This week I really enjoyed the variety of poems we read and were able to respond to. Zaid Shlah's Thirty-Three Beads on a String is a poem I had to read over three times to make sure I had an idea of the concept, and I thought a poem that needs that much thought deserves to be written about. I believe that in the poem the voice represented is spoken for a collective of people within a country that is fighting a constant war. He (Shlah) writes with a certain urgency and demand that you cannot turn away from. I found it interesting that his first lines are

I woke from the nightmare
of a gutted maqam.

I looked up the word maqam and found out that in Arabic it means place or rank, and in regards to music it means melodic or techniques of melody. So to start off the poem saying one has been awaken from a place it gives you opportunity to fill in that gap and wonder what eact place did you wake? Or how can one wake up from a place? A gutted place at that. So the choice of words to describe a situation is very genius and interesting than what I would be used to. He uses many Arabic words that I had to translate in order to understand. lol. Though I enjoyed doing the research because I learned that Shlah was using objects and unusual nouns to describe the moral of the poem.

One white dishdadha screams
with the brilliance of red.

Dishdadha being a type of garment worn, I would interpret this as the dishdadha was a very bright and noticeable red. The color red is used throughout this poem in reference to being superior or having a positive significance in Arabic culture. My favorite line is the 7th bead on the string

Faith, stitch by seam,
a garment I have sewn
to my skin.

This line is amazing. It has a biblical notion to it, very religious in it's sense. To see faith as a garment and to sew it in your skin makes me think that that action is done to permanently attach faith. Shlah becomes very specific with stitch by seam, making it clear that the garment is done with precision and detail. Every line in this poem has a number and the last number is 33, Shlah is using everyday objects and tools we use in daily life come alive with significance and religious value. To think of a country's struggles and triumphs as a piece of jewelry that is strategically put together to make a beautiful asset (yes I assume the finishing job will be stunning) I believe is a great way to express how you view you culture. Shlah finishes the poem with beautiful lines

Thirty-three beads on a string,
why pretend to know beyond
the presence of a click.

His voice is spoken through these objects (beads) and the instruments used to express them is the history of a culture through the perspective of the poet. Note that when you put beads on a string they will touch the previous bead place and the sound that comes from that is 'click'. So I love the fact that Shlah asks the question why pretend that you know what is going to happen after that click? We try our hardest to predict the future or have control over what will happen but the moral of the poem is, why try when it is not possible. You can never have sole control over your fate or destiny this world is filled with too many confounding variables, so it is a joke to think that you can......

-Dorothy