What I lack in freedom of expression, I make up on this blog.

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Good articles on Bahrain:

Bahrain's Sectarian Challenge in The International Crisis Group

Bahrain: the royals rule in Le Monde Diplomatique

Royal Flush in The Wall Street Journal

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Sunday, April 03, 2005

صوت صفير البلبل

The other day, I heard a Saudi student recite a poem that made all of us in the audience laugh hysterically. Quite frankly at the time we didn't understand a word but were tickled by how he had managed to memorise this tongue-twisting poem in the first place. I've tried reading it myself a few times and have failed miserably. I really hope all arabs will try reading this at a decent speed.

The really fascinating thing about classical arabic poetry is that it often comes with an imaginative mythical or romantic story that is equally as interesting as the peom itself. I give two examples below by a poet called Alasma'i (الاصمعي) . The first one is slightly dubious and some say is wrongly attributed to this poet. But the story goes like this; the Abbasid caliph, Abu Ja'afar Almansur makes a deal with each poet who visits his court, "I will give you your due on the condition that i have not heard the poem before". Poets come from near or far to recite very long poems over one, two or three nights, which if the Caliph asserts he has not heard before gives them the poems weight in gold. He uses a trick, when the poet recites his poem once, the Caliph memorises it and repeats the poem saying he heard it a long time ago. He then brings forth his pageboy who after hearing it twice has also memorised it and recites it and claims he also heard it a long time ago. Then the Caliph calls on the maid, who by then has heard it three times (by the poet, the Caliph and the pageboy) and then recites herself. This way the poet then starts suspecting himself and the poem he supposedly wrote. He gets no money, and is sent away.

The Caliph does the same to all the poets who visit him, and earns a notorious reputation for this. Upon hearing this, a famous poet called Alasma'i takes the challenge of the Caliph upon him and composes a linguistically complicated poem designed to trip up the Caliph. He goes to the Caliph's court one day in disguise, to which the Caliph asks him "do u know the rules" and Alasma3i replies "yes", reciting the following verses:

صوت صفير البلبل
صـــوت صـفـيـر الـبـلـبـل * * هــيــج قـلـبـي الـثـمـل
المـاء والـزهـر مــعــــا * * مــع زهـــر لـخـط المـقـل
وأنت يـا ســـيــد لـــي * * وســيــدي و مـــــولـلــي
فــكــم فــكــم تـيـمـني * * غــزيــــــــــــل عــقــيــقــــــــل
قــطــفــتـه مــن وجـنــة * * مـــن لــثــم ورد الخـجـل
فـــــقــــــــال لا لا لا لا * * و قــد غـــدا مــهــرول
والــخـــود مــالـت طــربا * * مــن فـــعـــل هذا الرجل
فــولــولــت و ولـــولــت * * ولــي ولــي يـــا ويـــــــلـلـي
فـــقــالـت لا تــولــولـي * * وبــيــنــي الـلـــــــــؤلــــــــؤلــي
قــــالــت لـه حـيـن كــذا * * أنــهــض وجــــــد بـالمـقـل
وفــتــيــة ســقــــــــونــنـي * * قــهــيـــــــــــوة كــالـعــسـلـلي
شــمــمـتــهــا بـأنــفـــــــي * * أزكـــــــى مــــــن الــقــرنــفــل
فـي وسـط بـسـتــان حـلـي * * بـالــزهــر والــســـرور لـي
والــعــود دنــدنــدن لي * * والــطــبــل طـبـطـب طـبـلي
طـــبــطــب طــبــطـــــــــب * * طــبــطــب طــبــــــــــطـب لـــي
والــرقــص قــد طــاب لـي * * والـسـقـف ســقــسـق سـق لـي
شـــوا شــــوا وشــاهــش * * عـلـى ورق ســــفـــرجــــل
وغــرد الــقــمــري يـصيح * * مـــلـــل فـــي مــلــلـــــــــــي
ولــو تــرانــي راكــبــــــــــــا * * عـلـى حــمــــــــــار أهـــــزل
يــمــشــي عـلـى ثـلاثـــــــة * * كــمــشــيـــــــة الــعــرنــجــل
والـنـاس تـرجـم جـمــلي * * فــي الــســوق بالــقـلـقـلـلـي
والـكـل كــعـكــــــع كـعـكـع * * خـلـفـي ومـن حــــويـلـلـي
لـكـن مــشــيــت هــاربـــا * * مـن خــشــيــــة الــعــقـنـقـل
إلـــــى لــقــــــــــــــاء مـلـك * * مــعــظـــــــــم مـــبــجـــــــــــــــل
يـأمــــــــــــر لـي بِـخِـلـعَــةٍ * * حـــمــراء كــالـدم دم لــــي
أجـــــــــر فــيــهـا مـاشـيا * * مــبــغــــــــددا لـلــــذيــــــــــــل
أنـــا الأديــب الألـمــعـي * * مــــن حــــي أرض الـمــوصـل
نــظــمــت قــطــعـا زخـرفـت * * يــعــجــز عــنــهــا الأدبـل
أقــول فـي مـــطــلــعــهـا * * صــــوت صــفــيــر الــبـلبل

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