Thirty Poems, by Tawfiq Sayigh, is a book brought out by Dar al-Sharq al-Jadid; its pages come without numbering, and most of the poems are without titles.
The poems are scattered surrealist remains, unrestricted in expression, free in diction, new in imagery, which the poet has woven after the manner and on the loom of the poets of Holy Scripture. In them he is David the King and Isaiah the Prophet and Jeremiah the rebel and others. And no wonder, for Tawfiq was reared in a house where the Bible held the place of honor — it was the foundation of the house and the order of the family.
In some of his poems the poet stands as a great question mark before the great questions: he wants to tear away the sky and gaze inside it, then to know the depths of God the Creator and sound the depths of man. He is always asking Why? and Where? and When? and How? And when the answer defeats him, he rebels, throws the rope on the withers, and commands his feet, saying:
"Strut on — we are the vessel and the captain and the compass; my care is that you set sail.
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My feet, set sail, and I shall go hopping."
And so our poet hops about, restless, flinging all his ideals
against the wall; he finds that his summer resort is emptiness, his winter quarters dread, and his life a train, and he cries out, "Then what... and long live my crumpled days".. In this fashion Tawfiq carries you from the riddle of the Creator to the riddle of the creature himself.. to woman,
to whom, like every poet, he devotes a large share of his verses. The finest thing said of her is number 15: "calm one hour and tumult the next" "in your two eyes" "and savage waves that none but a god can tame" — as if he had pronounced the final verdict on woman, taking this image, perhaps, from the Lake of Tiberias, over which Christ walked and on whose shores he spent a stretch of his life. In sum, the book is a new color of literature added to the Arabic library, and worthy of attention.
Chen Yu colors
Have the sparkle of jewels and the beauty of roses
They flow enchantingly over your fingertips
And lend your sparkle allure and magic
They dry and set quickly — they last long
CHEN YU
NAIL LACQUER