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Islamic Studies (Islamabad) 29:1 (1990)<br />
<strong>ARABIA</strong> <strong>IN</strong> <strong>YEATS'</strong> <strong>POETRY</strong><br />
NOTES AND COMMENTS<br />
ADNAN M. WAZZAN<br />
The Orient in general and Arabia in particular have fascina-<br />
ted the people in the West through the ages. 'The East is a career'<br />
Disraeli observed. The East represents a world of mystery-<br />
something unknown. It is a fertile soil for satisfaying the economic,<br />
historical, political and literary interests. Many Western men of<br />
letters have considered the Orient an untrodden world waiting to<br />
be discovered.<br />
The present paper attempts to trace the oriental elements in<br />
Yeats poetry in general with special emphasis on Arabia and Arabic<br />
sources. Earlier studies like that of S.B. Bushrui, 'Yeats's Arabic<br />
Interest' treated the topic from a different standpoint, con-<br />
centrating on a few examples only, whereas this work will lay<br />
greater stress on representation instances in this respect. F.F.<br />
Farag in his work, 'Oriental and Celtic Elements in the Poetry of<br />
W.B. Yeats' has examined the Eastern elements in Yeats' poetry<br />
without special reference to Arabic elements as the present study<br />
does.<br />
A native of Ireland, William Butler Yeats was born in the<br />
outskirts of Dublin in 1865, the son of the distinguished artist<br />
John Butler Yeats. 'Yeats came from the outer fringe of the Irish<br />
Protestant Ascendancy, from a rather better family than Shaw's,<br />
and perhaps from not quite such a good family as Wilde's.'* From<br />
1875 to 1880 Yeats received his education at Godolphin School in<br />
Hammersmith, London. In 1880 he joined the high school at Dublin.<br />
Yeats was unlikely to pass the entrance examinatior, to Trinity<br />
College Dublin, so he entered the school of Art, Dublin, where he<br />
became acquainted with George Russell and developed an interest<br />
in mystic religion and the supernatural. In 1886 Yeats decided to<br />
become a poet, he was encouraged by his father to do so. In 1891<br />
he wrote 'John Sherman and Dhoya', two years later he edited the<br />
poems of William Blake and in 1893, in collaboration with E. J.<br />
Ellis, edited the works of Blake in three volumes. In 1906 he<br />
edited Spenser's Works.<br />
Yeats' early study of Irish folklore, history, legends, and<br />
traditional Irish national themes alongside with the poet's<br />
unrequited love for Maud Gonne provided much of the subject<br />
matter for his poetry which remained within the framework of the
Pre-Raphaelite Style of the 1890s. However, the source of<br />
inspiration changed later, as F. F. Farag remarks.<br />
There is no doubt that the style and the subject matter of<br />
his early poems reveal a heterogeneous effort in the<br />
direction of the aesthetes whom his father taught him to<br />
admire. However, we cannot dispose of the whole period in<br />
this sweeping fashion. Although the Pre-Raphaelite diction of<br />
his poetry remained throughout this phase. Yeats's .inspiration<br />
after 1885 came from a different quarter. With the<br />
appearance of the Indian Missionary, Mohini Chatte ji on the<br />
scene, a new note entered Yeats's poetry.=<br />
Yeats was stimulated by the East, especially, by India and<br />
Arabia. The interest in India was not with the '~ndia of politicians<br />
or historians or travellers, but an India of pure romance which<br />
bears some subtle yet obvious relation to old romantic Ireland:!<br />
Similarly the interest in Arabia, too, related to an Arabia of 'pure<br />
romance' like the old romantic Ireland:<br />
1 do not wish to overestimate the importance of Arabia and<br />
the Arabs in the study of Yeats, but his interest in them in<br />
fact stands on the same level as his interest in Indian<br />
philose, Japanese drama, occult practices, magic and the<br />
theo~ophy.~<br />
W. B. Yeats attempted to establish a relationship between<br />
~urope and Asia by bringing to light those elements which are<br />
reconcilable. He dreamed of sowing oriental thought in the west.<br />
In fact several artists and men of letters shared Yeats9 preoccupa-<br />
tion with Orient. Laurence Binyon studied Japanese and Chinese<br />
painting, Florence Farr and Sturge Moore studied Buddhism, Ezra<br />
Pound and Arthur WaIey translated Japanese and Chinese works. In<br />
America Emerson and Whitman turned to the East. T.S. Eliot applied<br />
himself to Sanskrit. Max Muller was publishing translations of the<br />
literature of the East. Once, in a letter to his friend Ethel Mannin,<br />
Yeats wrote:<br />
Our tradition only permit us to bless, for the arts are an<br />
extention of the beautitudes. Blessed be heroic death<br />
(Shakespeare's tragedies), blessed be heroic life (Cervantes),<br />
blessed be the wise (Balzac). Then there is a still more<br />
convincing reason why we'should not admit ppaganda into<br />
our lives. I shall write out the style of The Ambian Nights<br />
(which I am reading daily).'<br />
From 1912 to 1915 yeats was , influenced by Rabindranath<br />
Tagore, in whose work, he observed. a supreme culture full of<br />
purity and passion. This made Yeats re-examine the nature of his<br />
vork and he 'kept an eye cocked for other Eastern sages.*a Yeats,<br />
thus stated in a letter to Olivia Shakespeare:
Isl&c Studies, 29:l (1990) 3<br />
I have constructed a myth but then one can believe in a<br />
myth-one only assents to philosophy- Heaven is an<br />
improvement of sense - one listens to music, one does not<br />
read Hegel's Logic. An oriental sage would understand even<br />
the very abstruse allusion to the L&l's Prayer.'<br />
Yeats' feelings towards Asia were mixed and based on the aspects<br />
which he wrote about. For instance, he was happy to find that<br />
'"The song of Amergin" is an ancient piece of pagan philosophy &I<br />
Ireldpd whose tone was Asiatic.'@ He wyt further to write in the<br />
introduction to the Upanidtadad that the Irish should have to<br />
discover in the East something ancestral.'' In fact, these are the<br />
ideas that he expressed in his work A V&onl@ after John Rhys had<br />
suggested, in 1888, in his writings that the home of the Celts<br />
might have been in Asia.11<br />
The interest shown in Arabia by the Western people,<br />
especially in Britain, was very prominant in the romantic era and<br />
was at the highest level during 1850-1852. When a large number of<br />
translations, travel books and studies appeared about the legacy of<br />
Arabia, its language and life. The interest of Yeats and his<br />
contemporaries Arabia was aroused especially after the publica-<br />
tion of Richard Francis Burton's translation of the Altabian Night6<br />
between 1885 and 1887. The Ambian Nigh& influenced Yeats<br />
to such an extent that he wrote a letter to his friend Ethel<br />
Mannin wishing to write some of his works in the manner and style<br />
of the AJcabian Night6.Iz The Altabian Nigm has been considered<br />
one of the greatest masterpieces of serious and sublime literature<br />
which stimulated and influenced Yeats greatly; and when he was<br />
asked in America which six books pleased and satisfied him best<br />
and most he placed The Ambian Night6 second to Shakespeare.ls<br />
The interest of Yeats in Arabia and things Arabic was stirred<br />
by many other factors also. Yeats was preoccupied with the occult<br />
and this led him to Eastern theosophy and to Arabic magic,<br />
philosophy and mysticism. This becomes very obvious since 1896<br />
when he came to know about Al-Fmbi and Avicenna (Ibn Sl)<br />
not as philosophers but as magicians of whom hk wrote about in<br />
'~osa Alchemica'.!! In 1908, Yeats learnt something about the<br />
activities of the Arab '~osicrucians' and was influenced by the<br />
teachings of Ara ben Shemesh, an Arab teacher who was orieally<br />
discovered by Dr. Felkin. Yeats also showed a great interest in<br />
Arabic folklore. Some other sources about the Arabs and Arabia<br />
which fascinated Yeats were Charles Doughty's book ~~~<br />
DuMa, T. E. Lawrence's work, The Seven MYim& & W4kfiz.m. Lord<br />
Dunsany's play The Tmt& a4 the A& and the translation of Seven<br />
Goeden Odw Pagan Ambia by W.S. Blunt and his wife. Yeats enjoyed<br />
the company of Sir Edward Ross, an authority on oriental<br />
languages from whom Yeats obtained some information about the<br />
East and Arabia." However, Yeats* interest in Arabia can be<br />
observed in the following letter he sent to lady Gregory:
Isldc Studies, 29: 1 ( 1990)<br />
Through the great gallery of the Treasure House<br />
Where banners of the Caliph hang, night-coloured<br />
But brilliant as the night's emb~oidery!~<br />
Kusta Ben Luka through whom Yeats retells the' autobiography of<br />
Harun Al-Rashid refers to his addressee as the Learned Treasure'<br />
of the good Cali~h. The identity of the Caliph being referred to<br />
was revealed as the wild Bedouin' and the name of the Caliph<br />
occurs only once in the entire poem. Yeats goes on to make mention<br />
of the which is also very popular in Arabic folklore. There<br />
is also the mention of Sand divination:<br />
Half running, dropped at the first ridge of the desert,<br />
And there marked out those emblems on the sand.''<br />
The original source for Kusta Ben Luka's character and story<br />
can be examined in the Afiakn Nigh:<br />
Although Yeats painted Kusta Ben Luka in the way that<br />
suited his own poetic purposes, Kusta was a real historical<br />
figure. Arab historians know him as a great translator and a<br />
brilliant doctor. not as a philosopher; what is known about<br />
his life is very scanty. He was a translator of mathematical<br />
and philosophical works, and in addition had distinguished<br />
himself in medicine, philosophy, geometry, numbers and music.<br />
He mastered both Greek and Arabic.='<br />
The Gift of Harun Al-Rashid' is essentially a manifestation of<br />
the restless search for truth that seems to be the lot of all men,<br />
from lrish heroes to Caliphs:<br />
Those terrible implacable straight lines<br />
Drawn through the wandering vegetative dream,<br />
Even those truths that when my bones are dust<br />
Must drive the Arabian host.21<br />
'~olomn to Sheba', and '.Solomon and the Witch' both take<br />
the form of. dialogues. Yeats reveals Sheba's, Arab race in both<br />
poems. These two poems are related to The Gift of Harun<br />
Al-Rashid'. Solomon and Sheba are symbolical characters<br />
representing, passion and wisdom, mind and heart, body and soul.<br />
Sheba's race is seen in '~olomon to Sheba' as follows:<br />
Sang Solomon to Sheba,<br />
And kissed her dusky face<br />
Sang Solomon to Sheba<br />
And kissed her Arab eyes.* *<br />
'.Solomon and the Witch' begins also with the revelation of Sheba's<br />
race:
And thus declared that Arab lady:"<br />
It might however be noted that the Chronicle of King<br />
Solomon and Queen Sheba had two versions. There is the Jewish<br />
version of the Qed Tutizment in the 'book of the Kings.' The other<br />
version is of course the Arabic source. The character of Solomon<br />
which yeats portrayed in these two poems is based on the Arabic<br />
source, Yeats sees Solomon as one:<br />
Who understood<br />
'Whatever has been said, sighed, sung,<br />
Howled, maiued+x barked, brayed, belled, yelled, cried<br />
crowed* '@<br />
The lines above stress that Yeats depicted Solomon's figure in<br />
accordance with the Arabic tradition, which states that Solomon<br />
understood and spoke the language of all birds and beasts and he<br />
held dominion over all the jinn. This is firmly stated in the Holy<br />
Qur'Zin. In two different places on reads:<br />
And Solomon was David's heir<br />
He said: "0 Ye people!<br />
We have been taught the speech<br />
Of Birds and on us<br />
Has been bestowed (a little)<br />
Of all things: this is<br />
Indeed Grace manifest (from God)<br />
And before Solomon were marshalled<br />
His hosts - of Jinns and men<br />
And birds and they were all kept in order and rank<br />
(27:16-17) "<br />
However,<br />
The narrative of the Queen Sheba is a folk tradition and<br />
belongs to the story-tellers of the East, while the story of<br />
Solomon as told by Arab minstrels is entirely different from<br />
that given in the OPd Tmment, where in the first thirteen<br />
verses of the first '~ook of Kings' we read of a pious,<br />
wealthy and quite human King. Anyone familiar with the<br />
figure of Sulaymb ibn DZGd (Solomon the son of David) or<br />
Sulaym'n al-IjakTm (Solomon the wise) in Arabic folklore,<br />
notably in The Aaabian Night&, will not be surprised to find<br />
that the Solomon of the Arabs is a totally different man<br />
from that of the Jews.2c<br />
Yeats* poem 'The Second Comingq might implicitly suggest the<br />
christian belief in the return of Jesus. Here again the deep roots<br />
of the Arabic elements of Yeats' poetry are first detected when he<br />
symbolically uses a falconer and his falcon and the loss in<br />
communication between them to signify man's strides in breaking<br />
with his indigenous ties:
1sIanic Studies. 29 : 1 ( 1990 ) '1 7<br />
The details of the poem offer some difficulty. The image of<br />
the falcon who is out of the falconer's control should not<br />
be localized as some have suggested, as an image of man<br />
loose from Christ; Yeats would not have cluttered the poem<br />
by referring to Christ both as falconer and as rocking<br />
cradle further on. *<br />
Apart from Yeats' symbolic used of falconry (a favourite sport<br />
among the Arabs), he deepens his Arabic romanticism in The<br />
Second Coming' by further using objects reminiscent of Arabia:<br />
Somewhere in sands of the desert<br />
A shape with lion body and the head of a man,<br />
A gaze blank and pitiless as the sun,<br />
1s moving its slow thighs, while all about it,<br />
Reel Shadows of the indginant desert bids.z<br />
The name Michael Robartes is nonoriental, but Yeats framed a<br />
strong link between Robartes and the Arabs. Michael Robartes,<br />
according to Yeats, was an English traveller in Arabia. He went to<br />
Damascus to learn Arabic, then proceeded to Makkah. The creation<br />
of Michael Robartes by yeats is an imitation like many other<br />
writers in English literature who made persons undertaking a<br />
journey like that of Robartes and travel in disguise as an Arab,<br />
spending some time among the Bedouins of the desert. It is possible<br />
that Yeats' creation of his character is drawn from books like<br />
Richard Burton's Peltllad Namative 06 a PZgtirnage to Al-Madina<br />
and Meccah (1855). Robartes in his journey eventually found himself<br />
among the tribe of the Judwali whose doctrines resemble those<br />
Yeats examined in Gi&w'~ Speculum Ang&.rrum et HominoluLm as<br />
he explained in a letter to Lady ~re~ory (which has been<br />
mentioned earlier).fy Robartes learnt frqm the Arabs about their<br />
religion and occult practices. The poem Michael Robartes and the<br />
Dancer' has the following passage:<br />
Opinion is not worth a rush;<br />
In this altar-piece the knight,<br />
Who grips his long spear so to push<br />
That dragon through the fading light,'.<br />
The image of a knight and dragon is reminiscent of the Arab<br />
Orient. The dragon still remains a powerful figure among certain<br />
tribes in the East.<br />
Although Yeats' interest in India surpassed his interest in<br />
Arabia, yet the matter of Arabia and the Arabs has a distinct<br />
place in the imaginary world of W.B. Yeats'. The belief of Yeats in<br />
the ancestral roots of the Irish in the Orient seems to have<br />
influenced him greatly. His interest in the Arabs and Arabia as a<br />
whole seems greater than his interest in Indian philosopy, Japanese<br />
drama and other particular oriental areas, though it was an Indian
38 Islamic Studies, 29 : 1 ( 1 W0 )<br />
missionary who opened his eyes to the richness of the Oriental<br />
world. That he ranked Aaakn N i g h second to<br />
Shakespearean's works shows how 'addicted' Yeats was to Arabia.<br />
NOTES AND REFERENCES<br />
G.S. Fraser. W.8. Yea4 (London: The British Council-Lungman. 1977).<br />
p. 11.<br />
F.F. Farag.'(Xiental and Celtic Elements in The ~ o e of h W.B. Yeats.'<br />
1865 W.8. Yea& 1965, edited by D.E.S. Maxwell and S.B. Bushmi.<br />
(Ibadan University. 1965). p. 33.<br />
C.L. Wrenn.' W.8. Yea&:<br />
CO. 1920). p. ?-<br />
A mItaIty Sldy, (London: Thomas Murby &<br />
S.B. Bushrui, Yeats's Interest'. Yea& C e h w , , (London: Doleman.<br />
N.Y.. 1965), p. 280.<br />
Allan Wade (ed.) The Lttt@U 06 W.B. Ytatb, (London: Rupert<br />
Hort-Davis, 1954), p. 832.<br />
Richard Ellmann, The 'Identity 06 Yea&,<br />
19541, p. 183.<br />
Allan Wade (ed.) op. d, p. 781.<br />
(London: Macmillan & CO..<br />
S. B. Bushrui, op. d, p. 184.<br />
'Ibid. Yeats in this respect was independent in the adaptation of his<br />
sources of inspiration. He approved what complied with his ideas and<br />
thoughts and gave it the stamp of his own poetic personality as<br />
based on intuition not that of logic or scientific thinking.<br />
W.B. Yeats, A Ohion, (London: Macmillan & Co.. 1937). p. 257.<br />
Sir John Rhys. Lecau on the ad Gtowth 06 Religion ao<br />
I@u&.ated by Ceetic Heathendom, (London, 1888).<br />
Allan Wade (ed.) op. d p. 781.<br />
S. B. Bushrui, op. cit, p. 292.<br />
W. B. Yeats '~osa Alchemica', Mythobgiu, (London: 19591, p. 282.<br />
S. B. Bushrui, op. cit, pp. 294-296.<br />
Allan Wade (ed.) op. cit, p. 644.<br />
S. B. Bushrui, op. tit, pp. 287-288.<br />
Macmillan Editors, W. 8. Yea& Co&cted P~z~A, (London: Macmillan.<br />
1978) p. 511.<br />
'Ibid, p. 518.<br />
S. B. Bushrui, op. cit, p. 300.<br />
W. 8. Yea& C&cted Poem, p. 517.<br />
ibid, p. 155.<br />
'Ibid, p. 199.<br />
rbid.<br />
Translation by Abdullah Yusuf Ali.<br />
S. B. Bushrui. op. cit, p. 309.<br />
Richard Ellmann, op. cit, pp. 258-259.<br />
W. 8. Yea& Co&cted Poem, op. a p. 211.<br />
Norman Jeffares. W. 8. Yea& Man and Poet, (London: Routledge &<br />
Kegan Paul, 1978), p. 196.<br />
W. 8. Yea&' Co&cted WO~ZA, op. Cif, p. 197.