L' Ode à Himyar : Traduction de la qa⋅da himyariyya de Naš wā n b. Saīd, avec une introduction et des notes

What is it about?

This article offers a literary translation of and a commentary on the Qa
ṣīda Ḥimyariyya by Našwān b. Sa'īd (d. ?573/1178). The translation is based upon the collation of three editions: those by Kremer (1865), by Basset (1914) and the one found in al-Khulāṣ
a, an anonymous commentary on the poem. The present commentary emphasizes the coherence of the poem. The subject of the poem is the traditional history and genealogy of the pre-Islamic South Arabians. As for its form, each personage evoked is introduced by means of a rhetorical question: ‘Where is …?’ (ayna …), the answer (‘He is dead’) being generally clothed in figurative language, through metaphor or metonymy. The proper names of those called up from the past, moreover, are in some way or other made the object of word-play. One should not be deceived by the elegiac form: the general tone of the poem is epic.

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