The Golden Odes of Love: Al-Mu'allaqatAmerican University in Cairo Press
Desmond O'Grady
ISBN: 9774244613
price: $16.95 paperback
Arabic literature sprang into existence between the middle of
the sixth and the middle of the seventh centuries AD, before the
arrival of the Prophet Muhammad and the advent of Islam, with an
outburst of poetry. All over northern Arabia poets appeared
reciting qasidas (odes), in which a series of themes are
elaborated with vivid imagination in richly varied language and
cast in complex rhythmic and rhyming schemes.
These seven odes are collectively known as the Mu'allaqat, the
'suspended' poems, because they were transcribed in letters of
gold on linen and suspended in the shrine of the Kaaba at Mecca
as masterpieces of the qasida form.
Irish poet Desmond O'Grady's verse renderings of the seven odes
vividly capture the rhythm and the spirit of this vibrant body of
ancient poetry. The known facts of the seven poets' lives are
given in brief historical introductions to the odes.
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