Ibn Hazm Poem

 

Having seen the hoariness on my temples and sideburns, someone asked me how old I was.

I answered him: “I consider all my life to have been but a short moment and nothing else, when I think reasonably and exactly.”

He replied to me: “How was that? Explain it to me, for you have given me the most grievous news and information.”

So I said: To the [girl] possessed of my heart I once gave one single kiss by surprise.

Hence, no matter how many years I live, I will not really consider any but that brief moment to have been my life.”

-Ibn Hazm, Poem G

    Ibn Hazm’s poem G, from The Ring of the Dove in Hispano-Arabic Poetry, explores interesting notions regarding the human experience and the relationship to the divine. Depictions of lost love and aging illustrate the futility of human existence and how through religion redemption is possible.

            From the outset of the poem, physical age appears to be a transparent characteristic of humans . The “hoariness” of our narrator’s temples and sideburns stand as telling signs of an older age to the outside observer. Physical age cannot be concealed. When a second character is drawn to question the narrator’s age he says “I consider my whole life to have been but a short moment…” The questioner receives this response with discomfort regarding it as “the most grievous news and information”. For the narrator’s description casts a dim light on the limitations of the human experience. Living, as the narrator interprets it, symbolizes something more than simply the biological definition of the term, it signifies an enhanced existence, and this enhanced existence is apparently experienced only in small quantities.

Women play a key role in the Ibn Hazm’s exploration of unsatisfiable longing. Says the narrator, “to the girl possessed of my heart”. Like a parasite, she latched on to his soul, and he grew attached to her. While the image appears predatory and unsavory, it is this moment which he values the most in his life. However, had he avoided this love affair altogether, perhaps his years would have been more complete. As a result of his deadly kiss in a single moment of time, the rest of his life has felt barren and inconsequential. Women here are presented in a misogynistic light. The woman appears to be the bane of man’s existence. Through a kiss, he was led astray and forever adrift, in a state of ungratified limbo. For he can never relive his cherished moment: we can infer from his description that the girl he once loved has been lost. So he can only dwell on the unreachable in a tortured state of eternal emptiness.

            On the other hand, women can be interpreted as men’s salvation from a mundane and shallow existence. From women, love is born. And the affectionate moments that follow provide a taste of paradise. As reflected in our narrator’s experience with the girl he loved, the bliss of love is short-lived. Although we may be quick to undermine this hint of heaven as a cruel tease, it can also be interpreted as a valuable gift. Women can be interpreted as men’s salvation from a mundane and shallow existence. From women, love is born. And the affectionate moments that follow provide a taste of a paradise to strive for. Perhaps the love between man and woman, the bliss it produces, serves as a spiritual reminder regarding the imperfections of this world. Love is an otherworldly phenomenon, removed from the futile natural world of life and death.  Accordingly, we are drawn to seek spiritual enlightenment in order to better our existence.

            In the first line, our narrator is recognized by his physical age, the worldly body he inhabits, the mortality of this life, a life limited. Yet his soul focuses on something much more profound and gratifying: something beyond this world, something much less transparent revealed in a single moment of passionate love. Our narrator has been left in a desperate state of yearning. And this state of yearning, as echoed in Layla and Majnun, develops into spiritual seeking. The old man, alive, is only lacking, but through the pursuit of God he can be uplifted from his meager state. From this perspective, women can be seen as representation of God himself. They spark the flames of desire that encourage a person to seek an existence out of the ordinary, an existence blessed by the presence of the divine.