Ancient Arabic Street Sentiments
I am assembling a handout to give to performers for the Middle Eastern themed event to be held here soon. It is mostly to get people in the feel of things. It will include some short period poems (translated to english), some short period stories and a little drama stuff. Some of the poems and parts of poems I have been reading are really quite excellent. As literal translations they lose their original structured rhyme and meter, but they are still chock full of vivid imagery and genuine sentiment.
They run the standard poetry gambit of subject matter- Many of the poems are about nature, some are about battle, some are philosophical reflections and a huge chunk are about love. The love ones include many on homosexual love, many on heterosexual love and a smattering about Uhdri, or chaste (read 'courtly') love.
Below are a few of my favorite short Arabic poems on love or lust. See if you like them-
Burdensome Hips by Umar ibn Umar of Cordova, ca 1207.
She has hips suspended from a slender waist,
and those hips are a burden to both of us.
They torment me just thinking of them,
And they wear her out when she tries to rise.
Mundane translated: Baby got Back.
Breasts on a Slender Body by Ibn Qadi Milah of Sicily, 11th century
When rounded breasts shake on a slender body,
I say to self restraint, “This is the end of all sobriety.”
I like branches when they bend,
Especially if they are bearing fruit.
Mundane Translation: Do fries come with that shake?
A Wild Night by Ibn Salih of Santa Maria, ca 11th or 12th century
The Most brilliant of all nights for me
Was a night when I gave the cup no rest,
In which I separated my eyes and sleep
And brought together his earring and his anklet.
Mundane Translation: Bow-chicka-bow bow.
When I read these poems it gives me a little comfort in the fact that certain things have not changed all that much over the last 1,000 years; Women are still beautiful, words are still wondrous tools to describe that beauty and men are mostly pigs. Woo-Hoo! Oink!
They run the standard poetry gambit of subject matter- Many of the poems are about nature, some are about battle, some are philosophical reflections and a huge chunk are about love. The love ones include many on homosexual love, many on heterosexual love and a smattering about Uhdri, or chaste (read 'courtly') love.
Below are a few of my favorite short Arabic poems on love or lust. See if you like them-
Burdensome Hips by Umar ibn Umar of Cordova, ca 1207.
She has hips suspended from a slender waist,
and those hips are a burden to both of us.
They torment me just thinking of them,
And they wear her out when she tries to rise.
Mundane translated: Baby got Back.
Breasts on a Slender Body by Ibn Qadi Milah of Sicily, 11th century
When rounded breasts shake on a slender body,
I say to self restraint, “This is the end of all sobriety.”
I like branches when they bend,
Especially if they are bearing fruit.
Mundane Translation: Do fries come with that shake?
A Wild Night by Ibn Salih of Santa Maria, ca 11th or 12th century
The Most brilliant of all nights for me
Was a night when I gave the cup no rest,
In which I separated my eyes and sleep
And brought together his earring and his anklet.
Mundane Translation: Bow-chicka-bow bow.
When I read these poems it gives me a little comfort in the fact that certain things have not changed all that much over the last 1,000 years; Women are still beautiful, words are still wondrous tools to describe that beauty and men are mostly pigs. Woo-Hoo! Oink!