and the idiom that of classical Arabic poetry oifakhr (boasting), yet these
by no means obscure the intensity and vehemence of the poet's feelings.^15
This ability to express his personality and his emotions despite the use of
traditional idiom is abundantly clear in most of his poetry, especially his
poems of nostalgia, which he wrote in exile, and his elegies on friends or
relatives. For instance, the depth of emotion in his elegy on his wife is
unmistakable (1,89-90):