Arabic Poetry and Terrorism: The Dictator Perishes and the Poet Remains

Waed Athamneh Waed Athamneh

doi:10.13169/arabstudquar.40.2.0097

Abstract

Abd al-Wahhab al-Bayati is one of the most prominent twentieth-century Arab poets. His poetry makes a drastic shift from politically committed in the 1950s and 1960s to metapoetic in the 1970s onward. In his post-Nasserist works, al-Bayati interrogates the role of poets and the function of their poetry. This article explores some of the main metapoetic themes in al-Bayati's poem “Meditations on the Other Face of Love,” which was published in 1979. The article argues that al-Bayati consciously uses reflexive poetry as a platform to blur the line between poetry and literary criticism and to declare his discontent with the literary scene and the political status quo in the Arab world. The article also examines some of the poetry by Nizar Qabbani and Muzaffar al-Nawab, in relation to that of al-Bayati. These three poets provide a poetic discussion of “terrorism” against the hegemony of political discourse, and demand that Arab citizens reject their undignified lives by adopting resistance and rejecting terrorism.

Highlights

Abd al-Wahhab al-Bayati is one of the most prominent twentieth-century Arab poets
Al-Bayati understood the challenge of intellectual life, a struggle Edward Said described as a spirit in opposition, rather than in accommodation, that grips me because the romance, the interest, the challenge of intellectual life is to be found in dissent against the status quo at a time when the struggle on behalf of underrepresented and disadvantaged groups seems so unfairly weighted against them.[2]
The poet is determined to overcome his condition, so he refuses to watch and be silenced. He welcomes his new role as a terrorist, and he voices his rejection of and opposition to the meaningless and the absurd, which have become the norm in the Arab world

Summary

ArAb StudieS QuArterly

Al-Bayati began his poetic career as a romantic poet, as is reflected in his first collection, Mala’ika wa-Shayatin (Angels and Devils, 1950).[1]. (Kingdom of Grain) in 1979, al-Bayati crafts a unique and innovative poetic language, transforming his poetry into an embodiment of the humanistic experience This unique language revolts against the status quo and rebels against its frustrating heritage by assuming the role of the terrorist and mastermind of the revolution: language. Pain compels the transformation of poetry into a bomb in the hands of a poet-terrorist and declares “the birth of the man-poet on our abandoned planet.”[4] This poem treats metapoetic concerns in a new fashion. The poet is determined to overcome his condition, so he refuses to watch and be silenced He welcomes his new role as a terrorist, and he voices his rejection of and opposition to the meaningless and the absurd, which have become the norm in the Arab world.

He is the mastermind of the revolution

And the frustrated heritage and the vile king

Does not this accusation have its implications?

Your name is fire in my papers

Between the government profiteers