Analysis of A Lesson In Drawing
Nizar Qabbani 1923 (Damascus) – 1998 (London)
My son places his paint box in front of me
and asks me to draw a bird for him.
Into the color gray I dip the brush
and draw a square with locks and bars.
Astonishment fills his eyes:
"... But this is a prison, Father,
Don't you know, how to draw a bird?"
And I tell him: "Son, forgive me.
I've forgotten the shapes of birds."
My son puts the drawing book in front of me
and asks me to draw a wheatstalk.
I hold the pen
and draw a gun.
My son mocks my ignorance,
demanding,
"Don't you know, Father, the difference between a
wheatstalk and a gun?"
I tell him, "Son,
once I used to know the shapes of wheatstalks
the shape of the loaf
the shape of the rose
But in this hardened time
the trees of the forest have joined
the militia men
and the rose wears dull fatigues
In this time of armed wheatstalks
armed birds
armed culture
and armed religion
you can't buy a loaf
without finding a gun inside
you can't pluck a rose in the field
without its raising its thorns in your face
you can't buy a book
that doesn't explode between your fingers."
My son sits at the edge of my bed
and asks me to recite a poem,
A tear falls from my eyes onto the pillow.
My son licks it up, astonished, saying:
"But this is a tear, father, not a poem!"
And I tell him:
"When you grow up, my son,
and read the diwan of Arabic poetry
you'll discover that the word and the tear are twins
and the Arabic poem
is no more than a tear wept by writing fingers."
My son lays down his pens, his crayon box in
front of me
and asks me to draw a homeland for him.
The brush trembles in my hands
and I sink, weeping.
Scheme | ABXCXDXAE AFGHXFXHHCIXXXGXCEDHIXXXFJ XKXFKBHAXKJ XABXF |
---|---|
Poetic Form | |
Metre | 11101110111 011110111 0101011101 01011101 0100111 11101010 11111101 01111011 10100111 11101010111 0111101 1101 0101 1111100 010 111100100010 1001 1111 111110111 01101 01101 101101 01101011 00101 0011101 011111 11 110 01010 11101 01100101 11101001 0111011011 11101 1100101110 111101111 011101010 01111110010 1111101010 11101101010 0111 111111 01011100100 101010100111 0010010 111101111010 1111111110 111 011110111 011011 01110 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 1,536 |
Words | 327 |
Sentences | 15 |
Stanzas | 4 |
Stanza Lengths | 9, 26, 11, 5 |
Lines Amount | 51 |
Letters per line (avg) | 24 |
Words per line (avg) | 6 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 300 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 80 |
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Submitted on August 03, 2020
Modified on March 26, 2023
- 1:38 min read
- 102 Views
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