Poetry
إشراقة
Not translated into English
al-Tijani Yusuf Bashir · 1946
Synopsis
The poet's only collection, assembled after his death: seventy-one poems in recent editions, in which nature, above all water and light, becomes the language of a spiritual quest. The poet meditates there on the secret of existence, between pure faith and a doubt that gnaws at him, in a mystical language nourished by the old masters, Mutanabbi, Abu Tammam or al-Maarri, and rich in rare words that his contemporaries no longer used.
Context
On the poet's death, a friend took the manuscript to Egypt, where it passed through the hands of Ibrahim Naji before returning to Sudan; a tribute had been paid to the young departed in Cairo in 1944, and the collection appeared in 1946, printed at the expense of Ibrahim Mirghani and prefaced by Egyptian writers. Critics compare him to Abu al-Qasim al-Shabbi, who also died young, and Salma Khadra Jayyusi sees in his love of nature a slope towards pantheism, which she links to his Sufi formation.
Who it is for
In Arabic, not translated. The language, full of old words, calls for a reader familiar with classical poetry.
Prizes and reception
The most reprinted book of poetry in Sudan; Jayyusi nevertheless judged that its archaisms had kept it in the shadows outside the country.
Sources for this page 4
The pages consulted to check this page.