T.S. Eliot in Baghdad : a Study in Eliot's Influence on the Iraqi and Arab Free Verse Movement

333 Pages·2014·19.01 MB·English

by  Eliot

T.S. ELIOT IN BAGHDAD
A Study in Eliot's Influence on the Iraqi
and Arab Free Verse Movement

T.S. ELIOT IN BAGHDAD
A Study in Eliot's Influence on the Iraqi
and Arab Free Verse Movement
Abdul Sattar Ja wad
With a Foreword by
Joseph Donahue
The Edwin Mellen Press
Lewiston· Lampeter
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Jawad, 'Abd al-Sattar, author.
T.S. Eliot in Baghdad: a Study in Eliot's Influence on the Iraqi and
Arab Free Verse Movement I Adbul Sattar Jawad ; with a foreword by
Joseph Donahue.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN-13: 978-0-7734-0074-0 (hardcover)
ISBN-I0: 0-7734-0074-S (hardcover)
1. Eliot, T.S. (Thomas Stearns), 1888-196S--lnfluence. 2. Eliot, T.S.
(Thomas Steams), 1888-1968--Appreciation--Iraq. 3. Arabic poetry-
Iraq--Baghdad--History and criticism. 4. Arabic poetry--20th century-
History and criticism. S. Free verse--History and criticism. I. Title.
PS3S09.L43Z68478 2014
821'.912--dc23
20130S0S0S
hors serie.
A CIP catalog record for this book is available from the British Library.
Front cover image designed by Jennifer Prather.
Copyright © 2014 Abdul Sattar Jawad
All rights reserved. For information contact
The Edwin Mellen Press The Edwin Mellen Press
Box 4S0 Lampeter
Lewiston, New York Ceredigion, Wales
USA 14092-04S0 UK SA488LT
Printed in the United States of America
To Gil Merkx
for his constant support and considerable assistance,
for his intelligence and big heart

TABLE OF CONTENTS
Foreword by Joseph Donahue .................................... .i
1-Eliot's Influence on the Iraqi Free Verse Movement.. ..... 1
I: The Battle Between Tradition and Modernity ...... l
II: The Reception of "The Waste Land" ................ 8
III: The Poem of the Century .......................... .14
IV: Reading "The Waste Land" ........................2 0
V: Translating "The Waste Land" ..................... 35
2- Eliot's Children or The Wastelanders ...................... .43
I: The Quest for National Salvation ................... .43
II: AI-Sayyab (1926-1964) ............................. .45
III: The Golden Bough-From Ritual to Romance ..... 57
IV: AdonislTammuz ..................................... 60
3-J abra Ibrahim J abra .......................................... 103
I: The Clash of Literary Genres .................. , .... 103
II: In Defense of Poesy ................................ .113
III: Jabra and AI-Sayyab ............................... 117
4-Yusuf AI-Khal ................................................ 137
I: The Launching of Shi'rMagazine ................. 137
II: The Literary Climate ofthe Forties and Fifties.l45
III: Al-Khal's Translation of "The Waste Land" .. .l49
IV: Shi 'r Magazine ............................................... 151
V: The Prose Poem .................................... .l56
5- Khalil Hawi ................................................... 177
I: A Poet of Pessimism ................................. 178
II: Hawi and Eliot.. ..................................... 181
. III: Hawi and the Myth ofTammuz .................. 187
IV: Lazarus ..............................................2 05
6-Adonis ................................ ; ........................ 217
I: A Sufi Surrealist ......................................2 17
II: Religion ...............................................2 23
III: Tradition .............................................2 28
IV: Modernity and Symbolism ....................... .233
V: The Phoenix ..........................................2 47
VI: Whitman-Eliot-Adonis ............................2 55
VII: AI-Niffari ............................................2 62
Appendix: The Waste Land in Arabic 265
Notes ...............................................................2 85
Index ................. ·. ............................................. 303
FOREWORD
T. So Eliot In Bagdad
Biographies of T. S. Eliot make no mention of his
first trip to Bagdad; he stopped on his way to the sanitarium
in Switzerland where he would compose the definitive text
of modernity, "The Waste Land," and mend his nerves. They
shed no light on his return in later years; to meet and mingle
with the Arab avant-garde. We can only assume, given the
dearth of evidence, that the conversations among Eliot, AI
Sayyab and Ibrahim Jabra were both cordial and frank, and
that Eliot was startled to learn the uses made of his "mytho
logical method." Ultimately, Eliot identified with their
plight; he was glad to do his part in the revolution in Arab
language poetry that his early work provoked.
T. S. Eliot in Bagdad does not betray the secret of this
embassy, but it does provide clear evidence oftheextraordi
nary absorption and transmutation of Eliot's poetry and theo
ries about poetry in Arabic poetry in the 1940s and 50s. Po
ets AI-Sayyab, Ibrahim Jabra, Yusuf AI-Khal, Khalil Hawi
and Adonis found "The Waste Land" a revelatory text. They
found in Eliot a way to bring the anguish and anger and lyri
cism of the Arab imagination into modernity. This book
documents the peculiar power of "The Waste Land" as it
took on a whole new life in the postwar nonwestern world.
(We might well imagine Eliot slipping off to Tokyo on his
way to Stockholm, to meet the poets there, since Japanese
1