Presentation

This "Preface" to the "Collection of Poems" by Dr. Shafiq Rababah only hints to the great effort exerted by the poet to present a valuable work and to the great meanings implied in his poetry. The poems themselves are preceded by several introductory parts which help to facilitate their understanding and appreciate their deep significance.

After the title page, the book begins with a dedication page on top of which is a prayer on the Prophet of the Arab and Muslim nation, which shows a religious commitment on the part of the poet. The dedication is also made to the soul of his father, from whom he inherited this poetic talent; at the same time, he expresses his deep sorrow for the "loss" of his father's poetry. He affirms on the same page that he is an "orphan" from the psychological point of view for the loss of his mother to death, although this term, given the poet's age, does not really apply to him. He also dedicates his work to the "martyrs" of the Arab World, which shows a deep commitment and loyalty to his Arab roots. His loyalty to his family members made it compulsory for him to dedicate his work also to his Arab "tribe", the Rababah, whose history extends well back into the early centuries of Islam.

In the Entry following the dedication page, the poet resorts to "prose" to affirm his interest in his readers' reactions and his care about their preferences. In the next Entry, he goes back to poetry to affirm the same stance as in the prose entry. This entry, entitled "My Book" to refer to the collection of poems in the book, differs, however, in its poetic form and includes some lines which indicate poetic inspiration and humbleness in expressing opinions. Often disregarding rhyme, he says:

     "Whatever my book contains (poems or discourse) represents my life                                  experience without praise or defamation. This is my opinion about life, from my birth to my death, in things that we see wear the best of clothes." (Translated in prose from real Arabic lines)

These introductory entries were not useless or meant only to embellish the outward look of his "collection"; instead, they were intended to introduce to the reader the poet's vision and the contents of his book.

The division of his "Collection" proper into separate parts or groups shows the poet's intention to be clear and to avoid the "obscurity" which sometimes characterizes other poem collections. He did not follow in the path of other poets who, on purpose, fill their poems with images and figures of speech, which do not help the meaning but are meant only to add to the length of the poem without real contribution to the meaning proper. In this collection, however, our poet Shafiq employs his images to present his visions and meanings in the best way possible. He avoids elaborate and complicated language which fills the poems of many Western modernists who, by doing so, make language carry more than it can, and this goes beyond its communicative function. This leads us to say that the poet aptly divided his poems in parts related to subject or topic.

In the first part, he gathers "nationalistic" poems. Putting these poems in the first section has meanings which go beyond his attachment to the soil of his country; it is indeed a call to his fellow citizens to love their country to the most. At another level, this part mixes between poems related to the poet's own country, Jordan, and his wider nation, the Arab nation, under the title "Homeland and National Poems" to show that he is equally attached to both country and nation. Following into the path of Jordan's great poet, Arar, he refers to various cities, towns and locations of Jordan, like Irbid, Jarash, Amman, Tafileh, Wadi Rum, Ramtha, Karak, Umm Qais (Gadara), Salt and the Jordan valley. He says:

"I did not forget one inch I visited; neither did I forget one plant I got to know." (Translated into prose from Arabic line)

At the same time, he does not neglect Arab cities like Baghdad, to which he dedicates several poems. He does not forget either to refer to recent Arab revolts praising them for introducing a new "dawn" into the Arab World.

The second part of his collection is dedicated to "Islam and Society". The title itself highlights the deep immersion of Islam into the matters of society. A large number of the poems here are about the Great Prophet Mohammad praising him for who his repeated calls not to be deceived by the vain things of this life and for advocating mercy and tolerance. At the same time, he referred to contemporary socio-religious issues like high dowry required from the man toward his future wife.

The third part or section exhibits the best form of praise, namely eulogies, which immortalize deceased loved ones. Several great poems are included in this part, one of which is entitled "Death of Buds", in which he laments the tragic death of several students who were victims of a horrible accident on their trip to Petra. Despite its brevity, this poem is the best of his poems and in it, he showed more fatherhood than poetic inspiration.

The next part is consecrated to the poet's university, Yarmouk University, in which he has worked for many years. The section is entitled "Yarmouki Poems", and shows his deep love to this College about which he dreamed even before he joined its staff. In one poem, "I am Yarmouk", which is full of deep images and semantic connotations, he conveys a message about the academician's relationship with his university, which motivated him to give up becoming a journalist working on the field; instead, he opted to be part of the teaching staff in the Faculty of Journalism at Yarmouk University.

The following part includes his "love poems", which praise not the woman per se but rather the value of love and the esthetics of loving. It is not the Erotic love that he advocates, but rather the "Agape" or "Platonic Love" as manifested in philosophers' writings. Most feminine characteristics eulogized in these poems are the heart, not body, ones. The poems convey more the philosophical value of love than physical feelings and satisfaction. Most women's names mentioned in the poems, like Laila, Maha, Shawq,, and Siham, are only meant to show different persons and not different characteristics of love. The chastity of his love poems should be remarked here: sincere, true love is praised, but not its carnal manifestations.

The last group of poems in entitled "Miscellaneous", which could be gathered with poems in other sections. He talked about other Jordanian universities in some, gave advice to and praised farmers in others, and dealt with problems of high dowries and rocketing prices in the rest. However, the reason he compiled them in this section was that it was difficult for him to group together poems written in the colloquial dialect and others written in Standard Arabic. His "songs" in the colloquial Bedouin (Nabatean) variety in this part is out of the ordinary and show his ability to write high valued lyrics with high esthetic appeal.

In this brief Introduction, I did not mean to reveal all the elements of this "Collection". I leave it to the reader to discover for himself the real value of the text, as I deeply believe in the true relationship between the text and reader. I have greatly enjoyed reading this fantastic poem collection and wish to be a permanent companion of the poet and his poetry. I thank our poet for the deep trust he gave me to write this Presentation in English and I hope to see this "Collection" the first in a long series of collections by our prolific author.

Dr. Yousef Bader

Department of English

Yarmouk University                                            Irbid, October 12, 2011