Vagabond poetry
“The poem is … not only nearly untranslatable into English but nearly unreadable in Arabic.”
Baleful exaggeration aside, Treadgold[1] fairly captures the challenge presented by the poetry of the jahiliya, or pre-Islamic, period. Weighed down by references to obscure flora and fauna and a panoply of the Arabian Peninsula’s antique landmarks, works like Shanfarā’s “Lāmīyah” (lit. “Poem rhymed in ‘L’”) can be tedious. Lucky, then, that Shanfarā and the other vagabond poets (صعاليك ṣaʿlīk) left such animated descriptions of manly fortitude, daring, and skullduggery to entertain, if not to edify.
Where else could one read, without a shred of irony, lines such as these?
أُدِيمُ مِطالَ الجوعِ حتى أُمِيتهُ، وأضربُ عنه الذِّكرَ صفحاً، فأذهَلُ
وأستفُّ تُرب الأرضِ كي لا يرى لهُ عَليَّ، من الطَّوْلِ، أمرُؤ مُتطوِّلُ
“I always put off hunger, till it dies;
I keep my mind far from it and forget.
I eat the dust, lest some do-gooder think
That for a favor I am in his debt.”[2]
Or:
وأطوِي على الخُمص الحوايا كما انطوتْ خُيـُوطَةُ ماريّ تُغارُ وتفتلُ
“I bind my bowels upon my hunger, as
A weaver’s taut and twisted threads are bound.”
Or:
فأيَّمتُ نِسواناً، وأيتمتُ وِلْدَةً وعُدْتُ كما أبْدَأتُ، والليل أليَلُ
“I widow wives and orphan children, then
I go as I have come, in darker night.”
Or:
تَرُودُ الأراوي الصحمُ حولي، كأنَّها عَذارى عليهنَّ الملاءُ المُذَيَّلُ
ويركُدْنَ بالآصالٍ حولي، كأنني مِن العُصْمِ، أدفى ينتحي الكيحَ أعقلُ
“The yellow she-goats graze about me, like
Maidens whom trailing dresses beautify.
At dusk, they stand around me, like a ram,
White-footed, long-horned, climbing, dwelling high.”
A vagabond of another kind. Via Creative Commons.
The “Lāmīyah” is, after all, praise poetry (فخر faḫr) that lavishes its juiciest metaphor on the poet himself. Its themes of rugged self-determination, individuality, and violence are perfectly in keeping with the style of the vagabond poets, but they do pique something in the modern sensibility.
At times, this wasted aesthetic presents more difficulty than do arcane grammar and language. But that is true only for some modern readers. Treadgold observed with undiminished enthusiasm:
“The rascally and misanthropic valor that animates [the “Lāmīyah”] will appeal to anyone but the most effete citizen of the Welfare State.”
One wonders whether Treadgold’s admiration for the work’s fierce libertarianism extended also to its celebration of the poet’s “uncombed mane … Far from the touch of oil and purge of lice, / With matted dirt, last washed a year ago.”
