Nazik al-Mala'ika's poetry and its critical reception in the West - Modern Iraqi Literature in English Translation

Arab Studies Quarterly (ASQ), Fall, 1997 by Salih J. Altoma

Among al-Mala'ika's critical writings which were subject of discussion or praise is her book on the work of Egyptian poet Ali Mahmud Taha (19021949). M.M. Badawi in his A Critical Introduction to Modern Arabic Poetry (1975) outlines some of her views on the nature of Taha's widespread appeal to "a wide variety of tastes" or orientations (11:8-17; 27). Badawi points out her competent and penetrating analysis of Taha's poetic music. In several sections of her book, al-Mala'ika investigates the factors that help produce effective music in Taha's poetry, such as sound devices and rhythmic patterns (11:64-68; 143-156). But when Badawi discusses the sensual aspect in Taha's poetry, he argues against al-Mala'ika's "prudish denial" in statements such as, "I believe that sensuality and the search for pleasure are accidents in Ali Mahmud Taha's life, because his nature is basically spiritual." Or her remark, "The most sensual of his poems are hardly completely devoid of a spiritual or intellectual background" (30:144). In his effort to refute al-Mala'ika's denial of Taha's sensuality, Badawi refers the reader to a number of Taha's poems such as "The Poet's Tavern," "A Kiss," "The Poet's Wine," from his collection Flowers and Wine (1943); and "Question and Answer," "The Island of Lovers," and "The Slaughtered Love," from Taha's collection Return of Longing (1945) and "Philosophy and Imagination," and "The Andalusian Girl" from his collection East and West (1947). By citing such poems, Badawi seeks to emphasize the prevailing sensuality in Taha's poetry stating that Taha's main attitude from his first volume of poetry to the last "continued to be more or less consistently hedonistic" (30:144). It is noteworthy that al-Mala'ika herself stressed this aspect in Taha's poetry when she said:

An objective approach in our study requires us to state that All Mahmud Taha's latest collections exhibit an obvious sensual phenomenon which is absent in his first collection, The Lost Mariner [1934]. The latter was full of spiritual gestures, lofty ideals, and veneration of pure beauty and the purity of body and soul. But in the collections published later, the poet shows clear interest in depicting sensual scenes, distancing himself, to some extent, from his earlier aesthetic and platonic worlds (11:366).

She cited some of the poems to which Badawi referred and to other poems especially in Chapter 6 of her book (11:365-381) where she traced Taha's "descent from the rank of a genuine lover to the lower status of an idle spectator who seeks fleeting diversion and sensual pleasure" and his transition from his spiritual world to hedonistic and paganistic rituals. Nevertheless, al-Mala'ika, [though she seems to agree with Badawi's observation concerning Taha's sensual aspect] continued to reject the view which denies completely Taha's spirituality. She sought to find a rationale for the apparent deviation in Taha's sensual poems, but was unable to offer a clear explanation due to the fact that more detailed information about the poet's life, his disposition and view were still lacking (11:381 and 104-111).