1. Introduction
Nimer al-Sa'di is a Palestinian poet and writer born in October, 1977, living in his small village Basmat Tab'on located east of Haifa. It is a Galilee village well known for its beautiful location and marvelous landscape as well as its charming impression upon the poet's concerned soul. Nonetheless, this soul is rich of sensitivity and vision; always tending towards freedom and the beauty of the universe which leaves open windows for the strange and far world at the same time. Thus, the poet continuously observes the fields of life and all the spaces of the universe, particularly whatever is innovative and modern.
When asked by "Al-Quds" Website interviewer whether his surrounding nature has affected his poetry, the poet replied: "Of course it has great impact on me. I have a natural tendency and self-readiness to absorb every atom of the external beauty of nature, or every division in the beautiful harmony of this good spot, which stretches all over the body of the Galilee till the sea of Haifa in the west. Half of my gift belongs to the natural beauty which is revealed in the North of Palestine with all its meadows and mountains and its geography belonging to Al-Sham (Syria), and my poetry is being characterized with its richness and purity of air and marvel. It stretches to the heights of Lebanon passing through East of Syria. Eventually, all my poetry depends upon this magnificent natural and aesthetic heritage, which I have inherited and enjoyed and sang about" .
The seed of poetry began inflaming in his heart at an early age, and has not faded ever since after being sharpened by the storms of dream, love and vision. The poet began publishing his poetry after the ripeness and maturity of his experience together with his talent and education in Al-Itihad" newspaper in Haifa and well as "Kul-Al-Arab" and "Al-Akhbar" in Nazareth in 1999.
What characterizes the poetry of Al-Sa'di is the great ability of language expression together with the artistic picturesque elements thus enabling rich vision open to all directions derived from texts which are full of various loads, educational heritage, insinuating clues, and other symbolic and legendary references; some of which are Middle-Eastern and Arab, others are general, foreign and Western, inclining various referential meanings which may seem distant from all what is typical or familiar; in a modern perspective, and the reader does not lack within the layers of his poetry any thought, taste, sense, knowledge or vision.
One of the pillars of Al-Sa'di's poetry is exposing existence and penetrating through its secrets besides evoking questions aiming to understand the surrounding contradictions and reaching the bottom of the poet's self and human existence being consciousness and subject together till it sometimes reaches the limit of identification.
Adonis says "Perhaps the best way to define modern poetry is that it is a vision. And vision, in its nature, is a leap out of prevailed conceptions. It is, then, a change in the system of things and the system of observing them. This is the way modern poetry looks, at first glance, a rebellion upon shapes and methods of classical poetry" .
Adonis also states that "modern poetry, being exposure and vision, is mysterious, hesitative, and non-rational" .
The universal dimension is central in Al-Sa'di's poetry as he mentions in an interview with "Al-Sham Scholars' Association": "I express everything happening in every spot contaminated with oppression in the world in a more divertive and collective way" . These elements are the most basic components of modern poetry.
Al-Sa'di is considered one of the new voices in the local poetry arena for what his poems contain of innovative power, rich creativity, and rich storage of various subjects. He writes a poem in free tafe'elipoetry, and here and there he also writes traditional poems. Al-Sa'di is also active in literary movements and follows all local literary activities.
Nimer Al-Sa'di says about his own poetry in an interview with "Al-Sham Scholars' Association": "Eventually, I believed in the school of free poetry and saw a new horizon in At-tafe'eli poetry, despite my writing prose poetry and traditional poetry, I belong to the tafe'eli which I consider as the only legal heir of the Arabic poetry" .
Some may think that the poet Nimer Al-Sa'di has not properly received what he deserves as a poet.
As a self-made innovator, Al-Sa'di has proved ability in the local literary circles and education, and he has not received enough interest, neither has he received interest in studies or writings and research like all his colleagues in poetry. Thus he has always encountered media blackout and marginalization. Nevertheless, away from spotlights and fame, in a certain perspective, Al-Sa'di has proved that he deserves to take his place in an advanced rank among local poets. One may wonder, have our famous poets oppressed him by putting all focus and star lights, perhaps unintentionally on their part? So did some of the critics, whether intentionally or not, ignore and marginalize some of our promising poets. Do we have to stop the train at the station of famous poets and never leave? How long shall this unfairness last as we keep remembering and restate the cry of Antara Ibn Shadad: Have the poets left their thrones?
One must seek a clear echo of this reality through what the complaint of denial which our poet has expressed in a special interview with "Al-Quds" Website: "There is a real crisis inside the country for a talented poet, as if he does not draw the attention of the educational institution – had it really existed – eventually he would not be able to do anything. He would not be able to publish any of his collections or translate his poetry to any language and no one would pay attention to him… Every minute they print anything for anyone, and when they inquire about my book "there is no budget", they say!"
Al-Sa'di has several publications:
Visual Music (2008), As If I'm Alone (2009), A Female Utopia (2010), and Sweet Water (2011).
2. Modernist Elements in al-Sa'di's Poetry
Jibran Khalil Jibran says in his masterpiece Sand and Foam: "Two people can break the human rules: the insane and the genius, and they are the closest to God's heart !
Most of Al-Sa'di's poetry belongs to modernism, being affected with its poets, Arabs and foreigners. This is clear as we see him affected in some of his poetry by foreign effects and educational foreign interaction. Some of the poets that affected our poet are: T.S.Eliot and his famous poem "Wasteland"; Mahmud Darwish, Sameeh Al-Qassem, Al-Sayab, Adonis, AL-Bayati, Muhamad Al-Maghoot, Nazik Al-Malaeka, and others.
The poetry of Al-Sa'di expresses concerns of life experience from a self perspective rich with calm music. It has moving and unstable connotations, away from all typical and familiar connotations.
Adonis says: The new Arab poet believes that language flows along with his experience with all its contradictions, richness and tension. That way, he empties the word of its inherent traditional charging and fills it witha new charge and thus bringing it out of the usual frame and common birth," which means that modern poetry is not the extension of traditional inherent poetry. And poetry of Al-Sa'di is a bird stretching its wings in constant innovation and strong imagination, which may reach high to the end of horizons; towards the goddess of poetry, for his soul to embrace the revelations of exposure and innovation and development and rebellion and uprising altogether, away from all that is typical and traditional or steady and non-moving. This point may cause us to pause and contemplate as contemplation at Al-Sa'di loves to embrace thoughts the same way the swords love to embrace swords.
As for the linguistic process in his poetry, it is distinguishingly modern; it is multi-faced of various poetical subjects and comprehensive of experience with open text meeting with various voices where man would pose as a center.
Modern poetry is the revelation of reality of all its depths and dimensions touching our life with all its revelations, whether in shape or content. Perhaps, the most beautiful thing in his poetry is the loaded wondering, which is difficult to answer, being set under mystery reaching an enigmatic degree and thus requiring some research and inquiry, bearing in mind that mystery may increase as poetic references become intensive. Some old Arab critics have admitted that "The most prestigious poetry is the most mysterious, as it does not lead you to its goal unless it stalls you" .
Mystery may be considered a basic value in modern poetry. Adonis says: "Modern poetry is a whole new complex and comprehensive experience. It, like any experience, requires positivity and sympathy in order to be understood" . Hence, Adonis did not hesitate to say: "The new reader must pause to ask the old question: what is the meaning of this poem, and what is its subject? And then asks the new question: what questions does this poem offer to me, and what horizons does it open in front of me?" . It is true then that we need not realize the meaning of the poem or any other texts in a complete way in order to enjoy it! Does everyone understand all the music in order to enjoy it?
Most of Al-Sa'di's poetry is full of loads of excitement, wondering and surprise. He often leaves whatever is familiar and uses strange naming. Nonetheless, what draws the reader mostly is the figurative language and aesthetic diversion through artistic expressive images and innovative references reaching a high level of thrill and excitement. Al-Jahiz stated in this respect: "As the thing out of ordinary is strange, and the stranger it is the farther in illusion it becomes, and the farther in illusion it is, the nicer it becomes, and the nicer it is, the more amazing it becomes, and the more amazing it is, the more innovative it becomes" . Ibn Rasheeq also mentioned something similar in this respect saying: "A man has recited some poetry and people found it strange, and he said: for God's sake, this is not strange but you are strangers to literature" . The stranger the image is, the more amazing it is, and consequently it is more effective on one's self; and this may cause enjoyment of reading and reach the aspired zest after an effort of contemplation and thought in interpretation and analysis to reach the added aspired value whether it is aesthetic or knowledgeable; and the best way of expression in poetry – and even in prose – is what comes through imagery. Al-Sa'di says in his pictorial poem "Surrealistic Space at the Edge of the Heart", p.65:
Rome stretches two lilies of fire
Over the sands… and its lover is waiting
For your eyes the dew has dropped over my voice
I am the one who rolled over the narcissus wheat
Glimpsing the burning coal of rut
I am the one who lost the sky on his face
When the butterfly of his days had passed and he burned!"
We can, as well, take his poem "Visual Music" as an example, as it is the title of his book. The title is considered the first step that stands for the reader before surfing through the layers of the book. Music, as manifested by the poet, seems to be seen not just heard, and the image may be caused to see and have insight or both in this respect. As music, as it is known, is heard not seen, yet when we mention and remember that music speaks out the most beautiful languages, it is the language of the whole world; as Beethoven says on music it exceeds the wisdom of the wise and the philosophy of the philosopher! Furthermore, had we known that music must have a source, then music may match with music; with its source or creator; then he becomes it and it becomes him. It was said: somebody is the music itself, and somebody is the music. It is also possible to say: knowledge has arrived or we have seen courage, and so on. This way, the poet has broken all that is typical and familiar in the old image. It is also known that modernism breaks the old image and dismantles it, which means shaking the memory and reorganizing its components anew, which demands confrontation and rereading it in a new perspective. In the same respect, we may mention the famous Abasi poet Bashar Ibn Burd in his madrigal, out of necessity, replacing his eyes with his ears trying to express his love. Hence, we can understand Adonis admitting that the roots of old Arabic modernism, since the Abasi era, as it is the case with Bashar, Abu Nuwas, Abu Tammam and others .
We should not miss referring to the dedication of the book which reveals another touch as a remarkable sign in which he states: "To her, to me, to us, to everything that has rebelled in us upon us"! This can only testify to the innovative movement of the poet revealing all the rebellion and rejection he is hiding within himself. On the other hand, this is certainly reflected upon the reader and man in general like a contagious thing… as the poet, it seems, wishes to stimulate the reader and man in general to rebel against a despicable reality he is living in, not to recline and stand still and remain in stagnation. In other words, to explore or innovate something and thus move on to progress and rebel over what he had accomplished and innovated; always seeking motivation towards the best and most beautiful in current movement but constant and continuous as the world of man will always need exploration, rebellion and innovation.
The poet, in a modern perspective, expresses almost the same thought in another poem called "Life as I Understand it", p.5, through a Sufi touch, and says:
Life as I understand it
A wish for a sky colored with calls
The spirit of springs carry me like the perfume of dew
The zest of a winging horse towards
The burning of pots in the dome of night
*
The ultimate occurrence of love in the body of the morning
Bringing the news of noble whiteness to the heart of the country
*
Life as I understand it
Not as you understand it and interpret it inanimate
3. Modern Poetry and the Focus on the Self
Modern writing focuses on the self, which is a basic feature that can be touched at the poet: me and the other, or overlapping both sides of the self: the poetic self and the human self, with his constant attempts to surf into its depths not just the surface, in order to understand it trueness and peel its layers and reach its valleys as it has many shapes and colors. We may mention some of them: cases of cracking, shattering and scattering.
Al-Sa'di's collection Visual Music is rich with such unrevealed layers, contradictions, disharmony and mystery, thus exposing the modern man with all his concerns, self and universal thoughts, and then the distinguished modern human self comes out; as he states in the second part of his poem "Visual Music", p.15:
From a thousand ages which had lost their features, like you and more
And my blood knocks at a bitter spring of a far summer
I have raised it up through the odor of your perfume and youfalling at the evening of the soul
You are the body of the roses
I have raised it up at your absence full of dreams
Naked and barefoot you sleep upon the burning of water
As if my blood is recreated
I have raised it up with a tomorrow hanging over me like a dream
Or with a hand from the winging dawn with butterflies of songs
Al-Sa'di says questioning, after ignoring the hatred and hostility embedded in the conflict of cultures in another part of his poem "A Song for Troy", p.23:
A yearn for longing,
A wish for cohesion and healing,
On the road to knowledge, life and survival…
Oh my end
I know you hate me without a convincing cause
For the conflict of cultures, but I shall be patient
To the end for the meaning of longing
To know my essence… who am I?? Who may I be??"
Freedom has a prestigious position at Al-Sa'di. It is a central question in his poetry, as he states, for it is the power of life and its basis for him, not to be abdicated as it runs in the veins like blood. He says in another chapter of the same poem, p.24:
My freedom is from my blood / my vocabulary from wax
My eyes (also) from what the stars are singing behind the everlasting
Again, the poet is seen returning to the shattered human self of both parts: me and the other, in its various revelations and different transformations. He says in a chapter from "Pure Lonely Mouth", p.25:
Formed from me and you over there
In this live marble
To be reassured to my being
And the moan of both our colorless souls
Lies in the day of a poem which snatched my compassion
And went away… then who would lament the living marble?
The color of night? The roses of fire? The secret of snow? The title of my breakdown
The "I" is revealed again as the poetic self, and perhaps the common human self, where he is seen carried on a cross by two of his friends. He says in "I won't tell your secrets both", p.39:
You are carrying me… and the pain of stars is over the cross
At noon about the dress of Fatem.. I spread it in the yes to bloom like the tears of Jesus!
That is the self; at times it is dreaming and at other times it is cracking or confused, or a slaughtered martyr, or carried on the cross for resurrection again, or rebellious, like Sisyphus, looking for itself and for the truth. The poet says in his poem "Visual Music", p.15:
"And I trod the immemorial amusement of the past
Looking for me and for… real language"
"I carry Sisyphus and he carries me over the mountain of sin and suffering"
And so he says in "Pure Lonely Mouth", p.25:
"I am the crucified one over twilight
Embracing at the top of songs
The fogs of my days without a neck
It has the seal of a snake from Thamood"
Here and there, we may notice Al-Sa'di feeding his poetry with vivid clues leading to a Western educational tradition, cross-continental and human cultures. For example, he brings again that relationship which had occupied the educational French community in the nineteenth century regarding Baudelaire the lover (Charles Pierre Baudelaire 1821-1867 – French poet and art critic, who began writing prose poetry in 1857), to light up some private and mysterious aspects of his personality; it is a story for Jean Devalle about that woman who was a dreamer amidst the Parisian world full of education and innovation at the time, and worked as an actress and dancer until he met her at one of her shows and fell in love with her and lived a stormy love life. He says:
"The poem says what is not to be said
It says to Baudelaire: … Devalle is my body
And the branches of my soul and my prison
And my freedom… then when shall I be released
Out of her prison her complementing body
When… shall I be released of myself?"
"The poem says what is not to be said", p.68.
4. The Language of al-Sadi's Poetry
Poetry at Al-Sa'di can lead to a legitimate inquiry: "How does he acquire his poetry?". Poetry to Al-Sa'di is not just an emotional case; it is an existential charming state of excitement and interaction, flowing in all directions, to set emotion next to thought side by side, not only by sender but also by thereceiver in a mutual activity where man stands at the center. As for the language, it is referential, giving clues more than statements, and he says:
"The poem says whatever had been reflected from your wavy body
Then the heart does not hear what the poem says
Except the cry of beauty
The poem says what is not to be said
"The poem says what is not to be said", p.71.
Our poet may seem to be influenced by Adonis who says: "The language of poetry is a sign-language, while the normal language is the clarity-language. New poetry is, from this perspective, an art which makes the language say what it had not been used to say. What the normal language does not know how to transfer is what the new poetry aspires to transfer… in this respect, it seems that the new poetry is a kind of magic as it turns what is neglected by realization to be realized" .
This way, the modern and new reality cost the reader the effort to escalate up to the level of this poetry in order to understand it, and understand its different and complex clues. Had the reader been prohibited to interact with it, he would have had to try to get hold of it. The poet of today, or the modern poet, has over surpassed or exceeded, as presumed, those inherent values of the old poetic legacy, and great distances are separating from it. So is the language of modern poetry; it is different from the language of old poetry. This same variance exists between the poets of today and the poets of the past. As life today is different from life in the past and this requires a different language reflecting the truth of the reality and life in the present not the past. Each age has its own language and objects similar to its style which is known as "the assimilation of people to their time and whatever prevails in their age". Adonis says: "New poetry is, somehow, an exposure of our modern life in its casual and defective existence" !
Hence, poetry is not just a feeling and sense or just wisdom or a moral, but rather an exposure and revelation. It has become a modernization and innovation and future vision which do not deject moving and changing and progressive development. Modern poetry is an eternal and limitless adventure over a winging horse rider; it is an innovative activity with no limit or condition which may, at times, reach chaos in its search for absolute freedom. Muhammad Barada says: "Among all forms of literary expressive shapes, modern Arabic poetry assumes the leading role of exploration, and running wildly after the utmost cases of language trial, formation and text construction" .
Nimer al-Sa'di is a Palestinian poet and writer born in October, 1977, living in his small village Basmat Tab'on located east of Haifa. It is a Galilee village well known for its beautiful location and marvelous landscape as well as its charming impression upon the poet's concerned soul. Nonetheless, this soul is rich of sensitivity and vision; always tending towards freedom and the beauty of the universe which leaves open windows for the strange and far world at the same time. Thus, the poet continuously observes the fields of life and all the spaces of the universe, particularly whatever is innovative and modern.
When asked by "Al-Quds" Website interviewer whether his surrounding nature has affected his poetry, the poet replied: "Of course it has great impact on me. I have a natural tendency and self-readiness to absorb every atom of the external beauty of nature, or every division in the beautiful harmony of this good spot, which stretches all over the body of the Galilee till the sea of Haifa in the west. Half of my gift belongs to the natural beauty which is revealed in the North of Palestine with all its meadows and mountains and its geography belonging to Al-Sham (Syria), and my poetry is being characterized with its richness and purity of air and marvel. It stretches to the heights of Lebanon passing through East of Syria. Eventually, all my poetry depends upon this magnificent natural and aesthetic heritage, which I have inherited and enjoyed and sang about" .
The seed of poetry began inflaming in his heart at an early age, and has not faded ever since after being sharpened by the storms of dream, love and vision. The poet began publishing his poetry after the ripeness and maturity of his experience together with his talent and education in Al-Itihad" newspaper in Haifa and well as "Kul-Al-Arab" and "Al-Akhbar" in Nazareth in 1999.
What characterizes the poetry of Al-Sa'di is the great ability of language expression together with the artistic picturesque elements thus enabling rich vision open to all directions derived from texts which are full of various loads, educational heritage, insinuating clues, and other symbolic and legendary references; some of which are Middle-Eastern and Arab, others are general, foreign and Western, inclining various referential meanings which may seem distant from all what is typical or familiar; in a modern perspective, and the reader does not lack within the layers of his poetry any thought, taste, sense, knowledge or vision.
One of the pillars of Al-Sa'di's poetry is exposing existence and penetrating through its secrets besides evoking questions aiming to understand the surrounding contradictions and reaching the bottom of the poet's self and human existence being consciousness and subject together till it sometimes reaches the limit of identification.
Adonis says "Perhaps the best way to define modern poetry is that it is a vision. And vision, in its nature, is a leap out of prevailed conceptions. It is, then, a change in the system of things and the system of observing them. This is the way modern poetry looks, at first glance, a rebellion upon shapes and methods of classical poetry" .
Adonis also states that "modern poetry, being exposure and vision, is mysterious, hesitative, and non-rational" .
The universal dimension is central in Al-Sa'di's poetry as he mentions in an interview with "Al-Sham Scholars' Association": "I express everything happening in every spot contaminated with oppression in the world in a more divertive and collective way" . These elements are the most basic components of modern poetry.
Al-Sa'di is considered one of the new voices in the local poetry arena for what his poems contain of innovative power, rich creativity, and rich storage of various subjects. He writes a poem in free tafe'elipoetry, and here and there he also writes traditional poems. Al-Sa'di is also active in literary movements and follows all local literary activities.
Nimer Al-Sa'di says about his own poetry in an interview with "Al-Sham Scholars' Association": "Eventually, I believed in the school of free poetry and saw a new horizon in At-tafe'eli poetry, despite my writing prose poetry and traditional poetry, I belong to the tafe'eli which I consider as the only legal heir of the Arabic poetry" .
Some may think that the poet Nimer Al-Sa'di has not properly received what he deserves as a poet.
As a self-made innovator, Al-Sa'di has proved ability in the local literary circles and education, and he has not received enough interest, neither has he received interest in studies or writings and research like all his colleagues in poetry. Thus he has always encountered media blackout and marginalization. Nevertheless, away from spotlights and fame, in a certain perspective, Al-Sa'di has proved that he deserves to take his place in an advanced rank among local poets. One may wonder, have our famous poets oppressed him by putting all focus and star lights, perhaps unintentionally on their part? So did some of the critics, whether intentionally or not, ignore and marginalize some of our promising poets. Do we have to stop the train at the station of famous poets and never leave? How long shall this unfairness last as we keep remembering and restate the cry of Antara Ibn Shadad: Have the poets left their thrones?
One must seek a clear echo of this reality through what the complaint of denial which our poet has expressed in a special interview with "Al-Quds" Website: "There is a real crisis inside the country for a talented poet, as if he does not draw the attention of the educational institution – had it really existed – eventually he would not be able to do anything. He would not be able to publish any of his collections or translate his poetry to any language and no one would pay attention to him… Every minute they print anything for anyone, and when they inquire about my book "there is no budget", they say!"
Al-Sa'di has several publications:
Visual Music (2008), As If I'm Alone (2009), A Female Utopia (2010), and Sweet Water (2011).
2. Modernist Elements in al-Sa'di's Poetry
Jibran Khalil Jibran says in his masterpiece Sand and Foam: "Two people can break the human rules: the insane and the genius, and they are the closest to God's heart !
Most of Al-Sa'di's poetry belongs to modernism, being affected with its poets, Arabs and foreigners. This is clear as we see him affected in some of his poetry by foreign effects and educational foreign interaction. Some of the poets that affected our poet are: T.S.Eliot and his famous poem "Wasteland"; Mahmud Darwish, Sameeh Al-Qassem, Al-Sayab, Adonis, AL-Bayati, Muhamad Al-Maghoot, Nazik Al-Malaeka, and others.
The poetry of Al-Sa'di expresses concerns of life experience from a self perspective rich with calm music. It has moving and unstable connotations, away from all typical and familiar connotations.
Adonis says: The new Arab poet believes that language flows along with his experience with all its contradictions, richness and tension. That way, he empties the word of its inherent traditional charging and fills it witha new charge and thus bringing it out of the usual frame and common birth," which means that modern poetry is not the extension of traditional inherent poetry. And poetry of Al-Sa'di is a bird stretching its wings in constant innovation and strong imagination, which may reach high to the end of horizons; towards the goddess of poetry, for his soul to embrace the revelations of exposure and innovation and development and rebellion and uprising altogether, away from all that is typical and traditional or steady and non-moving. This point may cause us to pause and contemplate as contemplation at Al-Sa'di loves to embrace thoughts the same way the swords love to embrace swords.
As for the linguistic process in his poetry, it is distinguishingly modern; it is multi-faced of various poetical subjects and comprehensive of experience with open text meeting with various voices where man would pose as a center.
Modern poetry is the revelation of reality of all its depths and dimensions touching our life with all its revelations, whether in shape or content. Perhaps, the most beautiful thing in his poetry is the loaded wondering, which is difficult to answer, being set under mystery reaching an enigmatic degree and thus requiring some research and inquiry, bearing in mind that mystery may increase as poetic references become intensive. Some old Arab critics have admitted that "The most prestigious poetry is the most mysterious, as it does not lead you to its goal unless it stalls you" .
Mystery may be considered a basic value in modern poetry. Adonis says: "Modern poetry is a whole new complex and comprehensive experience. It, like any experience, requires positivity and sympathy in order to be understood" . Hence, Adonis did not hesitate to say: "The new reader must pause to ask the old question: what is the meaning of this poem, and what is its subject? And then asks the new question: what questions does this poem offer to me, and what horizons does it open in front of me?" . It is true then that we need not realize the meaning of the poem or any other texts in a complete way in order to enjoy it! Does everyone understand all the music in order to enjoy it?
Most of Al-Sa'di's poetry is full of loads of excitement, wondering and surprise. He often leaves whatever is familiar and uses strange naming. Nonetheless, what draws the reader mostly is the figurative language and aesthetic diversion through artistic expressive images and innovative references reaching a high level of thrill and excitement. Al-Jahiz stated in this respect: "As the thing out of ordinary is strange, and the stranger it is the farther in illusion it becomes, and the farther in illusion it is, the nicer it becomes, and the nicer it is, the more amazing it becomes, and the more amazing it is, the more innovative it becomes" . Ibn Rasheeq also mentioned something similar in this respect saying: "A man has recited some poetry and people found it strange, and he said: for God's sake, this is not strange but you are strangers to literature" . The stranger the image is, the more amazing it is, and consequently it is more effective on one's self; and this may cause enjoyment of reading and reach the aspired zest after an effort of contemplation and thought in interpretation and analysis to reach the added aspired value whether it is aesthetic or knowledgeable; and the best way of expression in poetry – and even in prose – is what comes through imagery. Al-Sa'di says in his pictorial poem "Surrealistic Space at the Edge of the Heart", p.65:
Rome stretches two lilies of fire
Over the sands… and its lover is waiting
For your eyes the dew has dropped over my voice
I am the one who rolled over the narcissus wheat
Glimpsing the burning coal of rut
I am the one who lost the sky on his face
When the butterfly of his days had passed and he burned!"
We can, as well, take his poem "Visual Music" as an example, as it is the title of his book. The title is considered the first step that stands for the reader before surfing through the layers of the book. Music, as manifested by the poet, seems to be seen not just heard, and the image may be caused to see and have insight or both in this respect. As music, as it is known, is heard not seen, yet when we mention and remember that music speaks out the most beautiful languages, it is the language of the whole world; as Beethoven says on music it exceeds the wisdom of the wise and the philosophy of the philosopher! Furthermore, had we known that music must have a source, then music may match with music; with its source or creator; then he becomes it and it becomes him. It was said: somebody is the music itself, and somebody is the music. It is also possible to say: knowledge has arrived or we have seen courage, and so on. This way, the poet has broken all that is typical and familiar in the old image. It is also known that modernism breaks the old image and dismantles it, which means shaking the memory and reorganizing its components anew, which demands confrontation and rereading it in a new perspective. In the same respect, we may mention the famous Abasi poet Bashar Ibn Burd in his madrigal, out of necessity, replacing his eyes with his ears trying to express his love. Hence, we can understand Adonis admitting that the roots of old Arabic modernism, since the Abasi era, as it is the case with Bashar, Abu Nuwas, Abu Tammam and others .
We should not miss referring to the dedication of the book which reveals another touch as a remarkable sign in which he states: "To her, to me, to us, to everything that has rebelled in us upon us"! This can only testify to the innovative movement of the poet revealing all the rebellion and rejection he is hiding within himself. On the other hand, this is certainly reflected upon the reader and man in general like a contagious thing… as the poet, it seems, wishes to stimulate the reader and man in general to rebel against a despicable reality he is living in, not to recline and stand still and remain in stagnation. In other words, to explore or innovate something and thus move on to progress and rebel over what he had accomplished and innovated; always seeking motivation towards the best and most beautiful in current movement but constant and continuous as the world of man will always need exploration, rebellion and innovation.
The poet, in a modern perspective, expresses almost the same thought in another poem called "Life as I Understand it", p.5, through a Sufi touch, and says:
Life as I understand it
A wish for a sky colored with calls
The spirit of springs carry me like the perfume of dew
The zest of a winging horse towards
The burning of pots in the dome of night
*
The ultimate occurrence of love in the body of the morning
Bringing the news of noble whiteness to the heart of the country
*
Life as I understand it
Not as you understand it and interpret it inanimate
3. Modern Poetry and the Focus on the Self
Modern writing focuses on the self, which is a basic feature that can be touched at the poet: me and the other, or overlapping both sides of the self: the poetic self and the human self, with his constant attempts to surf into its depths not just the surface, in order to understand it trueness and peel its layers and reach its valleys as it has many shapes and colors. We may mention some of them: cases of cracking, shattering and scattering.
Al-Sa'di's collection Visual Music is rich with such unrevealed layers, contradictions, disharmony and mystery, thus exposing the modern man with all his concerns, self and universal thoughts, and then the distinguished modern human self comes out; as he states in the second part of his poem "Visual Music", p.15:
From a thousand ages which had lost their features, like you and more
And my blood knocks at a bitter spring of a far summer
I have raised it up through the odor of your perfume and youfalling at the evening of the soul
You are the body of the roses
I have raised it up at your absence full of dreams
Naked and barefoot you sleep upon the burning of water
As if my blood is recreated
I have raised it up with a tomorrow hanging over me like a dream
Or with a hand from the winging dawn with butterflies of songs
Al-Sa'di says questioning, after ignoring the hatred and hostility embedded in the conflict of cultures in another part of his poem "A Song for Troy", p.23:
A yearn for longing,
A wish for cohesion and healing,
On the road to knowledge, life and survival…
Oh my end
I know you hate me without a convincing cause
For the conflict of cultures, but I shall be patient
To the end for the meaning of longing
To know my essence… who am I?? Who may I be??"
Freedom has a prestigious position at Al-Sa'di. It is a central question in his poetry, as he states, for it is the power of life and its basis for him, not to be abdicated as it runs in the veins like blood. He says in another chapter of the same poem, p.24:
My freedom is from my blood / my vocabulary from wax
My eyes (also) from what the stars are singing behind the everlasting
Again, the poet is seen returning to the shattered human self of both parts: me and the other, in its various revelations and different transformations. He says in a chapter from "Pure Lonely Mouth", p.25:
Formed from me and you over there
In this live marble
To be reassured to my being
And the moan of both our colorless souls
Lies in the day of a poem which snatched my compassion
And went away… then who would lament the living marble?
The color of night? The roses of fire? The secret of snow? The title of my breakdown
The "I" is revealed again as the poetic self, and perhaps the common human self, where he is seen carried on a cross by two of his friends. He says in "I won't tell your secrets both", p.39:
You are carrying me… and the pain of stars is over the cross
At noon about the dress of Fatem.. I spread it in the yes to bloom like the tears of Jesus!
That is the self; at times it is dreaming and at other times it is cracking or confused, or a slaughtered martyr, or carried on the cross for resurrection again, or rebellious, like Sisyphus, looking for itself and for the truth. The poet says in his poem "Visual Music", p.15:
"And I trod the immemorial amusement of the past
Looking for me and for… real language"
"I carry Sisyphus and he carries me over the mountain of sin and suffering"
And so he says in "Pure Lonely Mouth", p.25:
"I am the crucified one over twilight
Embracing at the top of songs
The fogs of my days without a neck
It has the seal of a snake from Thamood"
Here and there, we may notice Al-Sa'di feeding his poetry with vivid clues leading to a Western educational tradition, cross-continental and human cultures. For example, he brings again that relationship which had occupied the educational French community in the nineteenth century regarding Baudelaire the lover (Charles Pierre Baudelaire 1821-1867 – French poet and art critic, who began writing prose poetry in 1857), to light up some private and mysterious aspects of his personality; it is a story for Jean Devalle about that woman who was a dreamer amidst the Parisian world full of education and innovation at the time, and worked as an actress and dancer until he met her at one of her shows and fell in love with her and lived a stormy love life. He says:
"The poem says what is not to be said
It says to Baudelaire: … Devalle is my body
And the branches of my soul and my prison
And my freedom… then when shall I be released
Out of her prison her complementing body
When… shall I be released of myself?"
"The poem says what is not to be said", p.68.
4. The Language of al-Sadi's Poetry
Poetry at Al-Sa'di can lead to a legitimate inquiry: "How does he acquire his poetry?". Poetry to Al-Sa'di is not just an emotional case; it is an existential charming state of excitement and interaction, flowing in all directions, to set emotion next to thought side by side, not only by sender but also by thereceiver in a mutual activity where man stands at the center. As for the language, it is referential, giving clues more than statements, and he says:
"The poem says whatever had been reflected from your wavy body
Then the heart does not hear what the poem says
Except the cry of beauty
The poem says what is not to be said
"The poem says what is not to be said", p.71.
Our poet may seem to be influenced by Adonis who says: "The language of poetry is a sign-language, while the normal language is the clarity-language. New poetry is, from this perspective, an art which makes the language say what it had not been used to say. What the normal language does not know how to transfer is what the new poetry aspires to transfer… in this respect, it seems that the new poetry is a kind of magic as it turns what is neglected by realization to be realized" .
This way, the modern and new reality cost the reader the effort to escalate up to the level of this poetry in order to understand it, and understand its different and complex clues. Had the reader been prohibited to interact with it, he would have had to try to get hold of it. The poet of today, or the modern poet, has over surpassed or exceeded, as presumed, those inherent values of the old poetic legacy, and great distances are separating from it. So is the language of modern poetry; it is different from the language of old poetry. This same variance exists between the poets of today and the poets of the past. As life today is different from life in the past and this requires a different language reflecting the truth of the reality and life in the present not the past. Each age has its own language and objects similar to its style which is known as "the assimilation of people to their time and whatever prevails in their age". Adonis says: "New poetry is, somehow, an exposure of our modern life in its casual and defective existence" !
Hence, poetry is not just a feeling and sense or just wisdom or a moral, but rather an exposure and revelation. It has become a modernization and innovation and future vision which do not deject moving and changing and progressive development. Modern poetry is an eternal and limitless adventure over a winging horse rider; it is an innovative activity with no limit or condition which may, at times, reach chaos in its search for absolute freedom. Muhammad Barada says: "Among all forms of literary expressive shapes, modern Arabic poetry assumes the leading role of exploration, and running wildly after the utmost cases of language trial, formation and text construction" .