Mehmet Hakkı Suçin
Mahmoud Darwish’s Like Almond Blossoms or Farther (Badem Çiçeği Gibi yahut Daha Ötesi in Turkish) differs in many respects from his earlier collections. With this book, first published in 2005, Darwish’s loud-voiced lines gave way to a different understanding of poetry in both form and content.
In form, his poems at times approach prose or begin to flow intertwined with it. The fact that the book opens with Abu Hayyan al-Tawhidi’s words on the relationship between verse and prose shows that the poet chose this approach consciously. In al-Muqabasat, al-Tawhidi expressed the balance between verse and prose as follows: “In prose there is a shadow of verse; otherwise it would not be so light, pleasant and delightful. And in verse there is a shadow of prose; otherwise its forms would not stand out, its sources, measures and paths would not be beautiful, nor would the bonds that hold it together be harmonious.” Starting from this understanding, Darwish sets poetry and prose side by side or interweaves them in many of the poems in the book. Indeed, this is not the only book in which this approach is manifest. The poet’s effort to approach prose can also be seen in the collections The Stranger’s Bed (1999) and Don’t Apologise for What You Have Done (2004).
Darwish uses the tafʿila, the metrical units of traditional Arabic poetry, with a fluent, flexible rhythm and a calmer poetic voice. This both brings him closer to the language of prose and allows him to draw fully on the rhythm of traditional Arabic poetry. To this end, in his later collections he used flexible metres such as mutaqarib and kamil.
The titles he chose for the poems in this book also differ from those we saw in his earlier works. The book’s title is not of the kind we are used to: Like Almond Blossoms or Farther. This long title is made up of bound morphemes such as “like”, “or” and “farther”. Nor is the almond blossom in the title one of the symbols of Palestine, as the olive tree is, for example. What is it that he likens to the almond blossom, or to what lies beyond it? Poetry? The poet’s self? His new aesthetic? The social and personal fractures and disappointments the poet has witnessed? The title gives the impression of evoking naive meanings that can contain all these possibilities.
The first four sections of the book are named after pronouns: You, He, I, She. The poet’s “I” thus manifests itself in four voices. This makes the poems polyphonic and gives poetic utterance an enormous range of movement. At the same time it shows the fragmentation of the poet’s voice and self into many voices and selves.
In terms of content, we see the poet turning to the everyday, ordinary themes of human life. A subjective, lyrical voice and a deep humanism prevail in the poems. To achieve this he draws on many techniques such as dialogue, interior monologue, narration and intertextuality.
In short, we can say that in both content and form this book by Mahmoud Darwish represents a new understanding of poetry in Arabic verse, one that leans on prose without sacrificing the elements of traditional rhythm. I would like to step aside and leave the reader alone with Mahmoud Darwish’s new poetic adventure.
Here Are the Words (Turkish translation by Mehmet Hakkı Suçin)
İşte kanat çırpıyor kelimeler akılda / Ve kelimelerin taşıdığı göksel isimli bir yeryüzü var akılda. Fazla düşlemez ölüler, düşleseler kimse inanmaz düşlerine… İşte kanat çırpıyor kelimeler bedenimde arı arı… Mavi yazsam mavinin üstüne yeşerir şarkılar, yeniden gelir hayat bana. Kelimelerle buldum isme giden en kestirme yolu… Fazla neşelenmez şairler; neşelenseler bile kimse inanmaz onlara… Dedim: Hâlâ hayattayım zira kanat çırptığını görüyorum kelimelerin aklımda / Akılda bir şarkı var gidip geliyor varlıkla yokluk arasında. Kapıyı yalnızca kapatmak için açıyor… Sisin yaşamı hakkında bir şarkı, fakat yalnızca unuttuğum kelimelere itaat ediyor!
Source: Edebiyatburada.com
Translated from the Turkish for this site.