Arabic-Andalusian Casidas (1949)

S$180.00

Arabic-Andalusian Casidas (1949)

S$180.00

Title: Arabic-Andalusian Casidas

Author: Harold Morland (trans.)

Publisher: Phoenix Press, 1949.

Condition: Fine binding by Sangorski & Sutcliffe. Half leather. Spine darkened, otherwise very good. Book plate of antiquarian bookseller/author George Sims. A small, thin book, 57pp.

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A collection of secular Arabic poetry fragments from Andalusia.

From Introduction:

“..The fall of the Spanish Umayyads in the first half of the 11th century left Cordoba a republic and a mere provincial city. Though she was still the literary capital of Spain, she was rapidly being challenged by Seville, Almeria, Badajoz, Toledo, Malaga, and Valencia…This was the time of some of Andalusia’s subtlest and most graceful poets: Ben Zaydun, the poet of love; Ben Ammar..whose bitterness it was to see his own and his friend’s life shattered…It was a time when a song could earn a vizirate, and a poet had the heart of a king because kings had the soul of a poet…”

Excerpt of an 11th century poem by Ben Suhayd of Cordoba:

The Storm

In the dark the flowers
With groping mouth
Seek the udders of the showers
To quench their drouth.

The black battalions of clous
With a plunder of water
File – in majesty how proud! –
With lightning to the slaughter.