War Songs

ʿAntarah ibn Shaddād

Published by New York University Press 2018

War Songs

ʿAntarah ibn Shaddād
Edited by: James E. Montgomery
In collaboration with: Richard Sieburth
Preface by: Peter Cole

Volume 11 in the series Library of Arabic Literature

https://doi.org/10.18574/nyu/9781479879861.001.0001

Overview
Contents

About this book

Poems of love and battle by Arabia’s legendary warrior

From the sixth-century highlands of Najd in the Arabian peninsula, on the eve of the advent of Islam, come the strident cries of a legendary warrior and poet. The black outcast son of an Arab father and an Ethiopian slave mother, 'Antarah ibn Shaddad struggled to win the recognition of his father and tribe. He defied social norms and, despite his outcast status, loyally defended his people.

'Antarah captured his tumultuous life in uncompromising poetry that combines flashes of tenderness with blood-curdling violence. His war songs are testaments to his life-long battle to win the recognition of his people and the hand of 'Ablah, the free-born woman he loved but who was denied him by her family.

War Songs presents the poetry attributed to 'Antarah and includes a selection of poems taken from the later Epic of 'Antar, a popular story-cycle that continues to captivate and charm Arab audiences to this day with tales of its hero’s titanic feats of strength and endurance. 'Antarah’s voice resonates here, for the first time in vibrant, contemporary English, intoning its eternal truths: commitment to one’s beliefs, loyalty to kith and kin, and fidelity in love.

A bilingual Arabic-English edition.

Author / Editor information

Shaddād ʿAntarah ibn :

ʿAntarah ibn Shaddād was one of the most famous warrior-poets of pre-Islamic Arabia. A semi-legendary hero from the sixth century AD, ʿAntarah was born into slavery as the son of an Arab father and an African mother. Many of his poems are about his love for ʿAblah, daughter of the tribe's shaykh--a love thwarted by his low social status.Montgomery James E. :

James E. Montgomery is Sir Thomas Adams’s Professor of Arabic at the University of Cambridge and Fellow of Trinity Hall. His latest publications are Fate the Hunter: Early Arabic Hunting Poems, and Kalīlah and Dimnah: Fables of Virtue and Vice, with Michael Fishbein.Sieburth Richard :

Richard Sieburth is a professor of French and Comparative Literature at New York University and an award-winning translator of works by Henri Michaux, Michel Leiris, George Büchner, Walter Benjamin, and Friedrich Hölderlin. His translation of Gerard de Nerval’s Selected Writings won the PEN/Book-of-the-Month-Club Translation Prize.Cole Peter :

Peter Cole has published several books of poems and many volumes of translations from Hebrew and Arabic, both medieval and modern. He has received numerous honors for his work, including a Guggenheim Fellowship and an American Academy of Arts and Letters Award in Literature, and in 2007 he was named a MacArthur Fellow.ʿAntarah ibn Shaddād (Author)
ʿAntarah ibn Shaddād was one of the most famous warrior-poets of pre-Islamic Arabia. A semi-legendary hero from the sixth century AD, ʿAntarah was born into slavery as the son of an Arab father and an African mother. Many of his poems are about his love for ʿAblah, daughter of the tribe's shaykh--a love thwarted by his low social status.

James E. Montgomery (Edited and Translated by)
James E. Montgomery is Sir Thomas Adams’s Professor of Arabic at the University of Cambridge and Fellow of Trinity Hall. His latest publications are Fate the Hunter: Early Arabic Hunting Poems, and Kalīlah and Dimnah: Fables of Virtue and Vice, with Michael Fishbein.

Peter Cole (Foreword by)
Peter Cole has published several books of poems and many volumes of translations from Hebrew and Arabic, both medieval and modern. He has received numerous honors for his work, including a Guggenheim Fellowship and an American Academy of Arts and Letters Award in Literature, and in 2007 he was named a MacArthur Fellow.

Reviews

War Songs is a well-presented collection, with useful supplementary material, from the introductory matter to the appendices.

Beautifully accomplished by James E. Montgomery in collaboration with fellow scholar-translator, Richard Sieburth...Dynamic, fully cinematic translations that effect ‘the transfer of energy’ essential to literary translation...An exciting addition to the LAL corpus.

The Library of Arabic Literature has another landmark success with this so-called untranslatable poet...Sixth-century Arabia may be 'strange,' but the years of struggle on the part of this scholar-writer and his poet collaborator have given the general reader a visceral insight into this world in compelling, beautiful poetry.

An unmistakable voice... What is perhaps most beautiful about War Songs is how 'Antarah hints at tenderness beneath the violence, defending slaughter for a cause and remaining faithful to tribe and family, even in the face of death.

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
Letter from the General Editor Publicly Available Download PDF	iii
Table of Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	vii
Foreword Publicly Available Download PDF	xiii
Introduction Publicly Available Download PDF	xx
Acknowledgments Publicly Available Download PDF	xlvi
A Note on the Text Publicly Available Download PDF	xlviii
Maps Publicly Available Download PDF	lviii
Map 1: The Tribes of Pre-Islamic Arabia [c. ad 600] Publicly Available Download PDF	lix
Map 2: The Topography of the Poetry of ʿAntarah Publicly Available Download PDF	lx
Notes to the Introduction Publicly Available Download PDF	lxi
Al-Aṣmaʿī’s Redaction
1: Did poetry die? Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	3
2: Damn the ruins! Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	17
3: The Battle of ʿUrāʿir Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	21
4: Your sorry ass Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	25
5: Raqāshi is gone Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	29
6: I know Death Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	33
7: Blade-thin, war-spent Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	39
8: The crow croaked Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	47
9: Traced like tattoos Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	51
10: The eyes of an ʿUsfān gazelle Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	55
11: Shut up about my horse Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	59
12: A cavalry charge Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	63
13: Between Qaww and Qārah Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	67
14: The hostage you offered up Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	71
15: I planted my cold arrow Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	75
16: Primed for battle Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	79
17: Your last gasp is near! Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	83
18: Jostled by horses Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	87
19: I didn’t start this war Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	91
20: That dung beetle, Jaʿd Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	95
21: Who’ll side with you? Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	99
22: Grasping at spears Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	103
23: A panicked leader Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	107
24: The antelopes sprinted right and left Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	113
25: An enemy squadron attacked Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	119
26: Jirwah is mine Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	125
27: War ripped out Ghaṭafān’s spine Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	129
Two Qasidas from Ibn Maymūn’s Anthology
28: The East Wind blew Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	135
29: Between shock and grief Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	149
Poems from al-Baṭalyawsī’s Recension
30: Why are you fat as camels’ humps? Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	159
31: Spears adrip with gore Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	163
32: The crow croaked Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	167
33: Pay for my blood Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	173
34: My horse Blaze Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	177
35: My steeds live for War Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	183
36: Death and Revenge Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	187
37: Escape if you can Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	191
38: At the Pass of Woe Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	195
39: Man up, Ḥuṣayn! Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	199
40: Death always finds a way Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	203
41: In the forest of spears Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	207
42: The Fates claim their due Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	211
43: The Half-Blood 43: The Half-Blood Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	215
Poems from The Epic of ʿAntar
44: Did ʿAblah’s brightness ignite your heart? Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	221
45: The murky binge of battle Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	231
46: The fire for you burns in my belly Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	235
47: A sin ʿAblah can’t forgive Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	241
48: I was betrayed Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	247
49: ʿAblah’s wraith Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	251
50: The birds are jittery Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	257
51: That coward, Death Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	263
Appendix 1 Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	269
Appendix 2 Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	273
Appendix 3 Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	283
Notes Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	305
Glossary Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	319
List of Place Names in the Poetry of ʿAntarah Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	331
Concordance of Principal Editions Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	332
Bibliography Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	336
Further Reading Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	341
Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	346
About the NYU Abu Dhabi Institute Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	353
About the Typefaces Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	354
Titles Published by the Library of Arabic Literature Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	355
About the Editor–Translators Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	358

Language: English
Publisher: New York University Press
Audience: Professional and scholarly;

eBook

Published: October 9, 2018
ISBN: 9781479879861