An anthology of modern Arabic Poetry

427 Pages·2013·12.72 MB·English

AN ANTHOLOGY OF MODERN ARABIC POETRY
1945-1984
WITH A CRITICAL INTRODUCTION
SELECTED AND TRANSLATED BY

JOHN MIKHAIL ASFOUR

THE DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH

MCGILL UNIVERSITY, MONTREAL

NOVEMBER 1984

A THESIS SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY OF GRADUATE STUDIES
AND RESEARCH IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF
THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF
DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY
~ John Mikhail Asfour, 1984

ABSTRACT

This study presents an Anthology of Modern Arabic Poetry
from 1945 to 1984, selected and translated into English, con­
taining poems by thirty-five poets who represent diverse
regions of the Arab world. A critical introduction was de­
signed to provide the Western reader with a brief overview
of the literary, cultural, and political factors which have
shaped the modernist movement in Arabic poetry of the past
four decades. The "new poetry" is discussed in terms of form,
the expansion of mythological interest which provided a com­
mon ground for the talents of the influential "Tammuzi poets,"
and the relations between politics and poetry. Theories of
Arabic poetic modernism have been examined with reference to
modernist movements in the West which have both inspired and
repelled Arabs in the search for a contemporary poetic form
and idiom.
RESUME DE SYNTHESE
Cette etude presente une anthologie choisie de la
a
poesie arabe moderne de 1945 1984, traduite en anglais, et
regroupant des oeuvres de trente cinq poetes qui representent
des regions diverses du monde arabe. Une introduction
critique offrira au lecteur occidental un survol des fac­
teurs litteraires, culturels et politiques qui ont fagonne
Ie mouvement moderniste dans la poesie arabe des quatre der­
nieres decades. La "poesie nouvelle" est commentee en termes
de forme, d' elaboration des interets mythologiques qui ont
fourni un terrain commun aux influents poetes "Tammuzes," et
de relations entre politique et poesie. Les theories du
modernisme arabe en poesie sont etudiees en rapport avec les
a
mouvements modernistes en Occident, mouvements qui ont la
fois inspire et repousse les Arabes qui cherchaient un lan­
gage et une forme poetiques contemporains.
For my parents, Mikhail and Milia Asfour
with love and admiration
TABLE OF CONTENTS
PART ONE: A CRITICAL INTRODUCTION
The Conception of the Present Study 1
I. Background to the Modern Period: The Classical

Tradition in Arabic Poetry Before 1945

(a) The Nature of the Classical Arabic Poem 4
(b) The Need for Evolution in Poetic Conventions 11
(c) The Neoclassic and Romantic Poets 18
II. Free Verse--The Poetry of Taf'ilah
(a) The Objectives of the Free Verse Movement:
aI-shier al-hurr and aI-shier al-manthur 25
(b) Two Voices in Arabic Modernism: 'Ali Ahmad
SaCid (Adonis) and Muhammad al-Maghut 47
III. The Tammuzi Poets: Regeneration in the Wasteland
Ca) A Growing Interest in Foreign Mythologies 63
(b) Tammuz/Adonis Rediscovered: The Influence of
T.S. Eliot on the Tammuzi Poets 72
IV. The Political Poem and the Resistance Movement 94
NOTES ON THE INTRODUCTION 112
..../con't
(iv)
PART TWO: AN ANTHOLOGY OF MODERN ARABIC POETRY, 1945-1984

Selected and Translated by John Mikhail Asfour
with Biographical Notes on the Poets.*
I. The Free Verse Movement
(a) A "Generation of Departures": Some Early 120

Modernists
121

Nazik a1-Ma1a)ika

123

"When I Killed My Love"
125

"Let Us Dream Together"
Buland a1-Haydari 127

"Journey of the Yellow Letters" 128

"The Failure of Ancient Man"
130
"Waiting Sails" 132

'Abd al-Wahhab al-Bayati 134

"Broken Urns"
135

"a traveller without luggage" 137

Ilyas Abu Shabakah 140

"Evening Prayer" 141

Lewis cAwad 143

"Love in St. Lazare" 144

Michel Trad 146

"It's a Lie" 147

Shadhil Taqah 148

"The One-Eyed Liar" 150

- Nizar Qabbani 153

"Bread, Hashish, and One Moon" 155

"Marginal Notes on the Book of Defeat" 159

IIJerusa1em" 167

"The Dictionary for Lovers" 169

"Unemp1oyedll 171

"Love Comparedll 172

"The Latest Book of Poems"
173

"The Nipplell 174

* For ease of reference, the Biographical Notes have been
placed immediately before the poems translated by each poet.
. . .
/
(v)
(I. The Free Verse Movement, can't)
(b) Explorations in Modern Forms and Idioms:
Non-Metrical Free Verse 177
Muhammad al-Maghut 178
"When the Words Burn"
179
"The Postman's Fear"
182
"An Arab Traveller in Space"
183
"Ice and Fire"
184
"The Orphan"
186
"The Dead Man"
187
Unsi aI-Hajj
195
"The Deep House"
196
"We Are Two Children"
198
"A Plan"
199
Muhammad al-Fayturi
200
"He Died Tomorrow"
201
Ahmad 'Abd al-MuCti Hijazi 205
"A Song of Waiting"
206
"We Have Nothing"
207
"The Lonely Woman's Room"
209
Sa'di Yusuf 211
"Six Poems"

212
"The Fence"
214
Khalid al-Khazraji
215
"Beirut, My Love"

216
"The Birds Are Dying of Thirst"

219
Bandar 'Abd aI-Hamid
221
"Suzanne"

222
"The Child That Was"

223
"The Game"

224
Ghada al-Samman 225
"Imprisonment of a Question Mark"
226
"Imprisonment of a Rainbow" 227
Amal Dunqul 229
"The Murder of the Moon" 230
.
../
(vi)
II. Tammuz Rediscovered 233
(a) The Five Major "Tammuzi" Poets
Badr Shakir al-Sayyab 234
"River of Death"
236
"Christ After Crucifixion"
239
"Song of the Rain"
243
From "The Book of Job"
248
Yusuf al-Kha1 250
"The Eternal Dialogue" 252
"The Long Poemlf 256
Khalil Hawi 263
"The Cave"
265
"The Magi in Europe"
269
"The Prisoner"
272
Adonis ('Ali Ahmad Sacid) 275
"The New Noah"
277
"A Dialogue"
280
"The Fall"
281
"The Language of Sin"
282
"The Road"
283
A Vision"
284
If
The Crow's Feather"
287
If
A Mirror of the Stone"
290
If
"The Days of the Hawk"
292
Jabra Ibrahim Jabra 301
"Beyond Galilee" 303
"The Poet and Women" 304
"The City" 307
(b) In The Tammuzi Tradition 314
Salah 'Abd al-Sabur 315
liThe Saint"
317
"Song for Winter" 320
Salem Haqqi 322
"Sinbad's Last Journey" 323
Isam Mahfuz 326
"A Birth" 327
Riyad Najib al-Rayyis 329
"Night in the Reeling Tent" 330
...
/
(vii)
~
III. Resistance Poetry 333
334
Mahmud Darwish
"To the Reader"
336
"Soft Rain in a Distant Autumn"
337
"Of Poetry"
339
"The Prison"
341
"The Curtain Falls"
342
"Promises with the Storm"
344
ll

IIIdentity Card 345
Samih al-Qasim 348
ll

"Come, Together We Shall Draw a Rainbow 349
"I Love You as Death Wishes"
354
"Fear"
355
"A Speech in the Unemployment Market"
357
"So"
359
"DescentII
360
"The Eucharist of Failure"
362
Fadwa Tuqan
364
liThe Rock"
365
(Izz al-Din al-Manasira 369
"Passport" 370
MuCin Basisu 372
"A Traffic Lightll 373
"To a Lady Tourist" 374
Sadiq al-Sa~igh 376
IIA Spectacle"
377
IIDryads"
378
"Fingers of the Night"
379
Kamal Nasir 382
"The Leaders of My Country" 383
Tawfiq Zayyad
385
"Six Words"
386
Tawfiq Sayigh 389
"Out of the Depths Have I Cried to 391
Thee, 0 Death"
BIBLIOGRAPHY 400