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FACES
Give them their bread
So that integrity's wings will flutter in the heart
0 fire be peace
And in the chest's closure be a generous opening
You are alone...
And the sea has its unfathomed depths
So how will you set sail?
How will you disperse your oil in the dark sea?
Give them their bread
And bow for the sparrows and the wind
Neither doom nor peace are you
Nor a rock on which water rests
It is the sea--unbending for the seasons
Spreading its feet in time
As you embrace the heart of hell
So bow.
Restless fear crosses your face
Fire crosses you
You are alone
You slipped away from the rage of your heart
Then you toppled over the fire feeding it.
For Solomon: a prophetic face
Marked by passion.,.
He prayed
Wind alighted on his shoulders
To him came a kingdom
The seashells
And tealeaves
But Bilqis remained on cloud's edge
A pearl for whom the heart yearns
This is Solomon in the land of fear dreading his mirror
Taken by water in the age of tenderness
He ascends the duties
Sniffs the blossoms of exodus
And writes on the page of the sea
Befriending his pains
Begging at night and wrecking the day
Saying: You have delivered me to the abyss
You have delivered me to ants and sand
The wind blows without zeal
The jinn bring Bilqis emptied of childhood's fragrance
The sea is between me and the intimates
You subjected the wind to me
You subjected the Jinn to me
You subjected me to the wind and the jinn
No tree brought me affection
No tree brought me...
He who dreads the fire is no lover.
Give them their bread
So that my eternal mercy will flutter in the heart
Fire is nothing but its properties
You are human
So don't carry the wind except in its hamper
Gloom has its light
So open your eyes wide before love's vessel departs
You are my arm...
I am king
And alone
But I am the One
I sit on the throne of uniqueness
I push sea unto sea
Light unto light
Creature unto creature
So give them their bread
And bow.
For Solomon: a gypsy face
A fire rose
He prayed...
The wind cleared him from his robe
The earth cracked his feet
Predators Invaded him
But he remained affiliated to daylight
Crawling at the nave of the river until he sees the wind still
And the water dandling its kids
There is Bilqis's face on the open sea
There are the turtledoves
And a light infiltrating the clouds
Here is Solomon penetrating his mirror
Childhood boat is setting sail at night
That is the Way of the prophets
He enumerated his names in the dark
Bent on the water's wall
Bilqis jumps out of his eyeballs
And from his palms seasons are unveiled
Will he sit now beneath his glory in the darkt
2
With his mantle brushing the passersby and his limbs attentive?
The birds bespeak of distant trees
Of the language of distant waters
Here is Solomon descending until he alights on earth's lung
Holding the heart in his palms.
Blessed are you!
These are your mountains strumming into the heart
Blessed are you!
These are your oceans agitating in the heart
Blessed are you!
These are your winds swinging in the heart
And twenty suns on the head
You have crowned me under the open sky
And commended me to the wind
My Lord, I do not seek a kingdom
Take away your space, your sand, your wind
My kingdom is in the sack and I continue to ascend
Until face alights an face...
Give them their bread
So that integrity's wings will flutter in the heart
The abode has its sanctity
What does the stranger seek?
Does he dream of warmth?
Or of the dandling evening?
Here you are escaping from alienation desiring you
To an alienation your beliefs desire
No sooner does the light touch you
Than it reflects you at the end of night
Armor clad.
Fly as you wish for you will not reach the door
You are alone... The night soothes you
Waking its desire in the child of your eyes
And I ant your Lord
I play havoc with you as I wish
I inflict time upon you making you pant between black and white
You wrap yourself with the sea
But I am your end
So give theta their bread
0 you eager fugitive, before my shock occurs
And bow,
For Solomon: a prophetic face
And a courtyard for passion
He prayed to gods nesting in his cells
And welcomed the sea
Then he dashed his word in the crowd of jinn
Turning it into fetters
The wind drove the sea giants to him
He said, Cut the rock
And build a kingdom on the light's dome
For those who keep their pains in their chestt
3
Then he turned toward the sea and rode the water's vessel
The wind told him: Bilqis is in the heart
You let tier go and she is your flesh.
Did he set out crying
And saying: Bilqis my bread
Bilqis my water
And Bilqis knows that if I wish the earth will bring her forth
But I am king...
For Solomon: a bedouin face
And sand has its wonders
The ashes alight on the head
In the water: ashen taste
In the throat: ashen taste
Silence expands and descends on abodes
Turning off the sun of eyes
Solomon runs shouting when darkness gushes:
0 night, I am king
Holding my face toward a future time in the distance
I am a king who will crack the ashes.
Arid when fire rages in his chest, he leaps.
Was lie weaving wings for the blossoms,
Talking to the veined clouds
And luring the sand?
The jinn told him: You set sail
Your feet are in the center of the sea
Attracted to darkness
While the shores embark flying in the distance
And you, attired in your singleness
Crawling on the stairway of wishes
And panting...
Who has become farther
You?
Or the water?
Or your heart's prayer?
Every morning you brace the dream on your back
Open your robe to passersby
Adorning it with promises
But in the night you return, crushed and alone
Veiling your wounds
Becoming a table for wintertime
And a scarecrow for the stars.
Solomon laughs until the mountains move and the seas turn over
He opens up his robe for the wind and the jinn are defeated.
I was as I wished
I did not seek other than me
I blossomed in the age of effacement
Then I possessed the seashells
I harmonized with my face
And copulated
Until I saw my faces on the water
Behind the wall I multipliedt
4
And became a family...
For Solomon: a petrified face
Time has its power
How do you set sail, 0 possessor of light?
How do you depart
When you are alone
And the night is clinching its teeth?
What are you guarding against?
The sudden storm?
Silence?
Ashen taste?
Solomon cries
Clad in the clouds
Across the frost, he sees his kingdom floating in the mist
And across the frost, the mirrors stretch a stairway to his feet
He becomes transparent
His smile flows
Sipped by the wind
In it speech crumbles.
Here is Solomon stepping on the snow
While night is a blindman rolling a stone
0 night, I am king
I let go of my steps behind the daylight
I am king
I willed to fill my heart
And not bow my head
I did not rest in the shades of caravans
I prayed, and my fear was crushed
The wind came to me
I dashed it and walked to where I know me.
Give them their bread
So that integrity's wings will flutter in the heart
You are alone
Without a wall
Your palmtrees have aged without light
And your people do not listen
Solomon cries
And writes on water pages
Saying: You gave me and you took back
But I am king
And kings die with their heads up in space
Now I have a hole
And became a family...
For Solomon: a petrified face
Time has its power
How do you set sail, 0 possessor of light?
How do you depart
When you are alone
And the night is clinching its teeth?
What are you guarding against?
The sudden storm?
Silence?
Ashen taste?
Solomon cries
Clad in the clouds
Across the frost, he sees his kingdom floating in the mist
And across the frost, the mirrors stretch a stairway to his feet
He becomes transparent
His smile flows
Sipped by the wind
In it speech crumbles.
Here is Solomon stepping on the snow
While night is a blindman rolling a stone
0 night, I am king
I let go of my steps behind the daylight
I am king
I willed to fill my heart
And not bow my head
I did not rest in the shades of caravans
I prayed, and my fear was crushed
The wind came to me
I dashed it and walked to where I know me.
Give them their bread
So that integrity's wings will flutter in the heart
You are alone
Without a wall
Your palmtrees have aged without light
And your people do not listen
Solomon cries
And writes on water pages
Saying: You gave me and you took back
But I am king
And kings die with their heads up in space
Now I have a hole
A broadleaf
And sandals
I did not seek power
Nor a country speaking in bullets
When my country fell
I grew and became the country...
He walks
Imploring his feet across the frostt
5
--The sun blessing him when he moves--
Fixing the banner in the rocks
leaning on his staff, disseminating laughter
Then plunging in sleep
His ring shimmering when suns set on the sea
When the fragrance whiffs
And his robes changing colors
All directions creeping on them
Grass climbing on them
But he is still searching in the blue of time
For a hole for the king.
July 1981
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MUHAMMAD SULAYMAN
INTRODUCTION
This volume of poetry, written in the early eighties, portrays the agonies, dreams and fluctuating moods of a sensitive soul in a teeming metropolis of a postcolonial Third World country. Cairo, the cosmopolitan city to which the poet moved, offered opportunities and estrangement to the young villager from Minufiyya governorate in the north. Muhammad Sulayman came to study Pharmacy at the University of Cairo in the sixties--a decade that witnessed the height of revolutionary fervor as well as the defeat of the national project that sought to establish an independent and prosperous country. The military defeat of 1967 was followed in the seventies by capitulation's and renunciation of the Arab dream in a just peace and in national integrity. These disappointments were accompanied by soul-searching among the intellectuals who tried to probe into the failure of the promising national project. The post-revolutionary mood is captured by Muhammad Sulayman in a Janis-like mode, of despair on one face and hope on the other. This ambivalent state of mind is reinforced by an urban setting which combines squalor with splendor, loneliness with potentialities. To express the effect of these sudden discontinuities on him and his generation, Sulayman often makes abrupt shifts moving from the confessional mode to the confident posture. The singular pronouns--first, second and third--are interchangeably used to refer to the modulation of the self. This technique creates variations of distancing and overlapping with one Is identity.
To depict the economic and social turnabouts of this period with all the psychological destabilization that they incurred, Muhammad Sulayman opts for mixing not only "memory and desire" as T. S. Eliot did, but also heritage with actuality, collective ethos with private divagations. The ups and downs of the homeland converge with personal experiences giving rise to feelings that alternate between resignation and resistance, impotence and empowerment.
Sulayman's poetic strategy lies in evocation rather than narration. The story of Solomon the king is not replayed, yet it informs the entire volume calling on both Biblical and Koranic images of this fabulous and historical king; and granting this distant figure an existential reality, For once we can see Solomon from the inside: a human being with anxieties and wishes, vulnerabilities and strengths, whims and wisdom. Intertextual echoes of certain books of the Old Testament (1 Kings, Song of Solomon, Ecclesiastics and Proverbs) and chapters of the Koran (Surat Saba', Surat al-Naml and Surat Sad) are orchestrated to evoke a lofty ambiance. The scriptural narratives of Solomon as well as the legendary lore that grew around them constitute the subtexts of this volume. But Solomon Rex here diverges considerably from the original Solomon: he Is recycled into a hero of our times, al.most, verging on the antihero with his tramplike existence and chronic unfulfillment. He is a Bedouin prophet and a gypsy seer, as he is presented in the first poem, entitled "Faces". Solomon becomes a metaphor for every citizen, expressing the dilemma of a patriot whose faith in the homeland has been shaken. In a manner reminiscent of Kierkegaard's rendering of Abraham in -Fear and Trembling, Sulayman reinserts Solomon in present-day problematic, activating his pertinence. In Solomon Rex--our contemporary hero--a component of failure and rebellion is part of his spiritual constitution. Muhammad Sulayman uses the mask of Solomon to lyricize the notion of "shaken faith" just as Kierkegaard uses Abraham to philosophize the notion of "leap into faith". The choice of Solomon for this role is appropriate enough; just as Abraham was known as the "father of faith," Soloman was known for his religious laxity and even lapse into idolatry. The Koran mentions that Solomon was divinely punished by losing his kingdom, and a double occupied his throne until he asked pardon and was then re-enthroned, Solomon's departure from his kingdom is a kind of spiritual alienation, which is reexperienced in the secularized version of Solomon Rex as marginalization and as intellectual exile.
In the Islamic tradition the profound wisdom and visionary knowledge of king Solomon is associated with his command of the languages of birds and animals, and his magnificent power is indicated in his subjugation of the wind and the jinn. Solomon had the evil jinn imprisoned in lead bottles and the rest serving him. When the hoopoe brought the tidings of Bilqis, the beautiful queen of Sheba, the jinn brought tier from her distant country in a split second. And yet the death of this majestic king went unnoticed at first. Leaning on his staff, no one realized his death until worms bored through his staff and he fell down. This incident becomes an emblem of man's loneliness and aloneness in the poetic discourse of Sulayman. As for Bilqis, the legendary queen of Sheba, she becomes the emblem of the dreamt of muse: "But Bilqis remained on cloud's edge/ A pearl for whom the heart yearns". Her poetic function is shared by Buraq, the legendary mare mounted by Prophet Muhammad in his beatific vision of ascent to heaven. Referring to a woman's figure, the poet writes in "Kingdom III": "She becomes the Buraq/ He mounts her and gyrates splitting the clouds".
In Solomon Rex, there are many allusions to the Koran and the Bible which are fused in Solomon's trajectory. Bilqis/Buraq intertwine, so do Abraham and Solomon in the opening lines of the first poem, where the divine speaker addressing Solomon announces: "O -fire be peace/ And in the chest's closure be a generous opening," alluding to Abraham who was protected from fire because of his faith. One should also note, that in the Islamic tradition, both Abraham and Solomon are considered prophets. Such fusion of figures can also be detected in the case of mythic heroes such as Oedipus and Sisyphus when the poet compares the night to a "blindman rolling a stone". This tendency can also explain the hidden link between Sulayman the poet and Solomon the king (who was also a poet), namely their homonym, since the name Sulayman is the Arabic form of Solomon.
Sulayman's allusions stretch in time and space, from ancient Egyptian history--Ahmose the pharaoh who fought valiantly against the invading Hyksos--to Chinese proverbs, "And wait at the river for your enemy's corpse". Some of the evocative charge of such allusions may be easily recognized by someone immersed in the culture of the poet, such as the Koranic verses associated with the angel who sounds the trumpet on the day of Judgment referred to in section XIV of the last poem in the volume, entitled "The Book of Revelations and Epistles," or to the Arabian Nights in section XIII of the same poem,. "In each spike a -thousand doors/ With the Buraq on each door/ Will you push the door?". In "Kingdom III" the significance may be obscure to some one unfamiliar with the Arabic alphabet in the lines where the poet says "Putting the letter Nuun/ Next to the letter Jeem". These two consonants constitute the word jinn in Arabic.
Rich and diverse as the references and allusions are, the volume possesses a poetic spine that holds this diversity together and allows any reader to capture the ambivalent and haunting moods, the sublime aphorisms, and the twinkles of hope amidst gloom., Even if the reader misses the significance of one or other of the connotations in this grove of symbols, the structure of the book with its multiplicityi-in-unity core points to the meaning and helps integrate the parts. Solomon Rex is divided into four major poems, each of which presents phases of the experience or state of mind. The reader may be at a loss In the beginning as the poet seems to shuffle his images at a bewildering speed and variety, but soon the inner eye will assimilate the frequencies, cadences and rhythms of such poetic serialization. Then the reader will discern the delicate patterns in this kaleidoscopic arrangement and hear the subtle and radical variations in the moods.
Ferial J. Ghazoul |
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