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