Review on Arabic Poems (The Song of Maisuna and On Fatalism)

  It has been a really great learning experience after the interpretation of the Arabic poems, On Fatalism by The Holy Imam Shafay and The Song of Maisuna by Maisuna, herself. Each left us with the feeling that is in every word they used by depicting their thoughts and what they really feel.

   On Fatalism left us a strong feeling, the word fatalism itself that means the belief that will happen has already been decided and can never changed, it represents, being one, united, after all the things they went through and the Song of Maisuna which we liked the most.

   MAISUNA was a daughter of the tribe of Calab; a tribe, according to Abulfeda, remarkable both for the purity of dialect spoken in it, and for the number of poets it had produced. She was married, whilst very young, to the Khaliph Mowiah. But this exalted situation by no means suited the disposition of Maisuna, and amidst all the pomp and splendor of Damascus, she languished for the simple peasures of her native desert. 

   These feelings gave birth to the previous simple stanzas, which she took the greatest delight in singing, whenever she could find an opportunity to indulge her melancholy in private. She was unfortunately overheard one day by Mowiah, who was of course not a little offended with such a discovery of his wife's sentiments; and as a punishment for her fault, he ordered her to retire from court. Maisuna immediately obeyed, and taking her infant son Yezid with her, returned to Yeman: nor did she revisit Damascus till after the death of Mowiah, when Yezid ascended the throne. For such short poem, has Maisuna’s feelings and thoughts in it. She expressed her loneliness by writing. 

   The significance of the Arabian poems we read was to appreciate the poems written by important people who influenced Arabian culture a lot, by how they live and how they think. However, though the poems are deep, you can’t possibly understand it by just reading it without even understanding it. 

   We shall always remember the learnings the poems left us for we can make it an inspiration to our daily basis and to the happenings in the future.