The Personalities of May

In a thesis on "May," Miss A'idah Sa'b has treated many of the aspects that set apart this brilliant woman of letters.

We present here a study of the personalities of May the writer, being one of the sections of that thesis.

As May is rich in her writings, so is she rich also in her personalities. She has three literary personalities —

First: May the poet in the French language. In Arabic, her prose is poetry. She opened this phase of her literary life with the translation of "Smiles and Tears" from the German. In her poetic and prose style there is delicacy of feeling and moderation of imagination. She has several poems in French. In Arabic she never knocked at the door of meter, yet her prose lacked nothing of being poetry except its rhyme and its meter, for her poetry was cast in a prose mold. Our writer read Arabic poetry and held several opinions upon it.

Second: May the social writer. She brought out several books in which she treated all manner of social subjects, correcting the faults of society and raising its level, and thereby winning fame and glory. She translated three different novels from three European languages: "The Return of the Wave" from the French, "Love in Torment" from the English, and "Smiles and Tears" from the German. She has thirteen books, besides the abundant articles published in the leading magazines and various newspapers, such as al-Hilal, al-Ahram, al-Zuhur, al-Mahrusa, and al-Muqtataf. The public came flocking to read these books and to drink in the precious knowledge stored within them, as the thirsty flock to pure water, for her style is engaging and the weave of her phrases is firm.

Third: May the orator. Julia Dimashqiyah said: "Never in my life have I seen an orator toward whom necks so craned and eyes were so fixed as May; when she spoke, it was as though the eyelids of her hearers were fastened to her by their very lashes." And that is only because there were gathered in this orator the chief requisites of oratory, namely:

1: Soundness of taste in the choice of subject, which makes the speech fit the occasion.

2: Her knowledge and the breadth of her reading.

3: Her lofty delivery — she speaks with clarity, without any fault of speech.

4: Her gestures and her eyes. Her gestures come unbidden, and in her eyes there is a magical power. This helped her climb the ladder of success, for gestures and eyes are reckoned a third of a speech's effect.

5: Her voice — a mellow voice, moderate in pitch, with a wondrous power to stir the emotions.

6: The power of depiction in her: the power of depiction is to the orator what feathers are to the bird. May was famous for the loftiness of her imagination, and this helped her to win the goddess of eloquence.

7: Her personal magnetism: God singled May out with this gift, so that she held the assembled hearts in her hand while she spoke; and the poet's saying came true in her:

As if the Merciful had fashioned her form
of magnet, drawing all eyes to itself.

8: Her sincerity: she speaks only at the prompting of her conscience, and means nothing but what she says.

These causes were the steps of the ladder by which May rose until she attained this station of fame.