It is the first time that the tunisian poet abul-qacim chabbi's collection of poems 'songs of life' has been translated into english. there is no doubt that the man was a great poet, extremely talented, but hopelessly underprivileged. his environment, his education and his disease were the sources of his strength and weakness, his agony and serenity, the reasons for his revolt and the causes of his failure, all at the same time. anxious, anguished, and rebellious, he was, wavering between the drive to destroy everything, as everything seemed inadequate and imperfect, and the need to save the remnants, to abide by the traditions.
indeed, he has been criticized for the tedious length of some of his poems, for the excessive and constant use of words relating to joy and sorrow, cheers and tears, and for the heart-rending abstraction or inappropriateness of some expressions. but still, he is a poet of rare talents, endowed with a sharp, constantly alert sensitivity, helped by a brilliant imagination continually building connections, creating metaphors, imposing forms of expression sometimes incomparable, a haunting rhythm, and a lively music. he had spent his life chasing a dazzling ideal, «a distant dawn», «a reshaped daybreak». he was not against his fellow poets, but in order to continue with the traditions of his predecessors and show that he was worthy of his contemporaries, he was constantly seeking originality, as was demonstrated by prof. ameur ghedira.
