Detail of a sumi brushstroke, ink on rice paper
Twigs (excerpt)
Neither music,
fame, nor wealth,
not even poetry itself,
could provide consolation
for life’s brevity,
or the fact that King Lear
is a mere eighty pages long and comes to an end…And so
it has taken me
all of sixty years
to understand
that water is the finest drink,
and bread the most delicious food,
and that art is worthless
unless it plants
a measure of splendor in people’s hearts.–Taha Muhammad Ali
(From So What: New and Selected Poems, translated by Peter Cole, Yahya Hijazi, and Gabriel Levin)
Two thoughts from this poem are very present for me right now. One is the inconsolable brevity of life, a particularly poignant reminder at a time when someone I love is faced with the stark possibility of life’s end.
The other is the phrase, “a measure of splendor.”
What is splendid is personal and specific to every individual. But it is also a concept that is wide, expansive and limitless. As an artist I revel in those moments when my work brings a measure of something like splendor to someone else. And at the very same time, I long for that transcendent pleasure of splendor coming to me by way of other artists, writers, musicians, performers.
Existence comes with limits. It also comes with experiences that suggest things might be otherwise, those moments that expand us past the boundaries—whatever they may be.
______
Note: Taha Muhammad Ali (1931–2011) was a Palestinian poet and short story writer. Self taught, he ran a souvenir shop in Nazareth.
I don’t know if you know of Adina Hoffman’s ‘My Happiness Bears No Relation to Happiness: A Poet’s Life in the Palestinian Century’. It’s splendid; it truly opened my eyes to a history I’d known little about until I read it. It also was my first introduction to Taha Muhammad Ali, whose work I think is just so wonderful. I also have ‘So What’. Cole is a marvelous translator.
The poem here is one I marked as especially moving.
Sending love.
Maureen, I love your recommendations. I’ll check it out. Thanks.
It is wonderful to find a whole group of friends who will recommend works that I can trust to be lifting, instructive, and which offer the possibility of splendor. That splendor which each seeks in the various manifestations of art, will be just a little different for each person, but there are some which offer such a depth of beauty that many of us will be drawn to the same work. I have the feeling, Maureen, that I must investigate Adina’s work. One finds kindred spirits in places large and small – and worldwide.
As we face – each of us – the mortality of those we love, we are forced to face our own mortality, as well. That is a very sobering experience!…..and have I left enough of me that my children may eventually find their own splendor by looking at what touched me? Please, let it be so! If I have not yet prepared enough, I must be about it. ‘Time’s a-wastin’……………..
Ah, the sage of Bountiful has checked in and shared her wisdom. Thank you dear Ann for your words.
What a wonderful poem, something I will definitely keep in my commonplace book. Thank you so much, Deborah.
Altoon, thanks so much. He is a poet I want to know more about.
Thanks you for posting this poem, which is so true and valuable.
I have seen Ali giving readings (both times with Cole in attendance) and once he told stories instead and only read two of his poems. It was wonderful–his stories ARE poems, his life he manages to interpret poetically. When I read his work, I feel I am in the presence of a sage of some kind. An earthy sage with a sense of humor and an understanding of the incredible scope of human history.
It is a pity that so little of his work is available in English.
Wonderful poem, thanks for that!
I’ve still yet to appreciate the bread and water thing ….never say never 🙂