For her book on contemporary Arabic poetry, Professor
Athamneh doesn’t go into all the ancient Arabic works that got catalogued with
eastern philosophy. She begins with a chapter on how it changed in the last
century, a time that saw extreme change and upheaval in the Arab world.
Ba’athism was an inspiration for a lot of these poets, and Nasser’s 1967 defeat
made them question their role in society. Now that Ba’athism is dead and gone,
they’re questioning their role even further.
An example of the
modern Arabic poet is Iraqi born Abd al-Wahhab al-Bayati (1926-1999). He lived
in other Arab countries after leaving Iraq, and more often than not he was at
odds with the Iraqi government. His works underwent a dramatic change after the
1967 defeat, and he compared poetry to a forgotten man dying in a hospital.
The poets of
Arabia had high standards in the old days. Tribes would compete with their
bards, who composed verses on life, war, and the pleasures of sitting among the
olive trees (quite a luxury in Arabia, which is mostly desert.) I wonder
sometimes if a lot of it had to do with widespread illiteracy in the Middle
East. When your audience can’t read, the poems had better be the kind that you
can easily remember.
Another poet whose
work is discussed is Ahman Hijazi, born in 1935, also a fixture in the
Ba’athist era. While he was in friendly relations with Nasser, he fell out of
favor with Sadat. His poem Elegy for a Circus Performer compares the Arab
leader (in this case, Nasser) to a circus acrobat on a tightrope. He doesn’t
have the option of “stepping down” and certainly can’t fall, because not only
would that mean certain death, but it would also disappoint the people who look
up to him.
Unfortunately for
the poets, the Arab world has lost a lot of great leaders. Like Hijazi’s
tightrope walker, they walk a fine line between success and being lynched. A
leader who was once admired can end up fleeing in a car pelted with stones.
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