Diwan of Ahmed Shawqi

Author's name: Ahmed Shawqi

Sixty-four years, that is the period of time that God granted Ahmed Shawqi on the face of this earth (1868-1932), but in this limited space his poetry became widespread in the world, occupied people, filled all ears, and touched many hearts. Just as it occupied people during the life of its master, it occupied them after his death, and it continues to occupy pioneers until now. It will remain an introduction through which one can reach the characteristics of Arabic poetry in its antiquity and authenticity, and a prominent landmark indicating the level and eloquence of Arabic poetry in the Renaissance era. God had endowed him with a unique poetic talent and a fluid, fluid intellect. He did not sit at his desk to think and toil to compose a poem, but thoughts would pour out to him in abundance, as if they were overflowing from every direction... He would mumble poetry as he walked or sat among his friends, present among them in person, absent from them in spirit and thought. His companion would not know that he was composing unless he first heard a mumble like a melody coming from a distant depth, then saw his eyes flashing, the movements of his orbits recurring, then saw him raise his forehead, passing it over him lightly, moment after moment, as the poet Khalil Mutran says, and that is the characteristic of inspired poets. The fountain of poetry burst forth from his tongue while he was young, and he had perfected his tool before he had passed twenty years of age. His diverse culture (both Western and Eastern) later had an impact on their poetry, as Shawqi created artistic styles that Arabic poetry had never practiced before, “because he was created to be innovative,” as Taha Hussein said. However, he did not deviate from the poetic column that critics had known for a long time, and he maintained the Abbasid traditions of poetry: unity of meter and rhyme, richness of style and purity, and distance from the abhorrent affectation of the forms of rhetoric. He also relied in his depiction on sometimes compound images, sometimes extended, and on metaphorical images that stop at the limits of simile, metaphor, and metonymy at times. However, he knew how to retrieve from the treasures of ancient similes and metaphors, and add to them from his own self and culture what gives them novelty and originality. It was an image that derived its spirit from the poet’s experience and his broad Eastern and Western culture, not from innate emotions.