Poems of Arab Andalusia (1989)
selected and translated by Cola Franzen (1923-)
from the Spanish collection Poemas Arábigoandaluces (1971) by Emilio García Gómez
92 pages
”In the year 711 a Berber army under Arab leadership crossed the straits of Gibraltar from Morocco in continuation of a series of raids which had been going on for some time. … Within a few years the entire [Iberian] peninsula lay at their feet.” Thus began (as quoted from the opening paragraph of Richard Fletcher’s Moorish Spain) almost 800 years of Islamic rule on the peninsula, until the Spanish Reconquest pushed the Moors from their final foothold, the Kingdom of Granada in the southern region known today as Andalusia.
During those centuries the Arabs established kingdoms in al-Andalus, as they referred to the peninsula, in which Christians and Jews could for the most part live in peace, if not necessarily complete equality, with their Islamic rulers. Though debate continues between historians who feel that this period of multiculturalism has been idealized and those who see it as a potential blueprint for our future, it is clear that a cultural exchange flourished that was to have long-term benefits for Western Europe. Through the connections that developed between members of the different religions at the time, Western Europe was introduced to the scientific advancements of Arabic scholars and re-introduced to works of ancient Greek writers and philosophers that had been lost for centuries. (I have included references to two histories of this period at the end of this review.)
The Arab kingdoms did not, however, simply pass along the cultural advances of their brothers in North Africa and the Middle East; they developed a rich and impressive cultural tradition of their own. Most famous are the architectural wonders of these kingdoms, the cathedrals, palaces and gardens, such as the Alhambra in Granada, the great mosque in Córdoba and the Giralda in Seville. Less well-known is the tremendous importance of poetry in the cultural life of the kingdoms of al-Andalus, particularly in the early centuries of Arab rule. Walking through the palace of Alhambra, one is surrounded by poetry, carved into walls at every turn; the walls are only silently beautiful though for anyone without knowledge of Arabic --- the beauty of the words, lost.
Poems of Arab Andalusia, goes some way to rectify this great loss, however, by collecting some six dozen or so poems from the Arabs of al-Andalus. The works, many only a few stanza long, have been translated by Cola Franzen from the Spanish, and, as Franzen states in the introduction, are selected from a larger collection translated from Arabic into Spanish by the Emilio García Gómez, and published in the book Poemas Arábigoandaluces; García Gómez had found the poems in Cairo in 1928, in an unpublished anthology created by Ibn Sa’id.
Franzen describes the poetry in this collection as having been written by “rulers of all sorts … and others simply known as poets.” The themes may be commonplace --- love found, love lost and inspiring beauty; in the delicate but powerful words of these poets, however, images are crafted that shimmer with life.
The Arabs who came to Andalusia found a lush, green land of high mountains and long river valleys; in these opening stanzas from his poem The Valley of Almería, Ibn Safr al-Marīnī (11th century) wonders at the beauty of his native land in the south-eastern part of Andalusia:
Valley of Almería!
God grant that I never see
myself deprived of you!
When I look on you I tremble
as an Indian sword trembles
at the moment of tempering.
And you, friend, here beside me,
enjoy this time, for there are delights
in this paradise not to be found
in the eternal one.
See how excited the river is?
Listen to its murmured applause
sounding beneath the dancing trees
that arch over it
wearing garlands of blossoms.
The branches sweep their sleeves
over the silvered surface of the river
then lift them up
scattering pearls.
Ṣafwān ibn Idrīs (of Murcia in the late 12th century) fairly burns the page with desire in his poem My Beautiful One, which concludes:
Once I went out with her when the
shelter of night and her cape
let me mingle the fire of my breath
with the fire of her flaming cheeks.
I clasped her as a miser clasps
his treasure, and bound her tightly
with the cords of my arms
lest she escape like a gazelle.
But my chastity did not permit me
to kiss her mouth
and my heart remained huddled
over its embers.
You may well marvel at one
who feels his entrails on fire
yet complains of thirst
while holding the quenching water
in his throat.
And the torment of parting is laid bare in Leavetaking, by Ibn Jākh (of Badajoz in the 11th century), which closes with the lines:
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.
The amazing poems of this collection are much like beautiful paintings: they can be enjoyed over an over again, each reading revealing new depths of meaning and emotion.
Other reviews / information: Although I have not reviewed these books for this blog, I found them to provide fascinating histories of the period of the Moors in Spain.
Moorish Spain by Richard Fletcher
Ornament of the World by María Rosa Menocal
Other of my book reviews: FICTION and NON-FICTION
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