Desert Tracings : Six Classic Arabian Odes by 'Alqama, Shanfara, Labid, 'Antara, Al-A'sha, and Dhu al-Rumma

by Michael A. Sells

A skillful translation of six classical odes of pre-Islamic Arabia.

According to legend, the Bedouin tribes of pre-Islamic Arabia held poetry competitions during annual fairs near Mecca. The wining poems called Mu'allaq�t, or Hanging Odes, were embroidered in gold on banners and suspended from the walls of Arabia's most sacred shrine, Ka'ba. Desert Tracings is a translation of six classical sixth to eighth century odes. Arabic codes (qasidas) traditionally begin with the relationship of the lover to the loved. Usually set at opening in the beloved's abandoned desert campsite, where the only evidence that remains is tent marks and torrent beds in the sand - "naked tracings, / worn thin, like inscriptions/ carved in flat stones" - the qasida moves gracefully through the thematic parts, the lover's grief, the quest, and the final acceptance of a world deprived of the beloved. Like the oryx-doe trapped within the unyielding cycles of the desert world.

As Michael Sells writes in his introduction, the qasidahas been overshadowed in the West by other Arabic literature, such as The Arabian Nights, but the qasidais the primary literary tradition in both pre-Islamic and Islamic Arabia. The remarkable richness of language and range of mood captured in theses translations help explain their enduring fascination.

Genres: Poetry, Anthologies, History, Islam

87 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1989

About the author

Michael Sells studies and teaches in the areas of qur'anic studies; Sufism; Arabic and Islamic love poetry; mystical literature (Greek, Islamic, Christian, and Jewish); and religion and violence. The new and expanded edition of his book Approaching the Qur'an: The Early Revelations appeared in 2007. He has published three volumes on Arabic poetry: Desert Tracings: Six Classic Arabian Odes, which focuses upon the pre-Islamic period; Stations of Desire, which focuses upon the love poetry of Ibn al-'Arabi; and The Cambridge History of Arabic Literature, Al-Andalus, which he coedited and to which he contributed. His books on mysticism include Early Islamic Mysticism, translations and commentaries on influential mystical passages from the Qur'an, hadith, Arabic poetry, and early Sufi writings; and Mystical Languages of Unsaying, an examination of apophatic language, with special attention to Plotinus, John the Scot, Ibn al-'Arabi, Meister Eckhart, and Marguerite Porete. His work on religion and violence includes: The Bridge Betrayed: Religion and Genocide in Bosnia; and The New Crusades: Constructing the Muslim Enemy, which he coedited and to which he contributed. He teaches courses on the Qur'an, Islamic love poetry, comparative mystical literature, Arabic Sufi poetry, Arabic religious texts, and Ibn al-'Arabi.

(University of Chicago, Divinity School)

Reviews

[Rodney · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sells’s is one of the best-known English renderings of the pre-Islamic qasida, an Arabic verse form whose metrical rules and stock subjects (the absent beloved, the abandoned desert camp, praise of the poets’ camel and boasts about the writer’s poetic prowess) survived the Bedouin conversion to Islam to become the backbone of Arabic poetry into modern times. The place of the qasida in Arabic is maybe analogous to the sonnet in English and the Romance languages—in fact, the troubadours who pioneered the first verse forms in the Romance dialects drew on the Spanish qasida, and its cousin, the sung muwashshah of al-Andalus, for their own intricate metrical forms and subjects.

Sells provides a careful and scholarly introduction, along with informative prefaces to each of the six qasidas he translates. He’s clear about the challenges of bringing the subtleties and grammatical allusiveness Arabic makes possible over into English, but the poems themselves struck me as flat free-verse renderings lineated in loose quatrains that drift and break across the page like a thousand conventional postwar U.S. poems. The formal discipline and high level of abstraction Sells describes as characteristic of the qasida give way to an effort at plainspoken directness that makes the poems sound simultaneously conversational and confusing: “End it!/Nothing curbs the overbearing/like a gaping wound/unstaunched by oil and gauze.” A useful introduction to the form and its place in Arabic, but if you know of any other translations to go to from here, let me know.

[Samuel Brown · Rating 5 out of 5]

The versatility of the ancient poetic form highlighted by this slim volume demonstrates continuing power. Early Modern poetry in the West owes these odes a tremendous debt, making the sensation of reading them at once strange and familiar, like reading Homer. Each poem traces a topography of love and loss, including the desert-creatures met on the search for proto-Petrarchan traces of his beloved.

[Ann Chamberlin · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great translation with important commentary.

[Cynthia Robinson · Rating 5 out of 5]

These poems just slay me, every time I read them. I actually closed the book and started all over again, at the beginning. For the millionth time. I think this is an always-currently-reading for me.

[Drkshadow03 · Rating 4 out of 5]

Six examples of Arabic poetry that predates Islam. In general, the poems have tripartite structure: nasib (usually when the beloved leaves with her tribe from a campsite m), a journey, and a boast at the end. The poetry often feels sensual and delicate, focusing on desert images, animals, and nature to symbolically and indirectly express the poet’s feelings, but there is rarely any direct expressions of sentiment or intense emotions described. The Mu'állaqa by Antara has back-and-forth fighting at the end that were reminiscent of the Iliad. I enjoyed the imagery and feel of these poems, the way the surface images leave an emotional impression and their overall effect.

[Khalil Barahaoua · Rating 5 out of 5]

Phenomenal translation of classical pre Islamic Arab poetry with introductions that give ample context for the reader making it super comprehensible. Super well organized and the poetry is unmatched. The version is not bilingual but there is a short glossary of some Arabic terms used throughout the copy.

[Nefeli Georgiou · Rating 4 out of 5]

Love the wonderful Qasida form of poems. The nasib; loss of the beloved is mourned in a beautifully melancholic way in the poems. Campsites are in ruin, the heroes weeps and recall the lost beloved. The poems then move to the travel section where the hero crosses deserts with his camel; to move to a new region, unstained by the memory of his beloved. Lastly, we get the final message of the poem. The poems are embroidered by imagery of the Arabian desert- the images of dunes and camels, smells of musk and saffron, personification of animals like the White orynx, and the ostrich. Even the dunes come alive and become actors in these poems

[Malak Kalmoni Chehab · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good translation that brings forth the sense of Arabian Nights and their mystery. The senses are alive with scents, visual imagery that is specific to the desert, and love's blossom.

[yvettefordjour]

had to read it for one of my classes. i absolutely adore the last poem

[Taylor Swift Scholar · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very very old poetry from another culture is really hit or miss for me. I intellectually recognize that these were beautiful, but I am unlikely to pick them up again.

[Giovanna Hughes · Rating 5 out of 5]

I don’t think any words can capture what these poems made me feel. Shanfara’s ode in particular has stayed in my mind.

[Clementine · Rating 3 out of 5]

As you may imagine, I read this book for class, as my range of literary interest hasn't quite extended to pre-Islamic poetry. Indeed, I am not much of a poetry person myself.

However, I found this book really interesting; I thought that Sells' introduction and explanations for each poem were informative, and really showed the difficult choices translators face. The most difficult thing about translating Arabic texts, in particular, is that the language has a very particular cadence and sound to it that can actually contribute to a type of linguistic beauty that is hard to replicate in English. (This is a special challenge with the Qur'an, as much of its beauty and reverence comes from the linguistic aspects of it - but modifying it to have the same sort of feeling in English often takes away from the actual meaning, obscuring the word of God.) Sells has tried to create an equivalent structure and rhythm while preserving the essential meanings of each poem. Although I don't speak Arabic so cannot possibly compare the originals with Sells' translations, I did feel that rhythmically and structurally the poems were very beautiful.

In fact, I liked Sells' introduction and explanations of translating choices much more than the poems themselves - but I am, in general, not a huge poetry person (yet, at least). However, it was remarkable to see the complexity in both structure and language of these ancient poems, especially considering that they come from the period known as "Jahiliyyah", or "ignorance". These poems seem to suggest that "Jahiliyyah" is a bit of a misnomer, in any event.

Definitely a compelling, well-constructed academic and artistic rendering of ancient Arabic poems; not entirely my cup of tea.

[Yvonne O'Connor · Rating 1 out of 5]

Read for a class on Islamic Studies.

A collection of poetry from Persia - most dealing with gourmets and wandering and lost love(s).

The poetry is what I would describe as "extreme formula". Almost every poem uses the same animal (camel) as a symbol for completely different things, making for sheer confusion. Each poem is capable of so many interpretations, I don't know how any "one" can be agreed upon.

[Kiyaa Kanjukia · Rating 3 out of 5]

I am a bit skeptical about translations because they tend to, somehow, lose a bit of their meaning. Nonetheless, I really enjoyed the poetry in Desert Tracings.