Andalusian Poems

Arabic poems written between the 9th and 13th centuries in medieval Moorish Spain enjoyed a revival in the 1930s with the translations of Emilio Garcia Gomez, influencing Garcia Lorca, among others. And knowing that Middleton and Garza's English renderings derive from the Castilian versions of Garcia Gomez (and other Spanish Arabists), rather than from existing Arabic originals, may give some readers pause. But the proof here is emphatically in the tasting, and indications are that the Castilian ``mediating'' idiom may actually have helped, not obstructed, the translation effort. A certain pat formalism in a 12th-century Valencian lyric in no way inhibits the poet's sensibility, for instance, in ``Drunken Beauty'' by Ibn az-Zaqqaq: ``Her rosy cheeks gave off an airy glow, / I kissed and kissed them, till, the frenzy over, / She was a slender branch the breeze has bent; / I gave my shoulder to her for a pillow, / My arms around her held the surge of dawn.'' It's questionable whether English poetic diction could have stretched to merge violence and tenderness so effortlessly 50 years ago. Still, for all the modern sound, one believes the voice is 800 years old and Arabic. Part of the translators' challenge is to convey texts weighted with metaphors, while eschewing congestion and even seeking a light touch; they meet the challenge. Though this attractively designed collection is not lengthy, its fullness and maturity will deeply satisfy anyone valuing frank sensualism in poetry. Middleton teaches at the University of Texas/Austin; Garza is a University of Texas graduate student. (May)