Free eBooks Desert Tracings : Six Classic Arabian Odes By 'Alqama, Shanfara, Labid, 'Antara, Al-A'sha, And Dhu Al-Rumma Available To Downloads
According to legend, the Bedouin tribes of pre-Islamic Arabia held poetry competitions during annual fairs near Mecca. The wining poems called Mu’allaqát, or Hanging Odes, were embroidered in gold on banners and suspended from the walls of Arabia’s most sacred shrine, Ka’ba. Desert Tracings is a translation of six classical sixth to eighth century odes. Arabic codes (qasidas) traditionally begin with the relationship of the lover to the loved. Usually set at opening in the beloved’s abandoned desert campsite, where the only evidence that remains is tent marks and torrent beds in the sand – “naked tracings,/ worn thin, like inscriptions/ carved in flat stones” – the qasida moves gracefully through the thematic parts, the lover’s grief, the quest, and the final acceptance of a world deprived of the beloved. Like the oryx-doe trapped within the unyielding cycles of the desert world.As Michael Sells writes in his introduction, the qasidahas been overshadowed in the West by other Arabic literature, such as The Arabian Nights, but the qasidais the primary literary tradition in both pre-Islamic and Islamic Arabia. The remarkable richness of language and range of mood captured in theses translations help explain their enduring fascination.
Paperback: 87 pages
Publisher: University Press; Trans. from the Arabic edition (May 15, 1989)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0819511587
ISBN-13: 978-0819511584
Product Dimensions: 5.6 x 0.3 x 9.1 inches
Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
Best Sellers Rank: #866,318 in Books (See Top 100 in Books) #84 in Books > Literature & Fiction > History & Criticism > Regional & Cultural > Middle Eastern #126 in Books > Literature & Fiction > History & Criticism > Regional & Cultural > African #11255 in Books > Literature & Fiction > Poetry
A lovely book if you want to have some understanding of the context of Classical Arabic of the Koran. Without Sells' notes, some of the trapping of pre-Islamic culture would be lost on the reader, the poems would be opaque. I highly recommend the book, the poems, and Prof. Sells' notes.
Beautiful, the most lyric translation of the odes I have encountered
I really enjoyed this book when I first read it in college back in the 90s. I just picked up another copy here on . A great introduction to jahiliyya poetry.
Solid, accurate introduction to pre-Islamic poetry.
I think this is a great product, but I wish I had realized that it only had the English. I wish it had both English and Arabic. The translations do seem very well done and the selection is on point
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