The man and the myth

By Ahmed Abdel-Moeti Hegazi

No doubt the way he looked played an important role in the making of his fame. He was not just a famous poet like any other poet read, known and loved by a wide audience but, rather, there was a mythical element to his fame. Qabbani was known and loved by those who do not read poetry -- even by those who do not read at all. There were elements other than love of poetry involved in knowing and loving Nizar Qabbani. One such element was the need to fantasise, to create an idol corresponding to fantasies that may have very little to do with the reality of the man idolised.

Thus Qabbani's public readings were unlike any other poetry readings. They were the talk of the town to which people from all classes and generations poured as if coming to behold a miracle. Often organisers of his poetry readings would have to bring in the police to maintain order. He was a star, as good looking as some movie stars if not better looking than most. And the poetry he read contributed to his image as an irresistibly charming man. It was rebellious poetry which directly and bravely attacked all taboos. His extreme popularity lent him immunity from the suppressive arm of the authorities offended by his denunciations. Add to this the fact that popular stars like Mohamed Abdel-Wahab, Um Kulthum, Abdel-Halim Hafiz and Nagat El-Saghira competed to put music to and sing words written by him, and you get a glory never attained before by any other Arab poet.

He acquired a fame which even Ahmed Shawqi, dubbed Prince of Poets, was unable to attain and this despite the fact that people's evaluation of Qabbani's poetic ability varied while that of Ahmed Shawqi was unanimously recognised by his contemporaries.

Acknowledging Qabbani's unprecedented fame does not mean that one should not ask whether or not this fame will immortalise his poetry. I, however, cannot answer such a question with any degree of certainty. Still, I can say that fame is not always a blessing and that it can lead a poet away from his poetry. Preoccupied as he becomes with satisfying his admirers, a poet may find himself listening to their applause rather than to his own voice or that of his dreams, weighing his words on the scale of stardom rather than on the scale of art. In my opinion, Qabbani will come down in the history of Arabic poetry as a famous poet. It is difficult to tell what will become of the Nizar Qabbani myth.

Qabbani is a confusing poet. Most of his readers do not pause before the questions his poetry raises though there are some who do and insist on an answer. His poetry seems, more often than not, very simple. His vocabulary is not unusual, his syntax is mundane and his rhyme schemes are not complex. In short, there is nothing philosophical about his poetry. This lack of philosophising is a double-edged sword. On the one hand, it gives his poetry an attractive spontaneity. This very spontaneity, however, dilutes its character since it becomes merely a reaction to, rather than an act of critical engagement with, life.

Qabbani can write a poem about a telephone, a comb, lipstick, a woman with an a-la-garçon hairstyle, using all the mundane vocabulary used to describe such things. It is this simplicity that made some think of his poetry as naive and superficial. I do not think that this is fair. The simplicity of Qabbani's poetry does not mean that it is without value. It is true Qabbani can be read with great ease, but this does not mean that his poetry was written with the same degree of ease. He took great care to write in a way accessible to anyone and because of this his poetry will remain rich material for critics to analyse. We need to understand the cultural conditions that gave rise to a phenomenon like the Nizar Qabbani myth, to look beyond the mythical figure to understand and evaluate his craftsmanship, to appreciate fully his ability to reach out to so many and to distinguish between the transient and the durable in his poetry.