A Letter from Iraq

The following has reached us from Iraq:

The hall of the Queen Aliya Institute was packed on Wednesday evening in answer to the invitation extended by the Arab Culture Society, composed of the Institute's students, to attend the literary festival which the said society had prepared. Foremost among those present were His Excellency the Minister of Education and his wife, and a large company of the ladies and young ladies of the educated class. At five o'clock the society's secretary, Miss Suad al-Mudallal, declared the celebration open with a fine address in which she said:

"We do not say that you will behold the Souk of Ukaz, but we do say that you will behold a living picture of those delightful pictures which the imagination has so often paraded of the Souk of Ukaz and the other literary fairs of the Arabs. And if those fairs were destined to be the meeting place of those arriving from the various lands of Arabdom, this gathering brings together a choice company — Egyptian, Syrian, Iraqi — embodied in our poetesses, our teachers, and our fellow students; and thereby we shall have realized our Arab literary unity, asking God to hasten the day when our comprehensive unity is realized."

Then the students sang the Institute's anthem, while Mr. Mahmoud Sami delighted the ears with his sweet music. Here the secretary announced that a debate would be held between the Misses Wadi'a al-Shabibi and Ma'ida al-Khudayri, its subject being "Literature for life, or literature for literature's sake?" and that Mr. Hashim Atiyya would comment upon the arguments of the two debaters. Miss Wadi'a al-Shabibi came forward to defend the theory of literature for life; then Miss Ma'ida al-Khudayri followed, replying to her and defending literature for literature's sake. The two speakers spoke with eloquent diction, deep thought, and brilliant delivery, and they aroused intense admiration. Then Mr. Hashim Atiyya came forward to comment upon them, and he succeeded to the fullest as he proceeded to weigh the two views and incline toward both sides with his sweet oratorical style and his mature, upright thinking. When the turn of prose had ended, the turn of poetry came: the poetess Atika al-Khazraji recited her poem "The Cry of Injustice," in which she treated our social ills with a beautiful and masterly poetic treatment that stirred a long storm of applause. Then Miss Ghaniya al-Azzawi recited the poem of the poetess Sadouf al-Ubaydiyya, in which she spoke of spring. She was followed by Miss Khayriyya Mahfouz, who recited the poem of the poetess Nazik al-Mala'ika, whose subject was likewise the spring; but each of the two poetesses took, in speaking of spring, a course contrary to the course of the other, each expressing in her poem her own particular outlook on life, and both poetesses acquitted themselves most excellently.

Here the secretary of the society announced a theatrical scene whose subject was "A poetess disputing with the poets in the court of al-Rashid," and the curtain rose upon a splendid poetic gathering that gave us a picture of the literary salons of old, in which the actresses excelled and shone.

Then Mr. Hasan al-Amin closed the celebration with a poem of his own beautiful verse, inspired by Baghdad, the Tigris, and the palm trees — no wonder, then, that it came out splendid and sweet and made the musk of the seal. After the performance of the royal anthem, those present departed with an unforgettable memory of this magnificent literary festival in their minds, thanking the distinguished educator Mrs. Amat Said, dean of the Institute, for her unceasing efforts in the service of the rising generation.