The Call of the Oars

Occasional verse, all or most of it. Verse that shows the inner struggle between the poetic gift of Chafic Maalouf and the occasions on which he was obliged to recite poetry. It reminds you, to some extent, of the positions al-Mutanabbi used to take when he composed occasional verse: he would outwit the occasion and keep away from mentioning it until the close of the poem, and there he would sink into utter flatness, while his openings would be splendid. His verse is elegant — until he comes to mention the occasion.

The verse in this collection is marked by this trait to a far degree. The beautiful openings and what follows them are marked by a delicacy we have not known in any other — delicacy of allusion, and delicacy of deep feeling.

In his poem "The Call of the Oars" he recalls those who sail for the lands of emigration, and recalls their farewell:

By God, I know not whether at their farewell
it is the masts that moan or the harbors
They looked out, sullen-faced, from the portholes of the ships,
as though they were tears wept by the shores

And in his poem "The Return" he recalls his days in the village, and reminds the reader:

of her whose hands would pluck the stars
and cast them beneath my pillow
of a girl — as though the blackbird's wings
had lined her eyes with kohl
Say, O hand of the breeze: does the lute-player's plectrum
pass over her black lashes?

Her lashes are the remnants of my strings,
strung to the remnants of my heart

And in "The Mute Poem":

I built myself a temple; and for a wisdom
the priests exalted, I tore my temple down

But our poet, for all the depth and loftiness of his soul, for all his mastery of Arabic, and for all the delicacy and sincerity of feeling and allusion in what we have quoted of his, relapses into flatness when he takes up expressions others have used before him.

He repeats "livers" many times over in a number of the poems; and in his poem to the poet Shawqi he again sinks very low, when he alludes to servitude in poetry, and to verse refusing to obey him when the Prince of Poets is in his presence.. etc., etc..

This is among what most offends in his verse; but the primary craftsmanship of his poetry is not touched by these lapses. His love for his country and his homeland, his pride in the Arab heritage, and this feeling of love and of memories — all this makes his verse among the best that the presses have lately brought out.

"The Call of the Oars" by Chafic Maalouf has been issued by "Dar al-Ahad" of Beirut, in an elegant printing on glossy paper.