Poetry

Literature (continued)

Part II: Poetry

A. Origins of Arabic Poetry

The origins of Arabic poetry was with the nomads who traveled the desert. Arabic (and later Persian and Turkish poetry) was filled with beautiful similes, metaphors and images.

There were five main types of poetry.

The qasida - Before Islam the Arabs developed this type of poetry. It can have many lines, but all lines will end with the same rhyme. Originally, the poem opened with a love poem, then the account of the poet's journey. The main theme at the end was a tribute to the poet's patron (the one who pays him) or his tribe. After the coming of Islam, the praise usually went to God, Muhammad, or to a saint.
The ghazel - This is a love poem of from five to twelve rhyming pairs. The content was religious or secular (non-religious). [It is the ghazel that the muezzins - pray callers - sing five times a day from the top of the minarets (towers of a mosque), improvising (making minor changes) in the chosen mode and using prayer instead of poetry.] This form is shown below, but one translation of Rumi's poem lacks the rhymed pairs.
The qitah - This form was used for everyday life. Its main function was for satire, jokes, and word games. It is shown below as a riddle.
The manavi - This type of poetry originated in Persia. It has every two lines that rhyme (rhyming couplets). This form was used to tell a long story by stringing together thousands of verses. It is the closest to the form we know as "epic poetry" (like the Iliad and the Odyssey). The Arabs rejected the epic as a form of fiction, which they felt was a falsehood. It is the form used in Firdowsi's Shanameh - The Epic of Kings, shown below.
The roba'i - This is another Persian form, with four-line verse (quatrain) in which the first, second, and fourth lines rhyme. (The most famous example of the roba'i is the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam, shown below.)
This information is abridged and expanded upon from "Islamic Literature" from Cornell Univ.

Learn more about Arabic poetry:

Medieval Sourcebook on Arabic Poetry
Also see Arab Gateway: Literature
And Arab Gateway: Poetry

B. Themes of Poems

1. Some poems tell of sadness at something that has been lost (like
one's youth, homeland, lover)

MOURNING IN ANDALUSIA by Abu l-Hasan al-Husri (d. 1095) translated by Emilio Garcia Gomez & Cola Franzen.

If white is the color
of mourning in Andalusia,
it is a proper custom.

Look at me,
I dress myself in the white
of white hair
in mourning for youth.

FAREWELL, by Ibn Jakh (11th century, Andalusian) translated by Emilio Garcia Gomez & Cola Franzen.

On the morning they left
we said goodbye
filled with sadness
for the absence to come.

Inside the palanquins
on the camels' backs
I saw their faces beautiful as moons
behind veils of golden cloth.

Beneath the veils
tears crept like scorpions
over the fragrant roses
of their cheeks.

These scorpions do not harm
the cheek they mark.
They save their sting
for the heart of the sorrowful lover.

2. Some poems were funny

On A Little Man With A Very Large Beard by Isaac Ben Khalif

How can thy chin that burden bear?
Is it all gravity to shock?
Is it to make the people stare?
And be thyself a laughing stock?

When I behold thy little feet
After thy beard obsequious run,
I always fancy that I meet
Some father followed by his son.

A man like thee scarce e'er appeared---
A beard like thine---where shall we find it?
Surely thou cherishest thy beard
In hopes to hide thyself behind it.

A Riddle

The loftiest cedars I can eat,
Yet neither paunch nor mouth have I,
I storm whene'er you give me meat,
Whene'er you give me drink I die.

What am I?

[Answer: Fire] . . . Arab Poet

3. Some poems told about the shortness of life, encouraging us to enjoy life while we can! These are some verses of the famous Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam (c. 1048 - 1122). The roba'i is a Persian form of poetry with four-line verse (quatrain) in which the first, second, and fourth lines rhyme. Translated by FitzGerald, Fifth Edition. One teacher's interpretation of the poem's meaning is given below each quatrain.]

Come fill the Cup, and in the fire of Spring Your Winter-garment of Repentance fling: The Bird of Time has but a little way To flutter, and the Bird is on the Wing. [Meaning: Live fully - fill the cup; when you are young in the spring of life, don't worry about the winter (old age) of life. Live life fully because life is short - life is passing like a bird.] Whether at Naishapur or Babylon, Whether the Cup with sweet or bitter run, The Wine of Life keeps oozing drop by drop, The Leaves of Life keep falling one by one [Meaning: Whether you live in a good place or a bad place, Whether your life is sweet or bitter, life goes little by little, drop by drop and the leaves of life keep falling.] Ah, make the most of what we yet may spend, Before we too into the Dust descend; Dust into Dust, and under Dust to lie Without Wind, or Song, or Singer, and without End. [Meaning: Make the best of life before you die and are buried with nothing.] Alike for those who for TO-DAY prepare, And those that after some TO-MORROW stare, A Muezzin from the Tower of Darkness cries "Fools! your reward is neither Here nor There." [Meaning: This life and the future life are not rewarding.]

Then to the lip of this poor earthen Urn I learn'd, the Secret of my Life to Learn: And Lip to Lip it murmur'd, "While you live Drink! for, once dead, you never shall return." [Meaning: Drink from the urn (pitcher); enjoy life while you can.]

Oh, threats of Hell and Hopes of Paradise!
One thing at least is certain: This life flies;
One thing is certain and the rest is Lies;
The Flower that once has blown for ever dies.
[Meaning: One thing is certain - life is short.]

Strange, is it not? that of the myriads who
Before us pass'd the door of Darkness through,
Not one returns to tell us of the Road,
Which to discover we must travel too.

[Meaning: The thousands who died before us cannot return
and tell us about death; we must all learn that on our own.]

The moving Finger writes; and, having writ,
Moves on: nor all your Piety nor Wit
Shall lure it back to cancel half a Line,
Nor all your Tears wash out a Word of it.

[Meaning: Time passes, and nothing good or clever that we do
can change the past, no matter how much we regret what we did.]

Read more of The "Rubaiyat" of Omar Khayyam. Read it to appreciate its metaphors and similes.

4. Some poems are descriptions of events in nature

Turtles in a Pool
by Ibn Sarah (d. 1123, Santarem),
an Adalusian poet.

This beautiful pool,

a brimming eye,
has thick eyelashes of flowers.

Turtles cavort
in their capes of green algae.

Now they squabble on the bank
but when winter comes
they'll dive below and hide.

At play they resemble
Christian soldiers
wearing on their backs
their leather shield.

Field of Wheat in a Storm

by Ibn 'Iyad (1083-1149, Central Andalusia)

Look at the ripe wheat
bending before the wind
like squadrons of horsemen
fleeing in defeat, bleeding
from the wounds of the poppies.

The Storm
by Ibn Shahayd (992-1034, Cordoba, Andalusia)

The sky darkens:
flowers open their mouths
and search for their udders
of the nurturing rain
as battalions of black
water-laden clouds
parade majestically past
flashing their golden swords.

See several more short Andalusian Poems from Calgary's site, and more from City Lights Bookstore's Poets of Arab Andalusia. For a form to analyze several Andalusian poems (translated by Cola Franzen from the Spanish versions of Emilio Garcia Gomez), click [here].

5. Some poems were love poems or serious poems

Ghazal by Rumi

when i die
when my coffin
is being taken out
you must never think
i am missing this world

don't shed any tears
don't lament or
feel sorry
i'm not falling
into a monster's abyss

when you see
my corpse is being carried
don't cry for my leaving
i'm not leaving
i'm arriving at eternal love

when you leave me
in the grave
don't say goodbye
remember a grave is
only a curtain
for the paradise behind

you'll only see me
descending into a grave
now watch me rise
how can there be an end
when the sun sets or
the moon goes down

it looks like the end
it seems like a sunset
but in reality it is a dawn
when the grave locks you up
that is when your soul is freed

have you ever seen
a seed fallen to earth
not rise with a new life
why should you doubt the rise
of a seed named human

have you ever seen
a bucket lowered into a well
coming back empty
why lament for a soul
when it can come back
like Joseph from the well

when for the last time
you close your mouth
your words and soul
will belong to the world of
no place no time

ghazal number 911, translated May 18, 1992

Hafiz Sharazi (c. 1320 - 1389)

On Love

Roba'i, In Persian

I long to open up my heart

For my heart do my part.

My story was yesterday's news

From rivals cannot keep apart.

On this holy night stay with me

Till the morning, do not depart.

On a night so dark as this,

My course, how can I chart?

O breath of life, help me tonight

That in the morn I make a start.

In my love for you, I will

My self and ego thwart.

Like Hafiz, being love smart;

I long to master that art.

© Shahriar Shahriari
Los Angeles, Ca
April 14, 1999

Night of Love

When the sun bowed low
before leaving us
I made her promise to visit me
like another sun
the moment the moon
started its nocturnal voyage.

And she came like bright dawn
opening a path through the night
or like the wind
skimming the surface of a river.

The horizon all around me
breathed out perfume
announcing her arrival
as the fragrance precedes a flower.

I went over the traces
of her steps with my kisses
as the reader goes over
the letters of a line.

While night slept
love was kept awake
by her reed-waist, dune-hips
and face beautiful as the moon.

Part of the night I spent
embracing her
and part kissing her
until the banner of dawn
summoned us to leave
and our circle of embraces

was broken.

Oh fateful night!
Hold back the hour of sundering!

Ibn Safr al-Marini, Poet of Andalusia

Excerpted with permission from Poets of Arab Andalucia (City Lights Books 1989). Translated by Cola Franzen, from the Spanish versions of Emilio Garcia Gomez.

Also see the religious poetry of the Sufis (including Rumi) on the previous page.

6. Some poems told of epic heroes of the past

Firdowsi was a Persian poet who lived from 940 to 1020. His most famous work is the Shanameh, or Epic of Kings. Ferdowsi worked for thirty years to finish this masterpiece which contains nearly 60,000 verses in short rhyming couplets. His epic story of heroes, written in poetry, is still read today, and considered one of the greatest pieces of literature in the world.

Firdowsi's Shanameh tells of the stories of the mythical kings of Persia. Below is Part Two: Feridoun. Below is a translation of a tale of a kings who has three greedy sons. Notice how Ferdowsi captures the reader's interest:

Chapter 2, Part 1:

Five hundred years did Feridoun rule the world, and might and virtue increased in the land, and all his days he did that which was good. And he roamed throughout the kingdom to seek out that which was open and that which was hid, and wrong was righted at his hands. With kindness did he curb the sway of evil. He ordered the world like to a paradise, he planted the cypress and the rose where the wild herb had sprouted.

Now after many years were passed there were born to him three sons... And the sons were [handsome], tall and strong, yet their names were not known to men, for Feridoun had not tested their hearts. But when he beheld that they were come to years of strength he called them about his throne and [ordered] them search out the King of Yemen, who had three daughters, fair as the moon, that they should woo them unto themselves. And the sons of Feridoun did according to the command of their father. They set forth unto Yemen, and there went with them a host countless as the stars.

And when they were come to Yemen, the King came forth to greet them, and his train was like to the plumage of a pheasant. Then the sons of Feridoun gained the hands of the daughters of [the] King of Yemen, and departed with them to their own land. And [the King] gave to his new sons much treasure laid upon the backs of camels, and umbrellas too did he give unto them in sign of kingship.

Now it came about that when Feridoun learned that his sons were returning, he went forth to meet them and prove their hearts. So he took upon him the form of a dragon that foamed at the mouth with fury, and from whose jaws sprang mighty flames.

And when his sons [came] near unto the mountain pass, he came upon them suddenly, like to a whirlwind, and raised a cloud of dust about the place with his writhings, and his roaring filled the air with noise. Then he threw himself upon the eldest born, and the prince laid down his spear and said,

"A wise and prudent man striveth not with dragons."

And he turned his back and fled before the monster, and left him to fall upon his brothers. Then the dragon sprang upon the second, and he said,

"[If] it be that I must fight, what matter if it be a furious lion or a knight full of valor?"

So he took his bow and stretched it. But the youngest came towards him, and seeing the dragon, said,

"Thou reptile, flee from our presence, and strut not in the path of lions. For if thou hast heard the name of Feridoun, beware how thou doest thus, for we are his sons, armed with spears and ready for the fight. Quit therefore, I counsel thee, thine evil path, lest I plant upon thy head the crown of enmity."

See how this story ends by pressing [here].

Statue of Ferdowsi, beloved poet of Persia (Saitami Univ. photo)

Poetry was very popular with the Muslims of the Middle Ages. Poets entertained people on the street and later in tea or coffee houses. Listening to a famous poet would be something like watching TV or listening to music for us today.

Poetry in a Tea House - Reading from Ferdowsi's Shahnama (Epic of Kings) was very popular in Persian Tea Houses. (Photo from WorldTrek)

7. Kahlil Gibran (1883 and died in 1931), modern poet of "The Prophet" and other books of poetry.

Kahlil Gibran was from Lebanon and wrote in Arabic and translated his work into English. His poetry is loved throughout the world.

Extra: Read some poems from The Prophet about "Friendship," "Love" and "Children". Read some biographical information. For a form to analyze one of his poems ("On Children"), click [here]. Note his use of simile, metaphor and personification.