A Translation and Analysis of ʾAbd al-Jabbār Ibn Ḥamdīs’ Poem No. 110: “Qaḍat al-Nafs”

Abstract

In this paper, I undertake a complete translation of Ibn Ḥamdīs’ poem No.110 “Qaḍat al-Nafs” and provide a structural analysis in order to demonstrate that the poem in its entirety is structured through a succession of related metaphors that lends unity and organization to the speaker’s experience.  Though Ibn Ḥamdīs is committed to the canon of classical Arabic poetry in the division of the poem into three canonical segments of the classical qasīda (physical decay and the loss of youth, the wine song and the nostalgic feelings for a lost homeland), I argue that these segments are not loosely structured but built upon a succession of related and resonating metaphors that lends unity and coherence to the speaker’s experience.  The poem can also be read as an autobiographical document in which Ibn Ḥamdīs records his own tragedy as an exile and the tragedy of Muslim Sicily and Arabic culture. Having led a very active life in his youth, the persona is now old, frequenting taverns and indulging himself in merry making in an attempt to recapture youth.  However, the speaker’s attempt is overwhelmed by the tragic awareness that his action is futile; youth cannot be regained.  This realization is intensified by the feeling that Sicily, the speaker’s birthplace and the setting of his youth, is also lost forever.  Regaining his “paradise” is as impossible as regaining his youth.  Old age and the great sense of loss make him turn to God with a penitent attitude.