Man, Nature and Cosmos as Intertwining Elements in the Poetry of Ibn Khafja Author(s): J. C.

Brgel Source: Journal of Arabic Literature, Vol. 14 (1983), pp. 31-45 Published by: BRILL Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/4183078 . Accessed: 29/04/2011 10:31
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Journal of Arabic Literature,XIV

MAN, NATURE AND COSMOS AS INTERTWINING ELEMENTS IN THE POETRY OF IBN KHAFAJA
Vielfach ergeht sich die Muse der spanischen Araber in Betrachtung der Natur ihres schonen Vaterlandes, Blumen, Sternen, Hainen und Quellen Seele verleihend. Tausend Grusse von Lebendem wie Unbelebtem empfangen sie, wenn sie die Zaubergarten Andalusien's betritt. Adolf Friedrich von Schack

1.1 Many years ago my attention was directed to the poetry of Ibn Khafaja and Andalusian poetry in general by the beautiful verse translations of the German count and orientalist Adolf Friedrich von Schack in his still useful and very readable book Poesieund Kunst derAraberin Spanien und Sicilien. Years later, when I compared his translations with the Arabic text, I found that, in many cases, he had skilfully transformed the originals so as to recast them into convincing German poems. This was, I understood, completely justified, since many of these poems, and I am talking here of Ibn Khafaja in particular, would hardly be understandable, let alone enjoyable, if rendered literally.1 This again, does not mean, that the poems are bad or not enjoyable in Arabic. On the contrary, they are very enjoyable, but their style, intricate, aphoristic, and often highly artificial, makes them difficult reading even, presumably, for an average Arab reader. Schack showed his mastery as a translator by not only translating the almost untranslatable but also by truly conveying the main features of Andalusian poetry. The great number of friends and admirers whom he already won for it has fully justified the freedom he took in his translations, and richly paid his labours. What then are the particular features of Ibn Khafaja? It is the aim of this paper to give an answer to this question. 1.2 Ibn Khafaja, who was born in 1058 in Alcira and died there at the age of more than 80 years, led the life of a rich private gentleman on his
* This article is a-rather aphoristic and insufficient-amplification of some ideas which I advanced during the first Symposium on classical Arabic poetry held at Cambridge in July 1981. I Schack himself was quite aware of his method. In the introduction he says, his translations, though based on diligent study of the originals were intended to be "poetical reproductions", not a literal rendering, which could only produce "monstrosities". "Wenn ich nun, von dieser Uberzeugung ausgehend, bei meinen Nachbildungen in Nebensachen bisweilen mit betrachtlicherFreiheit geschaltet habe, so ist es mir vielleicht gerade hierdurch erm6glicht worden, Geist und Sinn des Ganzen desto treuer wiederzugeben." A. F. von Schack's above mentioned book, Berlin 1865, vol. I, p. IX. The motto is from the same volume, p. 179.

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MAN, NATURE AND COSMOS IN THE POETRY OF IBN KHAFAJA

inherited tenure.2 Apart from some more or less venturesome journeys or voyages which inspired a number of his finest poems, he indulged in love and luxury in his gardens, inebriated by beauty which made him "quiver like a twig", as he himself confessed in one of his poems (cf. below).3 Gardens, flowers, trees, ponds, rivers, and fragrant odours, beautiful slave-girls and slave-boys, mountains, moon and stars are the main ingredients of his mostly short descriptive poems, which are full of charm and atmosphere ("stimmung"). 1.3 "In the work of the most outstanding Andalusian poet of the I Ith/12th century, Ibn Khafaja, a synthesis of all that Andalusian poetry had achieved so far took shape. The poet elaborated the strongest side of lyrical court poetry, rich imagery. By virtue of his inborn creative imagination he endowed his portraits with an almost material palpability. At the same time, the poet rose to a philosophical level of expression. It is, therefore, not by chance, that the whole later development of Andalusian poetry in classical Arabic language underwent the influence of Ibn Khafaja. This influence was, in fact, consciously noticed by his contemporaries and his successors, who labelled it the "Khafajian style' .4 These are the introductory lines from the chapter on Ibn Khafaja in a recent Russian booklet on Andalusian poetry. The author, B. Y. Shidfar, devotes a number of pages to "the Gardener" (al-jannan). After having quoted a number of well-chosen verses and pointed to certain peculiarities such as the poet's love for mountains, his loneliness, his quest for eternal beauty in a transient world, he asks: "What then is the peculiarity of the Khafajian style which many Andalusian poets tried to emulate with more or less success?" And he answers: "Basically, his lively, perspicuous images, his picturesque language, the brightness of dyes and the contrast of colours."5 The answer is not particularly satisfying. It has, however, that kind of vagueness so often to be found in the description of literary phenomena. Though not being well-read enough in Andalusian poetry to give a precise answer to Shidfar's question I shall try to give a rather precise description of some features in Ibn Khafaja's poetry which might help to answer the question. 1.4 Two features are predominant in his poetic descriptions of nature. The one is endowing objects with human characteristics, which I call
2

Cf. the article Ibn Khaf-adcja F. de la Granja in the second edition of the by

Encyclopaediaof Islam.
4

I Cf. his Diwdn, ed. S. M. Ghazi, Alexandria 1960, No. 71,3. B. Y. Shidfar, Andaluskaya literatura, ocherk, Moscow 1970, p. 135. Kratkiy s Ibid., p. 141.

MAN, NATURE AND COSMOS IN THE POETRY OF IBN KHAFAJA

33

"humanization' .6 Human traits, human emotions and reactions are projected into nature, in short: man is projected into nature, and, since nature is also projected into man in the descriptions of human beauty, it means that nature and man are blended into each other. A second feature is interprojection of macrocosm and microcosm and it comes into play with the poet's using cosmological comparisons, or describing cosmological, meteorological phenomena in terms of humanization. Let us look at these structural features in somewhat more detail. 2. Humanization 2.1 The humanization of nature and garden ingredients is part of the humanization of objects in general, which has a long history in Arabic poetry already before Ibn Khafaja and deserves to be studied in detail. Here are only a few haphazard remarks: Ibn al-Mu'tazz has a charming poem about himself, his lack of political ambitions and his keen interest in poetry and learning, in which he humanizes his note-book, turning it into a reliable obedient counsellor, and pursuing this image by what may be called a metaphora continuatathrough a number of verses, in fact through the major part of the poem.7 Al-Ma'm-un-, a minor poet of the tenth century, who wrote short descriptive poems on buildings, furniture, utensils, dishes, and fruits, humanized some of his objects such as a pair of scissors, making of it an inseparable couple of friends or lovers, or a basket, changing it into a discreet butler, who would never reveal things confided to him.8 2.2 However, this kind of humanization is completely different from the humanization of nature; it forms a different strand, which, by the way, is not quite absent in Ibn Khafaja's poetry, who describes e.g. a touchstone (mihakk) in terms of humanization. As for the humanization of nature it also has a long history before the time of our poet. His famous forerunner as-Sanawbari cannot compare with him, his garden-poems being highly rhetorical and artificial. "In fact, in Sanawbarl's nature poetry we witness a fascinating phenomenon in which art and nature have become so inextricably intertwined that nature has become art and art nature and reality and conventions have
6 The term "humanization" rather than "personification" or "animation" (for German "Belebung") was chosen after a discussion with John Mattock, who also kindly helped to revise the English of my first short draft read at Cambridge. I Cf. his Diwdn, ed. B. Lewin, vol. IV, p. 115. 8 Cf. my edition and translation of his wasf poems: Die ekphrastischen Epigramme Abui des Tdlib al-Ma'mtini. Literaturkundliche Studie uber einen arabischen Conceptisten (Nachrichten der Akademie der Wissenschaften in Gottingen I. Philologisch-historische Klasse, Jahrgang 1965 Nr. 14), Gottingen 1966, No. 7 and 10.

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MAN, NATURE AND COSMOS [N THE POETRY OF IBN KHAFAJA

exchanged places." 9 Ibn ar-Ruimi comes closer to Ibn Khafaja since he intends to show the emotional impact of nature upon man, whereas $anawbarli gives literary reminiscences rather than real garden nature, as was recently pointed out also by Gregor Schoeler who compared the two poets in his book on Arabic nature poetry from the beginnings up to a~' Sanawbar-1.0 His thesis cannot be discussed here; however, since he does not make a point of humanization, he has not noticed that both as-$anawbari and Ibn ar-Riimi, do have verses in which partial humanization is brought about in a way similar to that of the "Gardener". Yet, their nature poems do not possess the same density of atmosphere which we find in the best poems of Ibn Khafaja. a~-$anawbari, in particular, destroys the effect by his unbridled phantasy, rambling from one image to another and thus turning the homogeneous microcosm of a garden into a medley of disparate objects." Notwithstanding his praise of a~-$anawbari, Badawi saw the danger implied and remarked, therefore, in his article already quoted: "However, to see nature purely in terms of art is full of damaging implications both for art and for perception of nature." 12 Homogeneous atmosphere in garden poems is to be found already in some of the predecessors of Ibn Khafaja, such as the Umayyad prince ash-Sharif at-Taliq, some of whose poems can fully match the best pieces of Ibn Khafaja. 13 2.3 Now, how is humanization brought about? What are the devices used for it by Ibn Khafaja? 2.3.1 To start with we have to mention the device of reversed comparison. E.g. by reversing the common comparison of cheeks with roses
9 Cf. M. M. Badawi, 'From Primary to Secondary Qasidas-Thoughts on the Development of Classical Arabic poetry', in: JAL XI/1980 (pp. 1-31), p. 29.
'0 G. Schoeler, Arabische Naturdichiung-Die

ZahrHy5t, RabiWlydt und Raudljdt von

ihren Anfiingen bis a~-$anaubari - Eine gattungs-, motiv- und stilgeschichtlicheUntersuchung (Beiruter Texte und Studien Band 15), Beirut 1974, p. 290 ff. In a recent article (cf. below note 7) Schoeler analyzed a poem of Ibn Khafaja and compared him with Ibn ar-Riimi. In his opinion the difference between them is that in the latter's poetry the natural phenomena act upon man and upon each other directly whereas in Ibn Khaf-aja's they do this only by way of phantastictransformation(ZDMG 129/1979, p. 66). However, the examples from Ibn ar-Riimi by which Schoeler illustrateshis view are not altogether convincing: The wind plays with twigs, one twig whispers a secret to the other twig, the perfume of flowers refreshesman, the cool breeze assuages his ardourof love. On the one hand, at least some of these descriptionsare also based on phantastic interpretation,since a twig that plays or whispers is partially humanized, on the other hand, similar descriptions are easily to be found in Ibn Khafaja. The difference between the two poets has not yet been sufficiently clarified. Cf. Schoeler, Arabische Naturdichtung 294. p.
12
13

Badawi, op. cit., p. 30.

A particularlyfine example is a poem quoted by al-Maqqari, Naj4 a- tb, ed. Ihsin cAbbas, Cairo 1968, vol. III, p. 587.

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35

one gets roses that are cheeks, which is a first step towards humanization, where, however, the dynamic element, motion and emotion, action and reaction, is still lacking. If I am correct in stating this sequel it would mean that, in Arabic literature, nature was projected into man before man was projected into nature in the respective poetic descriptions of both. If we look for comparisons taken from nature in the descriptions of female beauty, we may go back as far as pre-Islamic poetry. Did not Imru'ul-Qais compare one of his beloved to an "egg in the tent" and the fingers of another woman to sand-worms?14 A few centuries later we find verses like the following famous one by the poet al-Wa'wa': She poured pearls from the narcissi and watered roses and bit jujubes with hailstones. The verse is, by the way, only a variation of an earlier one by Abui Nuwas, which runs:15 He wept and poured pearls from his narcissi and slapped the roses by the jujubes. Ibn Rashiq who quotes this verse in his CUmda remarks that instead of pearls he could have said dew for the sake of correspondence or harmony (hattayatandsaba1-kaldm),but that he evidently would have deemed it too artificial and strained (tasnit, kuzfa).16For western taste, the verse is too artificial anyhow, whether with dew or with pearls. And the same is true of similar descriptions of which I mention here only the wide-spread tripartite (sometimes also quadripartite or even multipartite) comparison which reduces the human body to a poorly developed landscape consisting of moon (face), tree (trunk) and sand-hill (buttocks). Ibn Rashiq, in a verse of his own, adds the night of the black hair.17 I do not know which poet invented this rather tedious transmutation. However, I do not doubt that it has been used hundreds or perhaps thousands of times and enjoyed by many thousand people. In general, it may certainly be said, that projection of nature into man in the description of human beauty seldom goes without a certain artificiality, or even insipidity (judged by western taste, that is to say). Ibn Khafaja has only a limited number of examples such as the following:
14 See his Mu-allaqa,Dhakha'ir al-'Arab 24, ed. M. A. Ibri.him, Cairo 1969, p. 13, verse 22. 15 See Ibn Rashiq, al-cUmda Jt ma4dsinash-shicrwa-&dibii wanaqdih,ed. M. M. CAbdalhamid,Beirut 1972, vol. I, p. 294. The verse is qualified here as comparison of "five by five" -"without a particle of comparison". 16 Ibid., p. 293; the verse is qualified as a comparison of "three by three". 17 Ibid., p. 294.

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MAN, NATURE AND COSMOS IN THE POETRY OF IBN KHAFAJA

I plucked (delights) upon the meadow flowering under your veil and from the stem bearing fruit under your scarf.'8 Or: It was as if berries broke forth from the pomegranates of your breast. The anemones of your cheeks were gleaming and the wind of your fragrance was spreading, and on the lily-leaves of your neck the dew of your pearls was glistening. The wind of your drunkenness made the stalk of your stature bend and quiver. And your trembling bottom was a surging wave at the bank of your
waist. 19

Again in a charming little self-portrait Ibn Khafaja makes use of this kind of nature projection. Though I am a mountain by firmness, I quiver like a twig from my enthousiasm for beauty. I seem to be a twig of the ban-tree,moved to and fro by the zephir.20 In the description of human beauty in the traditional literatures of the Islamic world the principle was never abandoned. We find projection of nature into the human body in the poetry of Nizami, Hafiz, Jami etc. However, this Journal is probably not the place for the discussion of problems belonging to non-Arabic literatures. 2.3.2 Instead, let us proceed now to the reverse phenomenon, projection of human features into nature. The simple reverse comparison occurs rather infrequently in the poetry of the Gardener. A more or less appropriate example would be the following verses: The meadow was a bright face (a), the shadow was black hair (b), and the water a mouth full of gleaming teeth (c).21 There are correspondent comparisons for a) and b): face = meadow (cf. above); night = hair. As for c) I do not know a direct equivalent, though we could think of the somewhat related comparison between teeth and hail. In general, however, our poet prefers to resort to more complicated devices. 2.4 In addition to the reverse comparison he sometimes uses independent comparisons or metaphors producing partial humanization without being the result of an inversion.
18

Ibn DiTwdn Khafaja, No. 273, 5.

Schoeler in his already mentioned article, op. cit., p. 62 f. 20 Diwdn Ibn Khafaja, No. 71, 3 and last verse. 21 Ibid., No. 229, 6.

19 Ibid., No. 72, 5, 8-9, 11-12. It is this poem that was translated and analyzed by

MAN, NATURE AND COSMOS IN THE POETRY OF IBN KHAFAJA

37

Thus, he gives the night a brillant forehead, a short gown22 etc. In the description of a nightly ride we find the following lines. .... my horse glided along like a speckled viper over the waist of a cave, whose scarf were ardk-trees, and (over) the head of a mountain, whose turban were clouds, and (over) the breast of a river, whose collar were bubbles, and (over) the face of a glen, whose veil was snow.2" The last verse of this poem is magnificent humanization of the morning: in its remote allusive

The light of the morning seemed to be the flag of a victor, which the battle had sprinkled with blood. 2.5 The impression of humanization is intensified by the coordination of the objects and the comparisons chosen in these verses: four different aspects of the landscape traversed by the poet are compared to four parts of the human body and to four different kinds of attire. Coordinating may function in other ways, too. By means of creative imagination a number of simultaneous phenomena may be changed into aspects of a human scene or action, as is the case in the following line: The black horse of a cloud roams about, for whom the lightning is a whip and the north-wind a bridle.24 2.6 In many cases, humanization is made more explicit by attributing human action to the object described. Flowers smile,25 stars twinkle,26 twigs listen27 or tremble with pleasure,28 the morning shows a cold shoulder,29 the mountain knits its brows,30 the cloud spits (meaning: into the knots like the witches mentioned in the penultimate surah of the Koran) while the thunder practices magic, etc.31 2.7 Humanization thus projected into nature is often directed towards a counterpart, be it another natural object, or man. Towards nature: The carnation (khrinya) yearns in the dusk as if it had a beloved behind the veil of the darkness.32 The wind's movement excites the drunken
22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29

30
32

Ibid., Ibid., Ibid., Ibid., Ibid., Ibid., Ibid., Ibid., Ibid.,

No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No.

1' Ibid., No. 225, 3.

38, 2. 185, 6-8. 177, 5. 38, 3. 41, 1. 225, 2. 229, 8. 41, 3. 107, 6.

Ibid., No. 42.

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MAN, NATURE AND COSMOS IN THE POETRY OF IBN KHAFAJA

34

the cloud stones the earth because it deems it guilty of fornication,35the sun embalms the chest of
the garden etc.36

basil,33 the wind flirts with the flame,

Towards man: The horizon makes eyes at the poet,37the arak-tree spreads its shadow
over him,38 the north-wind clothes the poet in a garment of dew," and the little rose pardons the drunkenness of the old bard with its expressive looks.40 The cloud punishes the bad travellers by its hailstones,4' etc. Two points have to be emphasized at this juncture: 2.8 In a number of cases Ibn Khafaja attributes the capacity of a specific emotional reaction to a natural phenomenon. More than one example have already been given above.42 2.9 In a number of cases the poet addresses, or is addressed by, objects of nature. He addresses the moon43 and listens to the monologue of a mountain,4 and he feels that a little rose pardons him his drunkenness.45 2.10 A special case, worthy of mention in this connection is a somewhat weird poem in which Ibn Khafaja listens to the sad address of a human skull.46 2.11 The highest degree of humanization is reached in his fire poems and, perhaps even more so, in his mountain pieces, which is probably due to the fact that in these pieces Ibn Khafaja extends the humanizing description of one object over a number of verses. At the same time, these poems are impressive examples of the intertwining of macrocosm and microcosm.

33 34

Ibid., No. 41, 4. Ibid., No. 29 and No. 83.

Ibid., No. 177, 6.

3s Ibid., No. 31.

36 37 38

Ibid., No. 327 last verse.

Ibid., No. 225, 2. Ibid., No. 107, 2. 40 Ibid., No. 101. 41 Ibid., No. 30. 42 As a poetic device, a rhetorical figure, this would, of course, be grouped as husn attallIl, fine (imaginary) explanation. The device is skilfully analyzed in cAbd al-Qihir alcf. Jurjni's Asrdr al-ba1igha my "Die beste Dichtung ist die lugenreichste"-Wesen und Bedeutung eines literarischen Streites des arabischen Mittelalters im Lichte komparatistischerBetrachtung, Oriens,vol. 23-24/1970-71, pp. 67 ff. 43 Diwdn Ibn Khafaja No. 80. 44 Ibid., No. 164, cf. the-unfortunately imcomplete-translation of this long grand poem by Peres, La pocsie andalouse XI' siceck. aspects generaux, ses principauxthemes au Ses et sa valeur documentaire (Publications de l'Institut d'Etudes Orientales-Facult6 des lettres d'Alger vol. V), Paris 1953, p. 159/60. 41 See above note 40. 46 D7wa-nIbn Khafaja, No. 87.
39

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39

3. Interprojection macro-and microcosm. of If the history of humanization goes back to the early periods of Arabic poetry, this is even more the case with the other dominant feature of Ibn Khafaja, interprojection of macro- and microcosm. 3.1 Cosmological comparisons and metaphors were early used in the panegyrical genre. The mamdtihwas likened to the moon, the sun, a star, already in pre-Islamic poetry, which had probably something to do with the pre-Islamic veneration of celestial bodies. CUmar ibn abi Rabica likens his lady to the moon, and the maidens surrounding her to the stars around it.+' In Andalusian poetry the lover expresses astonishment at holding the sun in his arms while it is still night,48 or makes a point of the moon's having hidden behind a cloud because it was ashamed in front of the much more beautiful moon in the poet's arms,49 and so on. 3.2 Cosmological metaphors had also been trivialized long before the time of Ibn Khafaja. Thus, the afore-mentioned al-Ma'man! uses them in the description of a bath vault: Moons of glass in suns of cupolas.50 He even compares a flat bread with the full moon,5' following here, however, the example of a poet as illustrious as Abii Nuwas.52 Ibn Khafaja is not quite free from this blame either. In general, however, he makes masterly and lofty uses of the cosmological metaphors, and he describes the sky, mainly the night sky, in terms of humanization with no less skill. Here are a few examples: 3.3 Humanizing description of the (night) sky:

47 SharhDiwan CUmaribn abi Rabica,ed. M. M. cAbdalhamid, Cairo 1965, No. 168, verse 11. 48 Diwdn Ibn Khafaja, No. 216, 12. 49 Schack, op. cit., vol. 1, p. 118.

50

Ibid., No. 85. There are two more instances in his material. Of a melon he says: If split for eating it resembles crescents, if not, it is the full moon (No. 64, 4). White cheese and olives inspire him with the following cosmological vision: Put me into the custody of these two companions: This one the moonlight (wa4z) by virtue of its purity above the earth of the dining-table, and that one the dusk
(tafat)! (73, 7).

51

Die eckphrastischen Epigramme, No. 35, 5.

See E. Wagner, Abu, Nuwds. Eine Studie zur arabischen Literatur der friihen 'Abbasidenzeit (Akademie der Wissenschaften und der Literatur - Ver6ffentlichungen der Orientalischen Kommission, Band XVII), Wiesbaden 1965, p. 247. Abui Nuwas's verse is from a parodistic anti-atdl poem!
52

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MAN, NATURE AND COSMOS IN THE POETRY OF IBN KHAFAJA

The foot of the Pleiad tumbled in the dawn, (clothed) in the night's gown, stripped by the Milky Way." Night with a grey forelock, fragile from old age, crept along (propped) on the stick of the Gemini.54 The yellow of the evening's tooth-pick upon the moustache of the sunset astonished me until it (the sun) hid sick behind a veil, wrapped in a green gown of the night. But the horizon ogled me with a mighty eye-lid, turning the huge black pupil of darkness.55 3.4 Projection of cosmological phenomena into garden nature. I think of an ardk-tree,that had pitched a shining sky above us, while the spheres of the cups were going round. Its canopy of leaves covers the Milky Way of a rivulet, sprinkledwith the stars of flowers.56 3.5 A special kind of intertwining of macro- and microcosm is to be found in Ibn Khafaja's descriptions of mountains and fires: The mountain girdles its waist with Orion, Aquila comes down in order to build its nest upon it near the eagle's nest.57 In another poem, it tugs at the bridles of the sky with its withers, impedes the shooting stars with its shoulders, the clouds stain its black turban, while the flashes of lightning give it red forelocks 58 No less impressive are the devices in his fire poems. Fire had been a favorite motif long before it inspired the Gardener to write some of his most delicate, most ingenious poems. The history of this motif in Arabic as well as in Persian poetry would, in fact, reward the pains to be taken for its investigation. Here however, I have to limit myself on the fire poems of the Gardener. In a particularly charming fire poem showing the flame (lahab, m.) in love with the wind (rih, f. ), which plays and flirts with it, the last two lines are fascinating illustrations of our present point. The last verse but one runs as follows: A fire-place where the morning poured water and the stars were the bubbles above it.59
Diwan Ibn Khafaja, No. 232, 4.

5"
54

55
56
S8

Ibid., No. 113, 3. Ibid., No. 327, 6-8. Ibid., No. 221m (on page 351), 1-2.

S7 Ibid., No. 107, 4 and 6.

Ibid., No. 164, 10, 11 and 13. s9 Ibid., No. 29.

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41

The metaphorical setting is built upon the old comparison between fire and wine,60 the morning dew is the water with which the wine is mixed, and the stars are then the bubbles which rise in the glass. If in this verse the microcosm of the wine glass-or rather: the fragment of an anacreontic scene-is projected into the macrocosm, the last verse of the poem does the opposite: projecting the sky into the fire-place: Blue ashes and embers glowing beneath them, as if the sky were kneeling upon them with its stars becoming dim, although it is still night. In another fire poem we read: A red one, whose gown the winds were pulling about, while itself pressed its shoulders against the sky. It pitched a sky of smoke above itself, where you could not spell flames from stars.61 As for the wine-glass projected into the sky, we find its reverse to some extent in a little anacreontic poem of Ibn Khafaja. In it, the poet uses the conventional image of unveiling the bride for describing the opening of the jug or bottle,62 and combines it with a cosmological amplification. I guided it (zafaftuhl) as a virgin (to the marriage ceremony in order to be unveiled) and when it turned to me it threw a red veil upon my face (the red shine of the wine - an implicit, very subtle antithesis between veiling and unveiling). And I dragged both the fine shirt of a cloud (the glass) and the torn yellow gown of a sun (the wine).63 Concerning the last line of the fire poem quoted above we also find its inversion, though, of course, with certain modifications, in a fine description of a nightly trip where the poet projects a fire-scene into the sky: In it (:the night) sparks scintillateby virtue of the flash of lightnings, while the air is char-coal, and the clouds are tinder (or burning chips). A couple of lines later the poet comes back to this motif and says: In the fire-place of darkness (one sees) the embers of the stars covered by the ashes of a dewy dawn.64 3.6 The strange effect of doubling, which is created by this kind of projection, the great fire of the sky being mirrored in the small sky of the
60 E.g. in a fire poem by al-Ma'mu-ni,see my edition No. 23 and the parallelsindicated in the commentary. 61 Diwdn Ibn Khaf-aja,No. 28, 6-7. 62 For this motif see my article "Le poete et la poesie dans l'cruvre de Hafez", in: Convtgno Internazionale poesiadi Hafe; (Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei), Rome 1978, sulla p. 87 f. 63 DfwdnIbn Khafaja, No. 93, 2-3. 64 [bid., No. 82, 6 and 13.

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MAN, NATURE AND COSMOS IN THE POETRY OF IBN KHAFAJA

fire, is also brought forth in another night poem, but by a different type of projection. I tossed against its (the night's) ocean on the billow of a grey horse that plunged into the sea of darkness, so it fell asunder. It glided in the face of blackness like a horse's blaze so that the night (appeared) in the apparel of a black horse with a white blaze.65 3.7 This intricate intertwining of macro- and microcosm is, however, not limited to the description of nature. Ibn Khaf-aja uses it also sometimes for other objects. An impressive illustration for this is to be found in two short poems on signet-rings. The shorter one, consisting only of four lines, closes as follows: (it appears) on a hand that has been created as a sky of generosity, so that crescent (the ring) and star (the gem) are on it (the sky of the hand) in
conjunction.66

This idea is amplified in the other somewhat longer poem: 0, what a glimmering one, sparklingwith joy and purity, so that it raises lights in the darkness. A daughter of the sun by its beauty, it appears eclipsed by (the surrounding) darkness. Yet it keeps the spectatorstanding (and looking at it) as (the sun does with) a chameleon. With this gem a cloud adorns a hand that is a sky by virtue of its generosity, etc.67 and Conclusions 4. Perspectives 4.1 It is just by his partial humanization, by his allusive style, that Ibn Khafaja attains his high poetic effect. Here is an eye glistening, or a lid twinkling, or a pupil glaring, there is a mouth smiling, a hand waving, or a hip dancing. Twigs, rivulets and flowers seem to turn into fairies, unveiling their real being, or rather, raising a tip, a fringe of their veils here and there for a brief moment. Provided these transmutations are not disturbed by unfitting digressions or mere display of artificial word juggling, a magic atmosphere is being produced. Nature appears as corresponding to the feelings of the poet, it shares his tender yearnings, partakes in his joys and pleasures and reflects his sorrows. In other words, there is a sympathy between man and nature, and this magic sympathy or sympathetic magic gains even more momentum by its projection into the cosmos, or by the cosmos being mirrored in nature.
65 66 67

Ibid., No. 185, 2-3. Ibid., No. 104. Ibid., No. 106, 1-3.

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4.2 In the discussion about whether Andalusian poetry has a character of its own or is only a more or less slavish imitation of Eastern patterns, the importance of the element of humanization has already been noticed by scholars such as Garcia G6mez68 and Peres. The personification not only of objects, but also of "forces naturelles" such as love and death, spring and youth, joy and pain, is in fact, the most specific quality of later Andalusian poetry, according to Peres.69 4.3 Recently, a young German scholar has emphasized the specific character of Andalusian poetry in his doctoral thesis.70 He also devotes a short chapter to humanization. However, instead of "Vermenschhe uses the lichung", the German equivalent of "humanization", expression "belebte Natur" (animated nature). He mentions four kinds of "belebte Natur": Nature as craftsman and merchant ("Handwerker oder Handler"), nature as 'best man' or lover ("Brautfuihrer oder Liebender"), nature as guest at a party ("Festteilnehmer"), nature as warrior ("Kiimpfer' ").71 Nevertheless Schmidt disagrees with Peres as to the importance of personification or humanization. Instead, he stresses "ein Gefuhl fur Gesamtstruktur" and "dass aus objektiver Dichtart eine subjektive wurde." 72 4.4 Other scholars, such as Wilhelm Hoenerbach and the Russian arabist A. B. Kudelin73 have denied the existence of any peculiar features in Andalusian poetry. Hoenerbach, the supervisor of Schmidt's thesis, did not adopt his pupil's theory. In the introduction to his German translation of Ibn al-Kattani's (died ca. 420/1029) Kitdb ashcdr ahl alAndalus he emphasizes the great similarity between Western and Eastern Arabic poetry, as opposed to the great difference between Andalusian and Spanish poetry. The participation of nature in Spanish poetry is "erlebt" (based on authentic experience), he says, whereas in Arabic
68 Cincopoetasmusulmanes, Madrid 1944. Unfortunately, I could not use it for this article. 69 H. Wre's,La PoisieAndalouse note 44), p. 476. In his already mentioned article (cf. (cf. below note 75) Schoeler has pointed to an alleged contradiction in Peres's evaluation of Andalusian nature poetry: On the one hand he attributes "true love of nature" to the Andalusian poets, on the other he blames them for their artificiality op. cit., p. 71. It seems to me, however, that this contradiction is inherent in the Andalusian nature poetry itself (see end of this article). 70 W. Schmidt, Die Naturin derDichtung derAndalus-Araber Versuch einer Strukturanalyse arabischer Dichtung, Diss. phil. Kiel 1971. The thesis suffers from a vague terminology, which mars many of the author's ideas. 71 Ibid., pp. 61-66. He also confronts "belebte Natur" with "belebende Natur" (animating nature) and introduces as a third category "belebende lebende Natur" (sic!) (animated animating nature). 72 Ibid., p. 95. 73 A. B. Kudelin, Klasicheskaya arabo-ispanskayapocziya, Moscow 1973, p. 106 ff. Cf. my review under the title of Tradition Variation, OLZ 53/1979, pp. 437-442. und in

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MAN, NATURE AND COSMOS IN THE POETRY OF IBN KHAFAJA

poetry, including the Andalusion school, it is "gewollt" (strained, artificial). Andalusian poetry is monotonous, quiet, static, all arabesque and decoration, as opposed to the dynamism, the revolutionary zest for action ("Tatendurst") of Spain. 14 Hoenerbach's statements are based on a much broader knowledge of both Andalusian and Spanish poetry than the present writer can boast of. Taken on a very general scale they are probably correct. However, it is difficult to see how they can do justice to a poet like Ibn Khafaja, whose name is, after all, not mentioned in Hoenerbach's book, since Ibn alKattanI's anthology belongs to an earlier period.75 4.5 As for the artificiality that characterizes so many Andalusian poets including Ibn Khafaja himself, it seems to me that Pe'rs was right in pointing to a certain dilemma: They tried to express new feelings without, however, being able to escape the fetters of the poetic tradition. "Leur lyrisme est quelquefois gene, mais jamais etouffe, par une poetique qui semble ne pas convenir a l'expression de concepts differents de ceux qui avaient vu le jour en Arabie."76 Ibn Khafaja, in particular, was, of course, not a mere imitator, though Peres strangely enough saw him in this role.77 He did imitate Eastern poets; a number of his poems are preceded by the remark "in the style of.. 78. At the same time however, he cultivated his own style, the "Khafajian". And-no doubt about that! -he is one of the most fascinating representatives of that particular Andalusian flavour which no sensitive reader can fail to perceive. 4.6 Humanization of nature as brought about by the use of anthropomorphic metaphors and the projection of human actions and feelings is also a predominant feature of Persian poetry, which, however, like its Arabic twin, has not yet become the object of broader studies.79
74 W. Hoenerbach, DichtrischeVergkiche Andalus-Araber und II (Bonner Oriender I talistische Studien, Neue Serie, vol. 26), Bonn 1973, pp. 4-7. "5 To discuss the problem in any more detail, is, of course, beyond the range of this article. See also G. Schoeler, "Ibn al-Kattini's Kitib a-tab/hditund das Problem des ,,Hispanismus" der andalusisch-arabischenDichtung", in: ZDMG 129/1979, pp. 43-97. Schoeler rightly questions Hoenerbach's thesis of a static mannerism in Arabic Andalusia being opposed to a dynamic one in Spanish poetry (p. 83). 76 La Pocsie p. Andalouse, 476. 77 "Ibn FJafaga qui passe pour le plus grand peintre de la nature et qui n'est en realite qu'un imitateur de talent...", op. cit., p. 36. He also blames him for his far-fetched images ("recherch6es"), p. 164. 78 This is what Peres induced to his wrongjudgment about the Gardener. He mentions the names of three Eastern poets, ash-Sharif ar-Radi (see Sezgin, Geschichte arab'schen des Schrifitums, II, pp. 595-97), 'Abdalmuhsin a$-$frl (see op. cit., p. 479), and Mihyar vol. ad-Daylami (see op. cit., pp. 566-67). The influence of these poets on the "Khafajian style" remains to investigate. 79 Humanization is also, in general, no point of interest in Arabic books on poetics, the great exception being, here as in other cases, al-Jurjinl's Asrar cf. al-baldgha, my section on him in "Die beste Dichtung ist die Iugenreichste" (see above, note 42).

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45

For the moment I limit myself to the question whether the aforementioned parallel is merely accidental or perhaps based on deeper relations. Let me point here to another parallel which might have to do with the previous one. Persian poets believed in inspiration;80 Arabic poets and writers on poetics did not, in general.8' In Andalusia however, one man at least, arose, who did: Ibn Shuhayd in his treatise on poetics Risdlat at-tawdbic waz-zawabic. Is there a connection? 82 4.7 My last remark is concerned with the interprojection of macro- and microcosm. Does this not remind us of the theory that there are mirror relations between the "small world" of man and the "big world" of the celestial spheres? This theory was well-known and wide-spread in the Islamic world of erstwhile.83 The treatises of the Pure Brethren of Basra have long passages on it. 4 These theories, however complicated in detail, are based on a simple leading idea, the goal of cosmic harmony to be attained by fitting oneself into the existing correspondences. Does Ibn Khafaja's poetry reflect this idea, or is it only a more or less ingenious play with the traditional comparisons and their inversions? Are his device of coordination and regard of correspondence only skilful applications of the rhetoric figures of taqsim and muracatan-nazir, or are they inspired by a belief in the hierarchy of being and the harmony of the cosmos? At least some of his poems do definitely go beyond the limits of mere prestidigitation with metaphors, mere display of rhetoric workmanship. They are precious little masterpieces imbued with a feeling of that cosmic harmony and conjuring it by the "permitted sorcery" of poetry.85 Universitat Bern

J. C.

BURGEL

80 See my articles "Le poete et la po6sie dans I'cruvre de I:Ifez" (cf. above note 62) and "Niim!ii uber Sprache und Dichtung" in: Islamwissenschaftliche Abhandlungen Fritz Meier zum sechzigsten Geburtstag, Hrsg. von R. Gramlich, Wiesbaden 1964, pp. 9-28. 81 See W. Heinrichs, Arabische Dichtungund griechische Poetik.Hizim al-Qartakannis Grundlegung der Poetik mit Hilfe aristotelischer Begriffe (Beiruter Texte und Studien Band 8), Beirut 1969, chapter I, 2 "Die Quelle der Dichtung: Inspiration - Einbildungskraft - Bildung". 82 J. Monroe, "Hispano-Arabic Poetry during the Caliphate of Cordoba: Theory and Practice", In: ArabicPoetry- Theoryand Development, Third Giorgio Levi Della Vida Biennial Conference, ed. G. E. von Grunebaum, Wiesbaden 1973, pp. 139 ff. 83 See my contribution "Der Mensch und das All im Islam", in: Mensch undKosmos. Vom Verstandnis der Zusammenhange, hrsg. v. M. Svilar, Bern 1980, pp. 75-105. 84 See the excellent summary of A. Bausani, L'Enciclopedia delli FratellidellaPurit?Riassunto, con Introduzione e breve commento, dei 52 Trattati o Epistole degli Ikhwan as-safa', Naples 1978, p. 167 f. (L'uomo come microcosmo) and p. 216 f. (Il cosmo come macrantropo). 85 For the ideas about relations tween poetry and magic see my article "Niziml uber Sprache und Dichtung" (cf. above, note 80).