The Nativity in Literature

Blessed is this sweet newborn whom they call literature. Its eyes never doze for an instant, but remain open and wide as the horizon, seeing what is seen and what is unseen; and its ears remain attentive, so that no melody passes without ringing within them. And when it has seen and heard, it yearns to show what has reached its senses to those whom life has kept blind and deaf — and how many they are! — so its luminous fingertips strike up melodies, and its delicate lips murmur faint strains; and when the breeze carries them off, the sea roars at the force of their clamor.

It is natural, then, that literature should have made the acquaintance of the Nativity, and this friendship that has embraced the two of them is no strange novelty. Hence we have this broad literary domain which we mark with the name "the literature of the Nativity."

As with lovers, whose two souls meet before they are born, literature and the Nativity met centuries before the Nativity. Ancient literature told of the Nativity that was to come, and people read it and said: prophecies sent forth by these inspired men. They read the poets of Palestine, homeland of the Nativity — Isaiah, describing the flame of light that the dwellers in the land of darkness would behold, and the child who would bear the government upon his shoulders and be called Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. They read in his book of that shoot which would spring up and bear fruit, of the child who would slay the wicked with the very breath of his lips and would rule the earth, so that in his reign the wolf and the lamb would lie down together and the cow and the bear be friends. And they read in Micah of him who would come forth from little Bethlehem, the meek village among villages. And they read, in that band of prophet-poets, many poems about Emmanuel and his birth. Indeed, they read in the Torah as a whole a magnificent epic, moving in stages from the creation of the world to the sin, to humanity's struggle, until it reaches salvation through the Nativity and what followed it.

Literature and the Nativity met centuries before the Nativity in the Hebrew literature of Palestine, and they met years before the Nativity in the Latin literature of Rome, when Virgil penned his fourth eclogue, telling in it of a newborn soon to be sent into existence, who would restore to the earth her golden age; with him would come innocence and truth, and peace would fill the universe. People read this and looked about in astonishment, asking: whom did the lord of the Latin poets mean? And the pious men of the Middle Ages said: he meant the child of the Nativity — and so they called Virgil the prophet. Do you see how a mantle of prophecy is woven out of poetry?

The two lovers meet, and in the glance of their meeting you find the distillation of generations; but what they say is whispers and murmurings — sweet whispers and magical murmurings. Such was literature's telling of the Nativity when the Nativity came. Such were the two brief, sweet chapters, one written by Matthew and the other by Luke — two men of letters from Palestine — in Greek; and behold, people memorized what the two had said and treasured it in their breasts. And behold this description of the angel's annunciation, the journey to Bethlehem, the birth in the manger, the gifts of the Magi, the glad tidings of God's host to the shepherds, and the heavenly strain rendered in the words: "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men" — behold, all of this becomes part of world literature, which we repeat every year as though it were new, as though its magic were untouched.

And they part — and what two lovers do not part? — yet each is faithful to the other, swearing to him that if he forgets him, let his right hand forget her cunning. Can we say, then, that the two have parted? In the breathings of separation there are perfumes whose fragrance is the fragrance of the embrace... And so the literature of the Nativity after the Nativity became a sea, wide and deep, in which you may swim if you wish; but you return having crossed no more than a few arm-spans of it.

Some of this literature is religious: in theology there are studies upon studies of the Nativity and its problems; in preaching, at least one sermon a year from every preacher in every church on this inhabited earth; and in religious poetry, in all languages, hymns beyond counting about the Nativity. And some of this literature is purely literary, appearing to the reader now in the form of a play, now in the form of a novel, now as a short story, now as a poem. It is not the intention here to give a "list of references" consisting merely of an enumeration of all that has been composed in the various languages of literature connected with the Nativity — that would require many pages. But we may affirm that world literature has been deeply influenced by the Nativity: apart from the books that recount the life of Jesus and devote a portion to his birth, we find the literature of the Nativity in independent pieces. There is the drama: the reader knows that English drama would never have come into existence but for centuries of religious drama performed by monks and priests within monasteries and churches, who naturally turned their backs on the plays of the classical writers of Athens and Rome and went back, for the substance of their plays, to the depths of the Holy Scriptures, where they found rich material in the tales and events — foremost among them the Nativity. So they acted out the story of the Nativity, and delighted in playing the parts of the shepherds, the Magi, and the angels, the slaughter of the children, and the portrayal of

the animals of the manger — as we still see to this day in artless church and school plays. And if the Nativity influenced English drama for centuries before Shakespeare, its influence did not end with the rise of the modern drama; rather it increased. One glance at the various lists of literary books that appear from time to time needs only a pencil to count how many Nativity plays of value have appeared in English literature from the Victorian age up to before this war — and you will find the number leaping above the hundred.

As for the novel and the short story, literature has not fallen short there either: look at any Christmas number of the magazines of Europe and America, and sometimes of some of our own magazines, and you will find a story devoted to Christmas. Or return to the books of literature, and read several tales by Dickens, one of the masters of the story in English literature, among them his gem "A Christmas Carol"; or read Thackeray's Christmas tales, or the tales of Max Beerbohm, or of other English writers — to say nothing of the storytellers of other literatures. You will find in them, alongside amusement and pleasure, spiritual dimensions; for the storytellers grasped the meaning of Christmas, and in what they wrote they struck the chord of pity, mercy, tenderness, simplicity, and the glorification of poverty.

So too in poetry: return again to the lists, and you will find in English poetry alone — and English literature is more deeply influenced by things spiritual and religious than any other — Nativity poems that are hard to count. If you select from them those of literary value, you will find that down to the beginning of this century they number no fewer than four hundred, and you will find their subjects manifold, treating of the Nativity, of Bethlehem, the angels, the carols, the star, the children, the bells, the candles, the children's games, the holiday cakes, the drums, the season's greetings, the hearths, the special holiday meal, the guests, the parties, the sermons, the Christmas tree, its memories, and the dreams that fill our hearts when the day arrives. You would find, too, that these subjects, on which so much poetry has been said, generally retain a stamp of freshness, especially when sung by the great poets — such as Milton (and is there anything that reaches the poetic summit if his poem "Hymn on the Birth of Christ" is not among it?), Wordsworth, Tennyson, Rossetti, Swinburne, Coleridge, Kipling, Browning, Scott, Stevenson, Morris, Herrick, and many others.

Modern and contemporary English poetry has shown an admirable inventiveness in presenting the Nativity and all that pertains to it; and it is noteworthy that the modern poets who have treated it most are women, despite woman's falling short in the arena of poetry. In this poetry of theirs there is smoothness of expression and simplicity of meaning, a concern with tenderness and mercy, a showing forth of the true spirit of motherhood and of children's obedience to their mothers, after the manner of Jesus and Mary; and there are also spiritual and intellectual meanings which it draws out of the event, giving each poem an independent and singular being of its own.

As for our Arabic literature — and alas for our Arabic literature! — no bond of love or friendship has yet arisen between it and the Nativity, though it has made its acquaintance. Palestine — where the Nativity took place, and all that followed the Nativity, events which are the greatest events of the entire universe — could have profited from them in her literature as nations profit from their events; but for certain causes she fell short of that, and has remained wanting in the world of culture and art. Still, we do not lack some Nativity pieces in our literature: besides the sermons and spiritual hymns, some of them translated, we find translations of many stories, especially religious ones; we find poems by some men of religion; we find sweet passages by Gibran; we find Shawqi's poem on the Nativity and his beautiful description of the gentleness that was born with Jesus; and we find a poem by the poet al-Qarawi in which he gives an original analysis of the mystery of the Nativity — but all this does not constitute an independent literary domain in our literature.

The Nativity was not an event that passed in an hour and was done — else it would never have had this standing with literature. It was an event whose meaning is determined anew every year, and more than once a year. The gate of the literature of the Nativity is still open, as it will remain, and much will be added to it year after year. Perhaps this feast will not pass without witnessing a new meeting between these two lovers, literature and the Nativity — and what lovers are there whose memory does not forever draw them together, even if they part?!