Special Project: Arabic and English Romanticism Fida Khalil Prof. Tamara Ketabgian
Arabic and English Romanticism:
The literary influence of the colonizer on the literature of the colonized
It is fascinating how literature is highly connected all over the world, and how it is transferred from one nation to another to create similar and new literary arts. Reading some of the most important literary pieces of English Romanticism like The Lyrical
Ballads by William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge brings to mind examples of similar Arabic literature by poets like Elia Abu Madi, and Abu Kassim Alshabi.
Although Romanticism emerged in the late nineteenth century and early twentieth century in the Arab world, a century after it had flourished in Western Europe, it was considered a literary revolution in both English and Arabic Literature.
English Romanticism was a revolution against the classical forms and topics of literature. Feeling the disappointment of the French revolution in addition to the exhaustion of the age of reason and its endless philosophical arguments, English poets desperately turned to nature hoping to find a restful world and a new spirituality.
Similarly, Arabic Romanticism was a revolution against the forms and themes of the traditional literature. However, Arabic Romanticism arose after great social and economic disappointments and series of colonial occupations. The world in general was going through various important changes, and Arabs in particular faced special circumstances. In addition to World War One, Arabs had to deal with the consequences of their revolution against the Ottoman Empire in 1916, and later with the colonial occupation by the British and the French in 1917. In the last stages of the Ottoman
Empire, Arabs were living under extreme oppression and many writers had to immigrate to Europe and America looking for freedom in their writings. Writers like Elia Abu Madi and Jubran Khalil Jubran were the first to bring the concept of Romanticism to the Arabic world. Moreover, Romanticism was brought through British and French colonization to
Arabs after the downfall of the Ottoman Empire.
Arabic Romanticism also gained its uniqueness from the specific history and circumstances of the Arabic culture. Through a comparison between three Arabic and
British poems, “Life’s Will” 1933 by Abu Kassim Alshabi, “The Clay” 1920s by Elia
Abu Madi, and “Tintern Abbey” 1798 by Wordsworth, this project explores how Arabic literature differs from English literature and how it revised and transformed Romantic principles of humanity and the contemplation of nature to fuel revolution against oppression and submission when Arabs were under British and French colonization. This project doesn’t claim to be an exhaustive comparative study between Arabic Romantic poetry and English Romantic poetry; rather, it’s a close reading of three selected poems by three icons of English and Arabic poetry.
English and Arabic Romanticism flourished in different social and political circumstances. Subjected to Ottoman Empire’s tyranny and later to the British and
French occupation, Arabic Romanticism came to plant the hope of freedom in people’s hearts. In his poem “Life’s Will” Abu Kassim Alshabi, a Tunisian poet, argues that people with their strong will can impose positive changes in their lives. He says, “If people one day wanted life, fate must obey. And darkness will vanish, and the chain will be broken.” Tunisia at that time was under French occupation, and Alshabi asks people to have a strong will to liberate their country and get rid of the “darkness” and the “chain” that the French occupation resembles. This theme is absent in Wordsworth’s “Tintern
Abbey,” especially since Britain at that time was a powerful colonial country.
English Romanticism came at the end of the age of reason, a period in which people were more open to question common knowledge and were exposed to various philosophical and scientific debates. On the other hand, Arabic Romanticism came in a period of ignorance and illiteracy in addition to a retrogressive economic situation in which most people lived. However, a celebratory tone characterized Arabic poetry as shown in Alshabi’s “Life’s Will”:
And the gleaming candles of stars shined, And the scent was lost; the scent of the flowers,
And a strangely beautiful spirit flickered With wings of moon’s lights,
And the holy psalm of life rang In a charmed dreaming temple,
And was announced in the universe that ambition is the flame of life and the soul of triumph;
If human beings were eager to life Fate must obey.
This optimistic tone contradicts the miserable social, political, and economic circumstances in which Arabs lived and it inspires people to rebel against their appalling situation and gain back their dignity and independence.
Arab poets try to escape their political and economic reality by appealing to the senses and building a mutual identification between human feelings and elements of nature. In the following lines of “Life’s Will” Alshabi draws the circle of life in nature - beginning with the gloomy winter and ending with the lively spring- in order to stimulate people’s minds to find some sort of consolation in nature:
Winter comes, winter of fog, Winter of snow, winter of rain
And the glamour extinguishes, the glamour of branches, The glamour of blossoms, the glamour of fruits,
And the touching glamour of the sky, And the scented glamour of the fields,
And the branches and their leaves fall, And the flowers of a dear vernal era
And the wind sways them in every valley, And the flood buries them on its way
And all perishes like a wonderful dream Shined in a soul then extinguished
Although winter cruelly buries every thing in snow, and makes leaves fall and life disappear in fields, the seeds of flowers resist death and determine to stay alive under the snow:
And the branches remain carrying a lode Of a beautiful vanished life,
And of memories of seasons, of visions of life, And of vanished apparitions of a world,
Embracing under the fog, Under the snow and under the mud,
The apparition of the fascinating life, And the heart of scented and vernal spring,
Dreaming of birds’ song, Of flowers’ scent, and fruits’ taste
Soon enough spring comes with its promise of life and gives light to the ambitious and brave seeds:
And it was like a wing flutter, When their yearning grew and triumphed,
And fissured the earth above them, And saw the dulcet images of the universe.
And spring came with its melodies, Its dreams and its aromatic morning,
And the light blessed you; therefore receive, The youth of life and the fertility of age.
In this image, Alshabi compares the condition of human life to the condition of life in nature. Winter resembles the obstacles and the difficulties that people might face in their lives; on the other hand, spring resembles happiness, pleasures, and beauty. By drawing this comparison, Alshabi states that life is a combination of sadness and happiness, obstacles and pleasures, and the only way to survive and succeed is to have a strong will to be alive and resist death.
Through illustrations of elements and conditions in nature, Arabic poetry has deeper and broader messages to convey concerning political and social issues. For instance, Alshabi’s images in “life’s Will” strongly emphasize life in a time when people were exposed to war and death, and explicitly invites them to fight oppression and remain ambitious in spite of restriction and occupation. In this way, the poem demonstrates the spirit of Romanticism by portraying images that both identify the struggle of common people for freedom and demonstrates examples of strength and resistance in nature from which people can learn. Another important social theme is illustrated in Elia Abu Madi’s poem, “The
Clay” which is entirely an argument against social classes and discrimination among people. Abu Madi wrote this poem after he immigrated to the United States reflecting indirectly on his personal encounters with discrimination there. The title of the poem
“The Clay” indicates its main theme: the humble origin of all people. Abu Madi uses logical argument to defeat the idea of hierarchy in society. Since people are all descended from the same origin, there shouldn’t be any differences among them based on their individual differences. He draws a picture of justice and equality in nature in order to highlight the absence of such justice and equality in humans’ life, and to emphasize their necessity. Moreover, he illustrates how nature treats all people in the same way, which – he claims-should be a solid reason for people to treat each others with equality and respect. At the end of the poem, he invites people to make their hearts a place for love and mercy instead of hatred and envy. With this invitation, Abu Madi stresses the sense of humanity that colors the entire poem.
Unlike Abu Madi and Alshabi, Wordsworth conveys less urgent social and political messages. In his Lyrical Ballads , Wordsworth sometimes wrote incomplete tales, mere observations of natural elements or beauty around him, or very particular and personal experiences or reflections. In “Tintern Abbey,” Wordsworth declares the theme of his poem, aiming to keep the pleasurable moment alive in his and his sister’s mind and immortalizing the beauty of that holy moment- of him being in nature with his sister- when he addresses his sister at the end of the poem saying:
If I should be where I no more can hear Thy voice, nor catch from thy wild eyes these gleams Of past existence -- wilt thou then forget That on the banks of this delightful stream We stood together; and that I, so long A worshipper of Nature, hither came Unwearied in that service: rather say With warmer love -- oh! with far deeper zeal Of holier love. Nor wilt thou then forget, That after many wanderings, many years Of absence, these steep woods and lofty cliffs, And this green pastoral landscape, were to me More dear, both for themselves and for thy sake ! (P. 114)
As might be understood from the lines above, Wordsworth’s main concern is to emphasize his joy of being “a worshipper of nature” and his happiness of his reunion with Tintern Abbey as well as with his sister after a long absence.
In “Tintern abbey” also, as in most of his lyrical ballads, Wordsworth describes elements of nature around him without having mutual communication with them. He enjoys the pleasure of being with his sister in a magnificent place like Tintern Abbey, but at the same time, his engagement with the place seems to be incomplete. His voice is the only voice that the reader hears through the entire poem without any responses from nature or from his sister Dorothy- who is supposed to be his companion in this specific trip to Tintern Abbey. Describing a very specific place in a very specific time with one voice builds the poem up as a personal experience that addresses Wordsworth himself more than any one else. Nature is given qualities almost distant from human qualities; as
Wordsworth says: “In nature and the language of the sense, the anchor of my purest thoughts, the nurse, the guide, the guardian of my heart, and soul of all moral being” (P.
116). In that sense, nature might be represented in a way close to being God; more powerful than people, can teach them, and help them, but it is never equal to them. The scene in “Life’s Will” is completely different. Alshabi portrays several occasions in which the speaker is talking to nature and nature is answering him back.
Moreover, elements of nature engage in dialogues among themselves. Nature is not only a teacher or a spiritual guide, but also a mother. This transfer in the relationship to a close or parental level indicates the involvement that the speaker has with nature. He asks
Earth, “Mother! Do you love people?” And Earth answers, “I love ambitious people who are brave enough to face dangers, the Universe is alive and loves life, the horizon doesn’t embrace dead birds, neither bee go to dead flowers, if I hadn’t had a maternal heart, those holes wouldn’t have held the dead. ” The image of nature as a sensible mother, to whom people inquire about wisdom of life, entirely changes the common orientation of gender roles. Earth, as a motherly figure here, leads people, teaches them lessons about life and strength, and encourages them to keep hope and ambition. Moreover, this image brings nature to a close relationship with people and makes it easier for them to learn from her and follow her rules. The poet successfully uses this image to give a maternal advice to people to keep hope as a permanent element of life.
In conclusion, “Life’s Will” by Abu Kassim Alshabi, “The Clay” by Elia Abu
Madi, and “Tintern Abbey” by Wordsworth, reveal important distinctions between
Arabic and English Romanticism. Although the concept of Romanticism originally came to Arabs through the West, Arabic Romanticism earned its unique characteristics from the Arabic culture. “Life’s Will,” for example, illustrates a maternal theme through out the poem by referring to Earth as people’s mother who encourages them to remain strong and conquer obstacles. Moreover, the speaker demonstrates a deep level of communion with nature and a personal engagement with natural elements. “The Clay,” on the other hand, derives its theme from a common experience of Arab poets who immigrated to the
United States and were subjected to discrimination. The poem also illustrates images of equality in nature to refute segregation among people.
Considering that social, political, and economic circumstances of a certain place influence the creativity of its people, Arabic Romanticism earned its distinctive features in response to its special circumstances. Being subjected to the Ottoman and later colonial oppression, Arabic poets were inspired to write about freedom and equality.
Moreover, the British and French occupation to the Arab world enriched its poetry with political, social, and economic messages. The miserable situation of people at that time and the need to rebel against its causes were usually conveyed through natural illustrations and parallelism drawn between human life and life in nature. Disappointed by Ottomans and colonists’ greed and cruelty, Arab poets searched for justice and peace in nature and found illustrations of hope and equality to awaken the human consciousness.
Works Cited
Al-janzer, Marwan. “Immigrant poets and their role in renovating Arabic poetry.”
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f209fd97d414> Alshabi, Abu Kassim. Songs of life. Dar Al-shorouq Al-sharquia, 1955. Abu Kassim Alshaby. 15 March. 2008 Frangieh, Bassam K, ed. Anthology of Arabic Literature, culture, and thought from pre- Islamic times to the present. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, c2005. Wordsworth, William, et al., eds. Lyrical ballads/ Wordsworth and Coleridge; the text of the 1798 edition with the additional 1800 poems and the prefaces edited with the introduction, notes, and appendices by R.L. Brett and A.R. Jones. London ; New York : Routledge, 1991.