The Comparison Figure in the Old Arabic Poetry

The World at a Distance

Abstract

The poetics of the old Arabic literature is based on the comparison figure. The dominance of this figure, enormously branching and culminating in the old Arabic poetry, was for many researchers “an argument” to evaluate this poetry as “materialistic”, where this adjective implied an abundance of negative connotations. However, the comparison figure predominance is the most successful expression of ancient Arabians’ attitude towards the world, since poetry at the same time was the most meaningful expression of their spirituality in general. That attitude is the attitude of distance.

With the comparison figure, as the prevailing means of style that poetry was based on, the poets express the general view of the ancient Arabian, who experiences/sees his whole world as absolutely clear and ethereal, systematic and present in crystal-like comparisons.

To be able to develop optimally the comparison figure by which he presents the world also to himself, the poet had to observe that world from a distance, because the comparison figure implies the full view of the world and the obviousness of its comparison correlations. The one-dimensionality of the world in that case is indispensable. Simultaneously, observing the world thus from the distance enabling comparison, the poet is confined to the perception of one-dimensionality of the physical, as the comparison figure also implies, apart from the presence, non-dynamic, almost mechanical “relations” between correlations. This is a particular expression of distance even between the comparative correlations. Conversely, the metaphor dynamises the relations between constituents and it expresses the world from the inside; that poetic shift will be brought about by the Qur’anic Text. Effects of the described comparison figure position in the old poetry and of the nature of that figure are manifested, inter alia, in the breaking down of text space, i.e. in the thematic breakdown of a poem composed of a multitude of themes which lend themselves to breaking down until each comparison figure becomes a theme for itself. This is the poetics of the arabesque. On the other hand, the comparison figure is best felt in the travelogue genre and the travelogue perception of the world which, in turn, requires the recipient’s distance even when he is moving about landscapes, as a comparison requirement is an easy survey. Hence, the ancient Arabian qasida is basically of a travelogue nature.

The old poetry, particularly the ancient Arabian poetry with the dominant comparison figure, best expresses the ancient Arabian experience of the world from a distance, in the ancient concision and completeness, and in the lyrical joy, as in the present world most frequently asked are comparative correlations winning recognition of beauty of the observable world.