Page 57 - Arabian Studies (II)

Yemeni Literature in Hajjah Prisons 1367/1948-137411955 47

to come to terms with despair and, step by step, to overcome
difficulties. Lips started to smile again, weariness and fatigue were
relieved by literary anecdotes, verses were recalled, and tales and
morals drawn from history started to circulate among the prison
inmates. These lifted up their souls even if only for brief moments to
higher spheres. Literary sessions took place and discussion circles
were convened; jokes, maqamahs, poems and tales were exchanged,
and thus the otherwise oppressive and miserable time was killed in a
pleasant manner.
They also started working out ways and means of improving their
living conditions and making their hardships more bearable, such as
by repairing the lavatories and cleaning up their living quarters. They
planned to seek permission to bring water from the cistern (birkah)
of Hawrah instead of the birkah of al-Za‘balI. They asked permission
to have changes of clothes and to write to their families. To achieve
all this they would plead with the Imam or his deputy in eloquent
prose and poetry and by letter and telegram, in order that he might
reconsider their case.
They used to compose their verses and messages and commit them
to memory without pen and paper since these things were not
allowed into the prison. Then they would dictate what they wanted
to write to one of the guards, or sometimes write it down with his
pen while he stood by watching. This difficulty, however, was
eventually overcome by resorting to some amusing tricks to which I
shall later refer.
This is one side of the story. On the other we find that the hearts
of many poets were filled with distress and despair on account of the
deaths of certain of their friends. They composed elegies which in
broken voices they used to recite to their companions in mourning
for the departed and for solace and consolation. One of the most
outstanding of these elegies is that which Ibrahim al-Ha<JranI wrote
on the martyr Sayyid ‘Abdullah al-WazIr of which the opening verse
is:

z\ •b/JU r ‘Culli *1*4*1*
f

As the martyr MuhyT al-DTn al-‘AnsI was led out to be executed, he
sang:

a-04

<*j)4 gP ^ 3
Ll^>!j