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The following article is an extract from 'Modern Poetry and Prose of Bahrain' by Barbara Michalak-Pikulska (Krakow 2006), which was originally written in Polish. Ali al-Jallawi by BARBARA MICHALAK-PIKULSKA 'Ali al-Jallawi was imprisoned many times for his political convictions and artistic work, consequently it would be misleading to interpret his poems as the notes of an ordinary citizen. The author himself gives us a strong indication as to this in the motto contained in one of his volumes, entitled Al-'Isyan. Risalat aI-Mundhir (Revolt. The Mundhir Treaty): "because the tribe meant love I created a book of passion and announced my prophecy". And in actual fact the poet's verse is in a way prophecy relating to the changes in Bahrain. The title refers to Mundhir bin Sawa who ruled in Bahrain during the period of conversion to Islam. These arc murky visions, an understated prediction, images full of symbols, made unreal yet concerning reality. The tribe mentioned by the poet appears to be the departure point for his solutions. His creativity is first and foremost patriotic lyricism – the homeland's past and its state at present (e.g. Ana min huna- I'm from Here, Part II) as well as the condition of man entangled in the history of his country, e.g. Ya sayyidi al watan (My Homeland). All of a citizen's actions, thoughts and feelings are conditioned by the homeland. In the poem Ya sayyidi al watan (My Homeland!) he writes: I love you like the sea... Because you are close... And I have joined The vee formation of the wild doves In the work Al-FasI al-akhir qabla al-wilada (The Last Period before Birth) amidst the tender filled admissions we encounter the words: My hands Reach for the final noble cities In our minarets There is no exile And there is no homeland The portrait of Bahrain is not in any way defined unambiguously by the poet: love for the soil, although truthful is a difficult feeling. The homeland in al-Jallawi's work is a well-known landscape marked with palms and blue skies, e.g. in the poem Ana min huna (I'm from Here): I stand Time passes A palm of snow stops him In her hands (palms) of blue An unbeliever on the surface Gathered (the blue) all its strengths They stand The blue sky drinks From their columns of foundation Whole bunches of palms Are hungry and barefooted" This homeland is also a bad mother and a disloyal lover deserving of condemnation: We came maintaining that: You are the one who stole God Man does not love here without criticism, he demands and even forces:
We celebrated
your death But also is just when he feels care:
They came
with revenge within them For 'All al-Jallawi it is tradition, religion and language which defines the identity of man. These elements can constitute asylum and a safe haven in life. He calls upon Shiite symbolism: Karbala - in the poem Ana min huna (I Am from Here, Part 2) and the murdered Husayn, killed together with his people, the personification of a saint for the Shiites - in the poem An-Nubu 'a al-ula. Nubu 'at al-Husayn (The First Prophecy of Husayn). He feels an especial connection with his native tongue to which he devotes a lot of space in his works, something that is a deadly weapon from time immemorial and which is permanent and holy: Only knives are language, young lady
So you'd
better understand
It was
pulled, wounded Man, in al-Jallawi, is contained only in language, he is it, he does not possess any other means of expression. In the face of fluctuation, the instability of traditional values, language becomes a haven:
Language In the difficult relationship with his own country the poet's attitude refracts and polarizes two extremes. The first is loneliness, escape to peace: We sent back We summarized As we moved To the trenches of silence [...] Foreignness, foreignness Foreignness... How can I divide Between my presence in fire And poetry
The second is a sense of unity and a call for revolution:
People come
with angel- 'All al-Jallawi emphasizes in his poems the wide cultural-historical context. He calls not only upon the figure of Husayn but also on the half legendary king Gilgamesh who allegedly reached Bahrain in order to drink the waters of immortality. The figure of Gilgamesh is to be found also in the cultural heritage of Iraq where he is a symbol of the power of the ancient Sumerian state.
In the volume of poetry, entitled Wajhan li-imra'a wahida (The Two Faces of One Woman), 'All al-Jallawi extols love for his motherland and women, for a woman, according to him, is the motherland and the motherland a woman. The poems are written under the influence of the language of the Koran, though that said they are not religious in character. The poet deals with taboo subjects i.e. sex and eroticism, expressing in them a wealth of feelings, sensations and emotions. Love overcomes all: I can even become an enemy of my own tribe out of my love for you They said: She enchanted him and he died bewitched And they said: I went mad for her She filled my lips with the wine of hers Love is described in an unusually artistic way as hot feelings demanding devotion, sacrifice and offerings. Al-Jallawi's works are characterized by a semantic duality, for the author refers in them both to the motherland and a yearning for its freedom. The volume is unusually mature for such a young poet who was a mere nineteen when writing the poems.
The majority of the pieces possess no punctuation, here and there appearing as if randomly. Let the words of Michal Glowinski serve here as evaluation: "resignation from stopping is only protection money paid to fashion, if one could add to the empty spaces commas, full stops, semicolons etc. nothing fundamental would change".
The syncretism of the various types of utterance appear in a mixture of direct and indirect lyrics. For example in the poem Ya sayyidi al-watan (My Homeland!) one can discern elements of lyrical monologue, invocative lyrics and lyrics of a collective subject: Who is now going to be braver than me And announce that the land which we have in our blood Was not a standard Who struck the wound And then Will live With a fossilized memory Who again will inflict injury Teaches silence and speech My sick country At least it doesn't have a cold Who now will turn Notebooks into seagulls And then descend to the water Like a child liberated From the yoke and divisions... All of these together with the numerous ellipses that do not reveal the subject for the course of the entire poem, through the simultaneous introduction of new figures, creates its own kind of chaos conducive to the style of prophecy though making the text's reception fur the reader all the harder. 'Ali al-Jallawi utilizes synecdoche (e.g. a "palm" instead of an entire landscape appears many times in various poems), or metonymy (he calls a horse simply "neighing").
He uses the comparisons: of a "fatherland to a child", or "carrion to fire". In order to strengthen the suggestiveness he uses personification: "the hands of the palm", "the shoulders of time" and animism: "the mouth dries", "the blade sprouts".
The poet dreams of a city of poets but not in a Utopian way like in Plato or Al-Farabi where everyone is free to express his own thoughts. He has transferred his desires into the works contained in the volume Al-Madina al-akhira (The Last City).The whole work was dedicated to his friend Isa who was condemned to death and with whom the poet spent time in prison. A continuation of the subject matter of a perfect city is to be found in the two volumes of poetry entitled Dilmuniyyat (Things from Dilmun).
'Ali al-Jallawi's poetry falls outside any concrete concepts and cannot be closed within certain frameworks. It deals with a wide range of subject matters, failing to offer a single solution. It stimulates the association and imagination of the reader encouraging cooperation. The content of the works plays a far greater role for the poet than does the form, and the poetic images are saturated with reflection and intellectualism. |
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