The ambitious poet

Author: Ali Al-Jarim

“The Ambitious Poet” is a story that brings together a precious collection of proverbs. It tells us the biography of Abu Tayeb Al-Mutanabbi, the poet tormented in reaping the fruits of poetic ambition and moral nobility. It explains to us the slander that Al-Mutanabbi was exposed to by his opponents, which led to the rift between him and Sayf Al-Dawla Al-Hamdani. Ali Al-Jarim excelled in revealing the types of wisdom that gurgled in the form of abundant water descending from the spring of honest poetry that Al-Mutanabbi composed, as if the state of Abu Tayeb’s poetry was saying: Nobility, honor, pride, and arrogance are characteristics of a noble poet who was destined to be buried in the graves of sinful human conflict. The story explains to us that poetry is a characteristic that is only given to those with pure and chaste hearts and souls, because poetry draws from a spiritual and emotional spring, and it is impossible for truth and falsehood to come together in one poetic heart, and produce a poetic expression that is worthy of its meaning and significance. This is the message that Al-Mutanabbi wanted to immortalize with honor engraved on the forehead of conscience, a message that its author was innocent of and his poetry immortalized him throughout the ages.