South Tunisian Bedouin Poetry in Written Sources Veronika RITT-BENMIMOUN* 1. Introduction Dialectal oral poetry is part of the cultural heritage of the originally Bedouin population of South Tunisia. This paper will focus on the dialectal poetry of the Nafzāwa region, which is situated to the south and southeast of the Šaṭṭ al-Ǧarīd (Chott el-Jerid). The poets cited here live either in Dūz, an important oasis in the Nafzāwa region belonging to the Maṛāzīg tribe, or in ilFawwāṛ and Ġēdma, belonging above all to the Ġrēb-tribe. The term “dialectal oral poetry” or aš-šiʕr aš-šaʕbī is used here as a general term for the qaṣīdas, although some authors prefer the expression aš-šiʕr al-malḥūn 1. In a lecture held at a conference in Morocco four years ago2, I stated that the poets will risk becoming marginalized if in their poetry they stick to their old nostalgic view of the past and the old topics, because the younger generation is more interested in hearing about the present and its problems3. I also remarked that the opportunities poets have to present their poetry to larger audiences have become fewer4. Poets can still present their qaṣīdas for money at weddings and at such festivals as the Sahara Festival in Dūz, which takes * 1 2 3 4 Institute of Oriental Studies, University of Vienna. See for example al-Marzūgī 1967: 51. Paper presented at the Fourth International Conference on Popular Culture in the Middle East and North Africa - Ifrane (Morocco), April 2006. See Ritt-Benmimoun 2007: 55-56. This is especially because the so-called mōgaf, a competition between poets which took place at weddings, no longer exists (see Ritt-Benmimoun 2007: 55). place annually at the end of December5, but they are obliged to limit the themes of their poems to topics specified by the organizer6. 2. Printed poetry collections Despite these bleak prospects, it seems that in Tunisia some kind of revival of dialectal poetry is taking place. The recording of poetry on cassettes has been done for some decades7, but the printing and publishing of poetry collections in the Nafzāwa region is a new phenomenon. What is of interest here is the question of whether or not poetry that has always been transmitted orally can survive “on paper”. Poets are very keen to record poems, and the digitalizing of old and new poems on DVD continues apace; but the publishing of written poetry collections has been undertaken as yet by only a few poets. My corpus consists of eight books or pamphlets – all of them printed, not handwritten8 – that I bought or were given to me by their authors over the past few years. In chronological order they are: 1. ʕAbd al-Laṭīf al-Marzūgī, Bilgāsim (compiler) (2000): Kunūz min aš-šiʕr aš-šaʕbī. This poet originates from and still lives in Dūz. The words to be glossed after each poem are provided with numbers, but the annotation is not done in a consistent manner: sometimes the word is explained only in, say, the third strophe even though it has already appeared in the first or second. 2. ʕAbd al-Laṭīf al-Marzūgī, Bilgāsim (2000): al-Qawāfī fī l-fayāfī. It was first edited in 1997. The words to be explained after each poem are underlined in the poems. The glossary is not vocalized but sometimes the sequence of the vowels in a word is explained. 3. ʕAbd al-Laṭīf al-Marzūgī, Bilgāsim (2008): Yā šams. Šiʕr Bilgāsim al-Marzūgī. 4. ʕAbd al-Laṭīf, Bilgāsim (compiler) (2008): Dīwān al-marḥūm aššāʕir al-Ḥabīb ʕAbd al-Laṭīf. The compiler presents poems of his late father. 5. ʕBīd, Naṣr (2006): Fī ḍiyāfat al-bādiya. Dīwān šiʕr šaʕbī. This poet is from Ġēdma. 5 6 7 8 334 There are always about forty to fifty participants. In 1968, its second year, it had only eleven poets (see Ṣadā ṣ-ṣaḥrāʔ 1987: 25). See Ritt-Benmimoun 2007: 55. Poems can become extraordinarily popular when they are set to music and sung by a popular singer. There have always been poets who wrote their poetry down and collected it in handwritten collections. ʕAlī l-Aswad stated in an interview I recorded in December 2005 that whereas in the past he had memorized his poems by reciting them over and over again he now writes them down because the possibilities for reciting poetry became fewer. De los manuscritos medievales a internet 6. Mabrūk, Muḥammad (2002): Šōg šōg. He lives in il-Fawwāṛ. This anthology is only partly vocalized. Some of the poems published in this book can also be found on Mabrūk’s webpage http://sabriatourath.blogspot.com/ where vocalization is very scarce. 7. ʕIṭr al-badāwa. Qaṣāʾid šiʕriyya (2002/2006). The editor of this collection of unpublished poetry (grey literature) is not given. The vowel signs are added in long-hand to the printed text and often more confusing than helpful. It is obvious that the vocalizing was done by more than one person, since there are great differences in its quality. Also printing mistakes are corrected by hand. The names of the poets are not always mentioned. This collection contains some poems by contemporary poets not mentioned in other books. There is no glossary. 8. ʕAbd al-ʕAð̣īm, al-Bašīr: Pamphlet with the poem he contributed to al-mahraǧān ad-duwalī li-ṣ-ṣaḥrāʾ bi-dūz. ad-dawra 37: aṣ-ṣaḥrāʾ fī ʕuyūn aššuʕarāʾ 9. His poem is not vocalized, but proper names are printed in color. The oldest collection of my set (the first edition of al-Qawāfī fī l-fayāfī) dates to the year 1997. Thus the writing of poetry for printed publication seems to be a very recent phenomenon10. The appearance of the first poetry collections may well have caused some kind of chain reaction, motivating other poets to do the same thing. What is also very evident is that poetry is still the prerogative of men, because no poetesses are represented among our collections. I include four literary studies of Tunisian poetry which quote from, or print, poems from the Nafzāwa region: 9. Bilġayṯ, al-ʕĪdī (compiler) (2003): ar-Riḥla fī š-šiʕr aš-šaʕbī. Bilġayṯ’s poetry collection, for which he is only the compiler, is different from the others in that he concentrates on one specific theme of dialectal poetry. He not only prints the poems, he also analyzes their contents, their formal structure and their rhyme. At the beginning of the book he explains in Standard Arabic the words most commonly used in this type of poetry and gives examples of their use in the poems. In one poem foreign words and place names are put in quotation marks. At the end of the book is some biographical information about the poets. 10. al-Marzūgī, Muḥammad (1967): al-Adab aš-šaʕbī fī tūnis. The cited poems are vocalized. Very brief biographies of the poets are provided. 11. al-Marzūgī, Muḥammad & al-Marzūgī, ʕAlī (1979): Maʕārik waʔabṭāl. Ṯawrat al-marāzīg 1943. The vocalization of the poems is added by hand. Every poem is followed by a glossary. 12. Mubārak, Ḥasan (2001): al-Muxtaṣar fī š-šiʕr aš-šaʕbī. The words explained in the footnotes do not include typical dialectal words. Sometimes 9 10 This is the topic of the competition. But poets have always written down their poems for different reasons. V. Ritt-Benmimoun, South Tunisian Bedouin poetry in written sources 335 the vocalization of the poems makes it possible to differentiate between different dialects11. Muḥammad al-Marzūgī, who began publishing in the 1960s, is the person who has done the most for conserving the traditional oral heritage of South Tunisia. His leading role in this endeavor is stressed in almost every work on dialectal poetry and in every poetry anthology. He complained that traditions are fading away and traditional songs and poems becoming forgotten12. Many articles on poetry were published in the periodicals Institut des Belles Lettres Arabes13, al-Fikr, and in Revue Tunisienne, but their emphasis was on the poetry of the Sāḥil. There are a variety of reasons why the publishing of collections has been undertaken by only a few poets: Poets that are members of cultural committees or have other official positions seem to have the advantage in this field. Bilgāsim ʕAbd al-Laṭīf, the author or compiler of four out of the eight collections examined here, works in the local museum in Dūz and was president of the poets’ committee of the Gbilli district. He is also the area’s “official poet”, presenting verses appropriate to the occasion when any highly ranked Tunisian politician visits Dūz during the Sahara Festival. Thus publishing a poetry collection does not seem to be a matter of financial means only but also of political conformance: The content of the poems of course must conform to government policies14. In some of the collections the first poem is dedicated to the waṭan Tunisia (ʕAbd al-Laṭīf 2000b: 9-10, ʕAbd al-Laṭīf 2008a: 9-10; Mabrūk 2002: 6-9). The Ministry of Culture, through the municipalities, encourages the collection and recording of oral traditions with financial grants, because it considers this an important contribution to cultural development. Another factor in the publication of anthologies is simply time. Most of the poets have full-time jobs because poetry does not contribute to their income but is only a leisure activity; thus they have only a limited amount of time to work on an anthology. 11 12 13 14 336 Also of importance in this field is: Xrayyif, Muḥyī d-Dīn (1991): aš-Šiʕr aš-šaʕbī t-tūnisī. Awzānuhū wa-ʔanwāʕuhū. Only some of its poems are from South Tunisia, however. The glossary at the end of the book is alphabetical but within the individual letter-headings there is no order at all. In one of his other monographs al-Marzūgī includes traditional songs and poems as well: Maʕa l-badw fī ḥallihim wa-tarḥālihim. Most of the poems presented in IBLA are provided with transcriptions. This diminishes the importance of the Arabic text (which is not vocalized), since the reader does not have to rely on it only. The same is true for Hans Stumme’s work, which was published at the turn of the 20th century. The poetry published in Arabic script by Marty 1936-37 is neither provided with a transcription nor vocalized. The poet ʕAlī l-Aswad stated in an interview I recorded in December 2005 that poems are more dangerous than a gun and that politicians are very much aware of this fact and thus control it. De los manuscritos medievales a internet 3. The audience It will now be considered to which kind of audience the written poetry and its oral counterpart on cassettes or CD appeal and whether or not the published collections are serious competition for the recorded ones, or merely more prestigious. According to a bookseller in Dūz, those most interested in the published anthologies are visitors from the eastern part of Southern Tunisia at the time of the Sahara Festival, not the Maṛāzīg themselves. However, when looking at the actual audience at this festival, it is obvious that the majority of poetry fans belong to the older generation of the Maṛāzīg. That the live presentation of the poetry is of particular importance to the audience is clear from their enthusiastic reception to the reciting and their shouts of ʕāwid ʕāwid “repeat, repeat!” to a poet when they want to hear a couple of verses again. But most of this older generation is illiterate. So who are the printed poetry collections actually for? It seems that the main purpose of these anthologies is not to spread poetry and make it accessible to a broader audience, but simply to preserve it and to protect it from oblivion. Every introduction and foreword to these collections urges the preservation of the cultural heritage of which this dialectal poetry is an important part. The writers of the introductions complain that not enough oral material is being collected and written down. The preservationist purposes for the publication of poems by deceased poets are obvious: these important works with their often-cited verses must not be forgotten. Muḥammad Mabrūk states that the preservation of dialectal poetry is the responsibility of every poet, the audience and its critics (Mabrūk 2002: 3). Ḥasan Mubārak (2001: 12) goes further, stating that it is the collective responsibility of the Tunisian citizens. In his introduction to Kunūz min aš-šiʕr aš-šaʕbī, Bilgāsim ʕAbd al-Laṭīf, the anthology’s editor and publisher, and himself a well-known poet, deplores the fact that in some books poems are presented with “poet unknown” and some cassettes and CDs of poems put to music do not identify the poet, simply writing turāṯ on the cover (ʕAbd al-Laṭīf 2000a: 7). Because he wanted to make the poems more accessible to the general reader Bilgāsim ʕAbd al-Laṭīf included in this collection poems that were already published elsewhere with explanations of “difficult” words (ʕAbd al-Laṭīf 2000a: 7)15. And a last but not least reason that many believe the dialectal poems must be preserved is that they are a mirror in which readers can recognize themselves. In his introduction to Naṣr ʕBīd’s collection, Muḥammad l-Aḥwal affirms that these poems will encourage the reader or listener to admire the Bedouins and their life style (ʕBīd 2006: 8). Because the collection of poetry 15 The two poems the poet talks about are actually already provided with glossaries in their original source; see al-Marzūgī & al-Marzūgī 1979: 174-178; 189-197. V. Ritt-Benmimoun, South Tunisian Bedouin poetry in written sources 337 into anthologies enhances its prestige, il-ʕĪdī Bilġayṯ (2003: 11) and Muḥammad al-Marzūgī (1967: 237) believe that the publication of dialectal poetry will increase interest in it and can result in more oral material being collected and written down. In al-Marzūgī’s opinion, poetry is a contemporary witness of political and historical events and can be used as a reference work (al-Marzūgī 1967: 74); thus, he thinks, it should receive the same treatment as historical documents16. 4. Oral versus written poetry Thus the second question has already been answered: Written poetry is not in competition with its recorded variant. Quite the contrary. Indeed, it is very common to have one’s favorite songs and poems turned on CD’s or DVD’s. But something has to be considered here: CD’s and DVD’s are mainly the vehicle of the younger generation whereas cassettes are still favored by the main fans of poetry, the older men. The latter all possess cassetterecorders; but CD-players are still an unfamiliar tool for them. Newly released cassettes will be played for example on the Thursday market day in the shops in Dūz to catch the attention of the elderly men. However, the interest poetry now gets in the media, especially on TV17, and the shift many poets have made to modern topics, describing modern daily life and commenting on contemporary problems, might succeed in arousing the younger generation’s interest in the poetry. And they have other means for listening to the poetry besides CD’s and DVD’s – specifically, by saving a poem on their mobile phone like they do songs. So the poets are first and foremost concerned with getting their poems recorded and only second with getting them printed. The oral component of poetry can be combined with the written one on the Internet. The webpage http://marsad.blogspot.com appeared in 2007 and is titled ‫“ م صد ال اك الشع ي‬the observation ward of the popular memory”. This webpage calls for the preservation of the cultural heritage and puts every kind of oral literature online. The texts of both old and contemporary poems are at one’s disposal in blogs18, and audio of some of them is offered19. One 16 17 18 338 The poet Muḥammad Mabrūk stated in an interview I recorded in November 2005 that his main reason for publishing an anthology was that a book is something lasting. Although in his opinion young people prefer reading poetry to listening to it he admitted that, before deciding to publish his anthology, he was afraid that no one would read it. Beginning in February 2009 a television program called bēt iš-šiʕaṛ/iš-šiʕǝr “the tent/the poetry verse” committed to dialectal poetry and traditional songs has been broadcast every Friday night. This is an important step in the introduction of the cultural heritage of the South to a broader audience. All of the blogs are put on line by ‫ابو ن م الم وقي‬. The viewers have the possibility to comment on them. De los manuscritos medievales a internet has to bear in mind that a vocalization of poems that can be listened to is quite negligible. A lot of theoretical knowledge about poetry is presented as well as poets’ biographies. The site gives accounts of festivals that have taken place and informs the viewer about everything concerning poetry. Meanwhile some poets, most of whom have not published books, have their own subweb pages20. Because the Internet offers many possibilities for lay-out, the formal aspects of the poems published on the Internet vary from poem to poem. Technical devices like colors for the headlines, the refrain, or the proper names are used. Poetry from books appears, in some cases even the word lists being taken over21. Usually, however, there is no glossary. Many contemporary poems are available only as audio, though others are provided with their texts. 5. Arabic script and vocalization Now it will be considered how well the Arabic script and the vocalization in the printed collections reflect the actual pronunciation of the dialect as spoken in the Nafzāwa region of Southern Tunisia. This Bedouin dialect is considered rather archaic for a Maghrebi dialect, since traits of the short vowel a in open unstressed syllables are kept and even the feminine forms of the plural of verbs and pronouns are still in use. We find the vocalization varies from collection to collection and sometimes from one poem to the next. Among my collections is Naṣr ʕBīd’s Fī ḍiyāfat al-bādiya, which is provided neither with vocalization22 nor a glossary. Not even one word is explained. So to catch the meanings and know the correct pronunciations, one must either read the poems while listening to their recordings – if they exist – or know this dialect very well. In some of the other collections every single word is vocalized, thus presenting the correct pronunciation of the dialect. It is really impressive how some of the dialectal features have been mirrored so clearly. Because in most of the Tunisian dialects all the phonemes of old Arabic are represented, with the exception of hamza, and ḍ and ẓ, which have 19 20 21 22 Many of the older entries cannot be listened to anymore. Either the files are deleted or there is no more memory capacity available. http://ridhaabdellatif.blogspot.com/; http://alilaswad.blogspot.com/; http://www.bougenna.blogspot.com/; http://marzougui2.blogspot.com/; http://sabriatourath.blogspot.com/ Also the webpage http://www.marazig.net/ plays an important role for the preservation of poetry. It offers many poems for listening and some for reading. But their source is not always cited. See e.g. on http://marsad.blogspot.com/ 2009_01_01_archive.html (blog on 21.01.2009; access on 29.03.2010) the poem bikītī-š by ʕAlī ṣ-Ṣīd, already published in al-Marzūgī & al-Marzūgī 1979: 220-222, or ð̣aḥð̣āḥ by the poet Muḥammad iṭ-Ṭawīl, already published in Bilġayṯ 2003: 28-34. Only šadda is sometimes written. V. Ritt-Benmimoun, South Tunisian Bedouin poetry in written sources 339 melted into the interdental emphatic sound ð̣, the consonantal structure of a word is very evident. The feature considered most typical of Bedouin dialects, the voiced realization (g) of q, is not regularly represented in the writing, but when used it appears with the in Tunisia typically used letter ‫ڤ‬, as in ‫ شوڤ‬šōg (Mabrūk 2002: 13). It seems that of all the grammatical features typical of this dialect, none is really represented consistently: an example for one feature will be opposed by an example of its contrary. So the examples presented here are only tendencies, and display the inconsistencies involved in putting an Arabic dialect into Arabic script. All of Bilgāsim ʕAbd al-Laṭīf’s books are similar to each other in the structure and vocalization of words. As already mentioned, the vocalization in some of the works is very strict and almost no letter is left without a sign. In ʕIṭr al-badāwa even waṣla is occasionally written. But it also seems the more signs there are, the more mistakes occur. In the following some features are discussed that are representative of the spoken dialect: 5.1. Phonological features Sometimes the phonemic ultra-short vowels are represented, e.g. ‫بعيد‬ biʕīda (ʕAbd al-Laṭīf 2008b: 46); ‫ الجمل‬iž-ž imal (ʕAbd al-Laṭīf 2000b: 19); ْ ِ giʕad (ʕAbd al-Laṭīf 2000a: 77), but often in the wrong way as ْ ‫ ﹶﻜ‬which should actually be sikan (Mabrūk 2002: 6); and ‫ نزل‬which is nizal (Mabrūk 2002: 10). Anaptyctic vowels are occasionally used to split open consonant clusters: between three consonants in the middle of a word, e.g. ‫ تع في‬tiʕǝrfi (ʕAbd alLaṭīf 2000b: 19); between two consonants in the middle of a word, e.g. ‫كت ه‬ kit әba (ʕAbd al-Laṭīf 2000a: 32); between two consonants at the end of a word, e.g. ‫ ك ت‬kunǝt (ʕAbd al-Laṭīf 2008b: 56); ‫ َِ ﹾ‬al ǝf (ʕAbd al-Laṭīf 2008b: 35); or at the beginning of a word in front of two consonants, e.g. ‫ات حب‬ ǝ traḥḥib (ʕBīd 2006: 3); ‫ إنجحتي‬ǝnžiḥti (ʕAbd al-Laṭīf 2000b: 9). Even the opening of consonant clusters between two words can be taken into account: In this case the last letter of a word is provided with a kasra when the next word starts with the article or two consonants. Very often these vowels do not correspond to the actual pronunciation and are written where there should be sukūn – for example in ‫( تزيد‬ʕAbd al-Laṭīf 2008b: 86), which is actually әdzīd; or ‫نحس‬, which is әnḥiss (Mabrūk 2002: 10); or ‫ن يح‬, which is ǝnṭīḥ (Mabrūk 2002: 87); or ‫ح ھ‬, which is ḥubbha (Mabrūk 2002: 24). On the other hand Ḥasan Mubārak and Muḥammad alMarzūgi (but not in all his poems: see e.g. ‫ متت‬mitǝt (al-Marzūgī 1967: 127); ‫ نظيفه‬nið̣īfa (al-Marzūgī 1967: 129)) tend to use sukūn instead of an ultra-short phonemic or anaptyctic vowel. The vocalization of al-ʕĪdī Bilġayṯ is sometimes very Standard Arabic: e.g. ‫تم يت‬, which is timannīt (Bilġayṯ 2003: 73); 340 De los manuscritos medievales a internet and ‫( ون مته‬Bilġayṯ 2003: 73), which should be w-nisәmta. The same is true for Muḥammad Mabrūk: for example ‫( تت لط‬Mabrūk 2002: 94), which should be titxallaṭ. A doubled consonant in a closed syllable is usually not provided with a šadda. But Bilġayṯ writes šadda and sukūn together on one character, e.g. ‫آ‬ ‫( لزني‬Bilġayṯ 2003: 19), and ‫( ال‬Bilġayṯ 2003: 24). Emphatic consonants that are etymologically non-emphatics are usually not reflected in the written form23. hamza-writing: In the majority of cases the long vowel or semivowel that takes the place of the hamza is used – as in ‫ اي‬zāyir (ʕBīd 2006: 3), but ‫غ ئ‬ recte ġāyba (ʕBīd 2006: 15); ‫ تق ا‬taqṛa (ʕBīd 2006: 20), but ‫( ن دأ‬ʕAbd al-Laṭīf 2008b: 23), ‫( واء‬Mabrūk 2002: 6) and ‫( الصح اء‬ʕAbd al-Laṭīf 2000b: 11). The imāla is written at the end of a noun or a verb: ‫ ال مي‬is-simē (ʕBīd 2006: 68); ‫ جي‬žē (ʕBīd 2006: 86); ‫ المي‬il-mē (ʕIṭr: poem ʕa-l-qurʔān); ‫ ال ي‬issinē (ʕAbd al-Laṭīf 2000b: 24); but ‫( ج ء‬ʕAbd al-Laṭīf 2000b: 9). The diphthong aw is correctly written ā in a pretonic syllable: ‫م جو‬ (Bilġayṯ 2003: 58). Assimilations, especially of two sibilants (ž>z), are reflected; e.g. ‫عزو‬ ʕazūz (ʕBīd 2006: 79); but ‫ عج يز‬recte ʕazāyiz (ʕBīd 2006: 5); ‫ ب لزو‬b-iz-zūz (ʕAbd al-Laṭīf 2008b: 62). Other assimilations are usually not reflected, but in a poem on the internet can be found ‫ وا‬w-әddaṛṛab and ‫ اطل‬әṭṭuḷḷ (http://marsad.blogspot.com/2008/12/blog-post_15.html; access 29.03.2010). 5.2. Morphological features Naṣr ʕBīd uses for the feminine ending -a, and ‫ ـه‬for the suffix of the 3.p.m.sg. -a. Most of the other poets use the letter ‫ ـه‬for both, and only in the status constructus of an iḍāfa-construction, which represents the actual pronunciation. Sometimes -it is used in nouns and verbs instead of -at: ‫ جت‬which should be žat (Xrayyif 1991: 53); ‫ مشت‬which should be mišat (Xrayyif 1991: 53)24; ‫ ش تھ‬which is dašratha (ʕAbd al-Laṭīf 2000a: 46). The lengthening of the a of the singular fem. ending in the perfect tense when provided with a suffix starting with a vowel is taken into account: žat “she came” becomes žāta “she came to him”: ‫( ﺠ‬ʕBīd 2006: 41). The writing of the ending of the 3.p.m.pl. is either with or without alif alwiqāya: ْ‫( ﺭ‬Bilġayṯ 2003: 24); ْ ‫( ﺠ‬ʕAbd al-Laṭīf 2000a: 77), but ْ ‫ﹺ‬ (Bilġayṯ 2003: 53). 23 24 Only al-Marzūgī 1967: 70 explains once in the footnotes that a written s is actually pronounced as ṣ. This person of dialectal III.w/y-verbs in the perfect is occasionally written with a long ā: ‫ﺠ ﹾ‬ (al-Marzūgī 1967: 66) which should be žat. V. Ritt-Benmimoun, South Tunisian Bedouin poetry in written sources 341 The prefix of the 3rd person present tense carries different signs: ْ‫ْ ﺠ‬ ywāžhu (ʕIṭr: poem ṛāḥat ayyām il-ʕizz w-әnsīnāhum); ْ‫ ﺭ‬ydūṛ (ʕIṭr: poem nās w-nās); ‫ ﺭ‬ydīr (ʕIṭr: poem āš dirt-lak min ʕēb); ْ ِ ybān (ʕAbd al-Laṭīf 2000a: 47); ْ‫ ﺇ ْ ِﺢ‬yṣiḥḥ (http://alilaswad.blogspot.com/2008/12/blogpost_21.html; access on 29.03.2010). The article in front of a noun or adjective that begins with a vowel loses its alif: ‫ ﺭ‬l-uxṛa (ʕBīd 2006: 4); ‫ ل‬l-aṣǝl (ʕBīd 2006: 54; but on the same page ‫ ﺠ ;) ﻷ ل‬l-aždād (ʕBīd 2006: 68). Personal pronouns are reflected according to their pronunciation: ‫ ﻨ‬anē (ʕBīd 2006: 4), but ‫( ﻨ‬Mabrūk 2002: 24); ‫( ﺇﻨ‬http://alilaswad.blogspot.com/ 2008/11/blog-post_26.html; access on 29.03.2010)25. The relative pronoun is represented as il-: ‫ ﺇل ﻜ ﻨ‬il-kānu (ʕBīd 2006: 5); or alla, alli, illi (ʕBīd 2006: 49); ‫( ﹸ ﱢ‬ʕAbd al-Laṭīf 2000a: 75); ْ‫ل‬ (http://alilaswad.blogspot.com/2008/12/blog-post_21.html; access on 29.03.2010); ِْ ‫ ﺤ ﹺ ﹴ ﺯﹺﺭ‬ḥabīb-in ziṛaʕ-li and ِْ ْ‫( ﺤ ﹺ ﹺ ِﻨﹾﺯﺭ‬ʕIṭr: poem ḥabībin ziṛaʕ-li i-ð̣imīri ġuṣṣa); ‫ ﺸ‬šayy-in wigaʕ (ʕIṭr: poem āš dirt-lak min ʕēb). The marker for the future is either ‫ – ت‬e.g. ‫( ت يجي وا‬al-Marzūgī 1967: 151) – or : ‫( تيمشيله‬ʕBīd 2006: 34). Conjunctions are represented in several different forms: for “after” baʕdin: ْ ‫( ْ ﺇ‬Mabrūk 2002: 54); ْ ِ ْ (ʕAbd al-Laṭīf 2000b: 11); ٍ ْ (ʕAbd alLaṭīf 2000a: 18); ْ ِ ِ ْ (ʕAbd al-Laṭīf 2000a: 34); for “when” waqt-in/wagtin: ْ ِ ‫( ﹾ‬ʕIṭr: poem yā wālda); ٍ ‫( ﭭﹾ‬ʕAbd al-Laṭīf 2000b: 21); ْ ِ ِ ‫( ﹾ‬alMarzūgī 1967: 131); ْ ِ ٍ ‫( ﹾ‬ʕAbd al-Laṭīf 2000a: 54); taww-in: ْ ‫( ﹶ ﱢ‬ʕAbd al-Laṭīf 2000a: 90); ْ ‫( ﹶ ﱢ‬ʕAbd al-Laṭīf 2000a: 70). The conjunction “and” (pronounced u or w) is provided with different vowels: in ʕIṭr in front of two consonants ‫ ﹺ‬, in front of one ْ , e.g. ‫ﹾ‬ ْ w-sāʕāt and ْ ‫ ﹺﻨﹾ ِ ﹶﻨ‬w-ǝnsīnāhum ә (ʕIṭr: poem ṛāḥat ayyām il-ʕizz w- nsīnāhum); ْ ْ ‫ ﹺ‬w-ǝʕyūn (al-Marzūgī 1967: 128); ْ ‫ ﹺ ﹾ ﹶ‬w-il-xadd (al-Marzūgī 1967: 128); in front of an afʕālscheme: ِ ‫ ﻨﹾ‬w-andādi (Bilġayṯ 2003: 73)26. Prepositions tend to represent the real pronunciation: ‫ﻷ ﺭ‬ ʕa-l-asʕāṛ (ʕBīd 2006: 3); ‫ ل‬ʕal- (ʕBīd 2006: 11); ‫ ﹾ‬ʕal- (Bilġayṯ 2003: 64); ʕa-l-wāldīn (ʕBīd 2006: 49); ʕa-l-wiṭā (ʕBīd 2006: 111). The suffix for the first person sg. ʕalayya has several forms: ‫( ﹶ ﱠ‬ʕAbd al-Laṭīf 2000a: 14); ْ ‫( ﹶﱠ‬ʕAbd al-Laṭīf 2000a: 35); or ‫( ﹶ ﱠ‬ʕAbd al-Laṭīf 2000a: 90). The way this suffix is written can also depend on the rhyme letter. min: mi-l-biʕ ǝd (ʕBīd 2006: 91); ْ‫ﺸﺭ‬ ‫ ْ ﹺ ﱠ‬mn-iš-šar ǝg (Bilġayṯ 2003: ǝ 25); with the suffix for the 3.p.sg.m.: ْ ‫ ِ ِﻨ‬min h (Bilġayṯ 2003: 58). 25 ‫ِﺇﻨﹾ ﹺ‬ A long ī for the feminine ending is also sometimes used for a verb in the singular, e.g. ِ ْ‫ﺠﺤ‬ nžiḥti (ʕAbd al-Laṭīf 2000b: 9). It is often or , as in Bilġayṯ 2003, even if it is not so pronounced. ǝ 26 342 De los manuscritos medievales a internet fi-: normally ِ ; but ‫ﺭ ﺠ‬ w-dagḷa fi-ʕarāžīn (ʕBīd 2006: 4); with the suffix for the 1.p.sg.: ‫( ِ ﱠ‬Bilġayṯ 2003: 50); ‫( ِ ﱠ‬al-Marzūgī & al-Marzūgī 1979: 224). ǝ ǝ l-: l-xīmti (ʕBīd 2006: 98). b- with the suffix for the 1.p.sg.: ّ ‫ ﹺ‬bīya (ʕIṭr: poem sāʕāt tað̣ġaṭ id-dinya ʕalayya); ‫( ﹺ ﱠ‬al-Marzūgī & al-Marzūgī 1979: 224); ‫( ﹺ ﱠ‬ʕAbd al-Laṭīf 2000a: 14). ә ә ʕmā (though in poetry it is mainly mʕā): ْ ʕmāha (http://marsad.blogspot.com/2009/01/2.html; access on 29.03.2010). 6. Explanation of words In most of the collections the authors or compilers facilitate the reading and comprehension of so-called “difficult” words either in footnotes, or after each poem, or at the end of the whole collection. It is of interest here to consider what kind of terms these are. Do they belong to the material culture of the Bedouins or are otherwise “typical” dialectal Bedouin vocabulary? Would they really be incomprehensible without an explanation? For ʕAbd al-Laṭīf’s work both are true: The words to be explained are underlined or provided with numbers and can be found after each poem. Short unvocalized glossaries are at the end of most of Mabrūk’s poems in his collection. The words that are explained are not always marked in the poems. On the other hand, words are sometimes underlined in poems that are not followed by a glossary. Unlike ʕAbd al-Laṭīf’s glossaries, those of Mabrūk’s contain mainly actual “difficult words”, but not the dialect’s basic vocabulary. The same is true for Bilġayṯ’s collection, in which the glossary is more about the traditional Bedouin culture than the spoken dialect. This glossary, which is arranged according to the radicals of the words, is at the end of the book but the words in it are not marked in the poems. According to the compiler, any word not explained in the glossary can be understood from the context or from Standard Arabic (Bilġayṯ 2003: 98). The plurals of the words are given, and the text passages they appear in are cited. In some of the poems published by Muḥammad al-Marzūgī, whole verses or strophes are sometimes explained in the footnotes. In some cases verses are simply translated into Standard Arabic. Even the vocalization is sometimes explained. It is obvious that he wants the dialectal poetry to be readable and understandable for all speakers of Arabic. In his book Maʕārik wa-ʔabṭāl. Ṯawrat al-marāzīg 1943 proper names, especially the names of persons and places, are explained in the footnotes. Sometimes the historical allusions of a verse or a few words are also explained, so the reader can understand the historical setting. Each poem is V. Ritt-Benmimoun, South Tunisian Bedouin poetry in written sources 343 accompanied by a list of words without vocalizations given according to their order of appearance in the poem. The following expressions are usually explained in the poems: Basic vocabulary for this specific dialect, or words that are used in the whole of Tunisia (or even the Maghreb) – such as the word for “to do” dāṛ ydīr ( ‫ ﻨ‬: ‫ ﺭ‬al-Marzūgī 1967: 167) – are explained with their Standard Arabic equivalents, e.g. ‫ﺠ ِ ل‬ ّ ‫ ﹶ‬: ِ (ʕAbd al-Laṭīf 2008a: 59); : ‫ﺸ‬ (ʕAbd al-Laṭīf 2000b: 26); ‫ ﻨ ﻅﺭ‬: ‫( ﻨ ﻨ‬ʕAbd al-Laṭīf 2000b: 42); : ‫ﺸ ﹾ‬ ‫ﹾﹸ‬ ‫( ﹶﻨﹾﻅﹸﺭ‬ʕAbd al-Laṭīf 2000a: 11). Word forms that may be difficult to recognize, e.g. ّ ‫ ﻷ‬: ّ (ʕAbd al-Laṭīf 2008b: 22); ‫( ﹸ ﹾ‬Bilġayṯ 2003: 119); : (al-Marzūgī & alMarzūgī 1979: 206); ِ ‫ ﺠﺭ‬: ِ ‫ﺠ ﹺﺭ‬ ‫( ﹺ‬ʕAbd al-Laṭīf 2000a: 33); : (alMarzūgī & al-Marzūgī 1979: 206); ‫ ﺠ ّﺯ‬: ْ ‫( ﺯ ّﺯ‬ʕAbd al-Laṭīf 2008a: 32); ‫ ﺯ ﺠ‬: ‫( ﺯ ﺯ‬al-Marzūgī & al-Marzūgī 1979: 206)27. Words that are provided with some kind of dialectal pre- or suffix: : ‫ﻜ‬ ‫( ل ﻜ ؟‬al-Marzūgī & al-Marzūgī 1979: 223); : ‫( ﻨ‬al-Marzūgī & al-Marzūgī 1979: 223). Diminutive forms: ‫ ﹶ ْ ِ ﺭ ﹶﻜ ﹾ ﹴ‬: ْ ‫( ﻜﹾﹶﱢ‬ʕAbd al-Laṭīf 2000a: 10); : ْ‫ﺠل‬ ‫ﹸ ﱢﺭ ﹺ ﹺ‬ .‫ل ِ ِ ْ ِ ْﺯ ِﺀ ْ ﹸ ِﺤْ ِ ﹶ ﹺﺭ‬ ُ ْ ‫ﺠلْ ﹸ ْ ﹶ‬ ‫( ﹶ ْ ِ ﺭْ ِ ﹶﻜِ ِ ﺭ ﹺ‬ʕAbd al-Laṭīf 2000a: 84). Dialectal plural forms: ‫ ﺠ ﻜ ﻜ‬: ‫( ﻜ ﻜﺱ‬Mabrūk 2002: 80); ‫ ﺠ‬: ‫ﹾ ْ ِﱠ‬ (al-Marzūgī 1967: 163); ‫ ﹶ ﹲ‬: ْ ِ ‫( ﹾ‬ʕAbd al-Laṭīf 2000a: 52). Pronouns – specifically personal pronouns: ‫ ﻨﺤ‬: ‫( ﺇﺤﻨ‬ʕAbd al-Laṭīf 2000b: 18); the relative pronoun: ‫ ﱢ ﹺ‬: ‫( ﹼ‬ʕAbd al-Laṭīf 2008b: 22); interrogative pronouns: : ْ ‫( ﹺ‬ʕAbd al-Laṭīf 2008a: 19); ‫ﻨ‬ : ‫( ﻨﻜ‬alMarzūgī 1967: 169); ‫ ﹶﺫ‬: ‫( ﹾ‬ʕAbd al-Laṭīf 2008a: 52); ‫ ﻜ‬: ‫( ﭭ‬ʕAbd alLaṭīf 2000b: 14); ‫ ﺫ‬: (ʕAbd al-Laṭīf 2000b: 48); ِ : ‫ﺸﻨﹾ ﹺ‬ ِ (ʕAbd alLaṭīf 2000a: 55). Conjunctions: ‫ ﻜ‬: ‫( ﹾ‬ʕAbd al-Laṭīf 2008a: 13); : (ʕAbd al-Laṭīf 2000b: 34); ‫ ﺫ‬: (al-Marzūgī & al-Marzūgī 1979: 227). Prepositions: ‫ ِﺜﹾﹶ‬: ْ ‫( ﺯ ﱠ‬ʕAbd al-Laṭīf 2000a: 79). Adverbs: ‫ ﺢ ﺀ‬: ‫( ﻜﺭ‬ʕAbd al-Laṭīf 2000b: 48); ‫ ﹸ‬: ْ ‫( ﹶ‬ʕAbd al-Laṭīf 2000a: 11); ‫ل‬ : (al-Marzūgī & al-Marzūgī 1979: 219); ْ‫ِﺭ‬ ْ‫ ﹶﻜ ِﺜ ﺭ‬: (ʕAbd al-Laṭīf 2000a: 55). Negation: ‫ ﺱ‬: ‫ﹾ‬ (ʕAbd al-Laṭīf 2008a: 16); ْ ‫ ﹶ ْ ﹸﻜ‬: ‫ﺸ‬ ِ (ʕAbd alLaṭīf 2000a: 80). Numbers: ْ ‫ ﺜﹾ ﹶﻨ‬: ْ‫( ﺯ ﺯ‬ʕAbd al-Laṭīf 2008b: 215); ‫ ﻨ ﻨ ﻜ ﺭ ﺜ ﺀ‬، ‫ ﺜ ﺜ‬: ِ ‫ِﺜ ﹾ‬ ‫( ﻜ‬al-Marzūgī 1967: 65); ‫ ِﱠ ﹶ ﺸﹶﺭ ﹶ‬: ‫( ﱠ ﹾ‬ʕAbd al-Laṭīf 2000a: 51). Presentatives: ‫ ِ ﱠﻨ‬: ْ (ʕAbd al-Laṭīf 2000a: 58); ‫ ﺭ ﱠﻨ‬: ْ ‫( ﺭ‬ʕAbd alLaṭīf 2000a: 58). 27 344 Sometimes the explanations are unnecessary - as for example ‫ ﹺل‬: ْ‫( ﹺل‬ʕAbd al-Laṭīf 2008a: 48). De los manuscritos medievales a internet The lexis of important word-fields – such as members of the family: : ْ (ʕAbd al-Laṭīf 2008a: 12); or members of the body: ‫ ﺭﺠ‬: ِ ‫( ﻜﹾﺭ‬ʕAbd alLaṭīf 2008a: 12); ِ ‫ ﻨﹾ ﹸ‬: ْ ِ ‫( ﹶﺸﹾ‬ʕAbd al-Laṭīf 2000a: 61). Besides these key lexemes that are the dialect’s basis and the key words for its understanding (neither of which of course need explaining to the speakers of the dialect), most of the other annotated words deal with the traditional lifestyle of the Bedouins and their traditional or former activities. These terms include the desert with its landscape features, its plants and weather; the tent with all its accoutrements; weapons; traditional kitchenware and food; and the animals of the Bedouins – particularly of course camels, horses and gazelles, with the epithets used for them, and their colors, body parts and diseases. Agricultural terms are also glossed, especially those regarding the date-palm and its products. Also explained are the terms for traditional clothing and jewelry, traditional cosmetics, and traditional games (ʕAbd al-Laṭīf 2008b: 75) and festivities. The glossaries also explain metaphors, epithets for women, e.g. ‫ ﺭ‬: ‫ﺸ‬ (al-Marzūgī & al-Marzūgī 1979: 197), and expressions having to do with popular religion, especially terms describing saints. The names of persons and places are also glossed. Foreign words – most of them French – that have been integrated into the language are explained by translations into Standard Arabic and by their etymologies e.g. ْ ‫ﺸ‬ ‫ ﹶ‬: ْ ‫( ﹼ‬ʕAbd al-Laṭīf 2008a: 31); ِ ‫ ﹶ ﹶﻨ‬: hôtels ّ ِ ‫ﺭﻨ‬ ‫ ﹶﻜ‬: ْ ‫( ﹺ ﹾﹶ‬ʕAbd al-Laṭīf 2008a: 45); ‫ ﺭ ﺱ‬: ‫( ﺸ‬al-Marzūgī & al-Marzūgī 1979: 208). 7. Conclusion The mere presence of the glossaries in the anthologies indicates that the poetry collections are, with the exception of Naṣr ʕBīd’s dīwān, definitely not aimed solely at the educated Bedouin speakers of Southern Tunisia. At least some of the collections are published with all Arab lovers of poetry in mind28, and are not restricted to Tunisians, let alone only the former Bedouins of Tunisia. The explanations of terms describing the Bedouin milieu are useful even to speakers of the dialect who might not be familiar anymore with all the words, but are absolutely essential for intelligent reading by other Tunisians. And Arabs from other countries need the explanations of the dialectal words as well. Finally the question posed at the beginning can be addressed: Does poetry that has hitherto been transmitted orally has a chance to survive “on paper”? It is clear that it would never survive on paper only. Printing the poems is basically just a means of preserving a heritage that is very dear to its inheri28 Tunisian poets are also very much engaged in poetry festivals in other Arabic countries, e.g. Algeria, Libya and the countries of the Arabian Peninsula. V. Ritt-Benmimoun, South Tunisian Bedouin poetry in written sources 345 tors. Printing secures both the future of the poem29, and the identity of the poet, making sure neither will be forgotten. Published anthologies of poems are both a source of pride for the poets and a source for dialect study since they record the poet’s region of origin and contain and explain many words no longer known to or understood by the younger generation, though, of course, the language of dialectal poetry is not completely identical with the spoken dialect30. They raise the prestige both of the poetry and its dialect. But the most remarkable thing is that dialectal poetry that was prone to marginalization in this Bedouin society has now made it into the “modern” world, both through its discussions of contemporary issues and through its use of contemporary media like the Internet and television to reach a new generation of fans and supporters31. Bibliography ʕAbd al-Laṭīf al-Marzūgī, B. (compiler). 2000a. Kunūz min aš-šiʕr aš-šaʕbī. Dūz (Douz). ʕAbd al-Laṭīf al-Marzūgī, B. 2000b. al-Qawāfī fī l-fayāfī. Tūnis. 3rd edition. ʕAbd al-Laṭīf al-Marzūgī, B. 2005. “Brief aus Deutschland”, Redaktionelle Bearbeitung, Fußnoten und Kommentar: Wolf-Dieter Seiwert. Simurgh Kulturzeitschrift (Zentrum für Europäische und Orientalische Kultur e.V.), Heft 2, 54-55. ʕAbd al-Laṭīf al-Marzūgī, B. 2008a. Yā šams. Šiʕr Bilgāsim al-Marzūgī. s.l. ʕAbd al-Laṭīf, B. (compiler). 2008b. Dīwān al-marḥūm aš-šāʕir al-Ḥabīb ʕAbd al-Laṭīf. s.l. Baklouti, N. 1976. “Poésie populaire à Douz”, Cahiers des Arts et Traditions Populaires, Revue du Centre des Arts et Traditions Populaires 5, 75-78, 83-92. Tūnis. Beaussier, M. 1958. Dictionnaire pratique arabe-français, new ed., corr. & aug. by M. Ben Cheneb. Alger. ʕBīd, N. 2006. Fī ḍiyāfat al-bādiya. Dīwān šiʕr šaʕbī. Gbilli. Bilġayṯ, al-ʕI. 2003. ar-Riḥla fī š-šiʕr aš-šaʕbī. Ṣafāqus (Sfax). Boris, G. 1958. Lexique du parler arabe des Marazig. Paris. Breteau, C.H. / Roth, A. 1990. “De l’art poétique à Takroûna: poèmes de l’amour et de la sagesse”, Revue des Études Islamiques LVIII, 1-107. 29 30 31 346 The survival of the poem as a whole, not only of a bundle of verses. ʕAbd al-Laṭīf 2000a: 3: . ّ ‫ﺇﹼ‬ ‫ﺠ‬ Not only the listeners belong to a new generation but also the poets’ sons who have started to present their poems in the above mentioned television program. De los manuscritos medievales a internet Breteau, C.H. / Roth, A. 1993. “Vacarme de guerre et palanquin. Variants et invariants dans un poème du Sud tunisien”, in J. Drouin / A. Roth (eds.), A la croisée des études libyco-berbères. Mélanges offerts à Paulette Galand-Pernet et Lionel Galand. Paris, 391-418. Dolz, S. 1997. “Belgacem Ben Abdellatif. Poet der Marazig”, Kleine Beiträge aus dem Staatlichen Museum für Völkerkunde Dresden 16, 1423. ʕIṭr al-badāwa. Qaṣāʔid šiʕriyya. Dūz: 2002/2006. Mabrūk, M. 2002. Šōg šōg. s.l. Marçais, W. / Guîga, ʕA. 1958-61. Textes arabes de Takroûna. II. Glossaire. 8 vol. Paris. Marty, P. 1936-37. “Les chants lyriques populaires du Sud tunisien (Étude, texte et traduction)”, Revue Tunisienne, n.s. VII, 25 (1936): 93-135, VII, 26: 256-295; VIII, 29 (1937), 138-177, VIII, 31+32: 434-469. al-Marzūgī, M. 1967. al-Adab aš-šaʕbī fī tūnis. Tūnis. al-Marzūgī, M. 1969. Muxtārāt min maḥallāt šāhid. Tūnis. al-Marzūgī, M. (ed.). 1976. Dīwān al-fītūrī tilīš (šiʕr šaʕbī). Tūnis. al-Marzūgī, M. 1984. Maʕa l-badw fī ḥallihim wa-tarḥālihim. Lībiyā-Tūnis. al-Marzūgī, M., al-Marzūgī, ʕA. 1979. Maʕārik wa-ʔabṭāl. Ṯawrat al-marāzīg 1943. Tūnis. Mubārak, Ḥ. 2001. al-Muxtaṣar fī š-šiʕr aš-šaʕbī. Tūnis. Petschmann-Toumi, W. 2006. “Eine Qaside über traditionelle Medizin aus Südtunesien (Dialekt der Marāzīg)”, Wiener Zeitschrift für die Kunde des Morgenlandes 96, 253-303. Ritt-Benmimoun, V. 2005. Phonologie und Morphologie des arabischen Dialekts der Maṛāzīg (Südtunesien). PhD-thesis, Vienna. Ritt-Benmimoun, V. 2007. “The Gap between Tradition and Modernity as Mirrored in the Bedouin Poetry of Southern Tunisia”, Quaderni di Studi Arabi, nuova serie 2, 53-70. Ritt-Benmimoun, V. 2010. “Die Überlieferung von oraler Literatur in Südtunesien: Erfahrungen, Erfolge, Probleme”, Simurgh - Kulturzeitschrift (Zentrum für Europäische und Orientalische Kultur e.V.), Heft 5. Ṣadā ṣ-ṣaḥrāʔ. ʕAdad xāṣṣ bi-mahraǧān dūz ad-duwalī dīsambir 1987, TūnisQarṭāǧ: 1987. [Supplement to the festival]. Sonneck, C. 1902, 1904. Chants arabes du Maghreb. Étude sur le dialecte et la poésie populaire de l’Afrique du Nord. Vol. I: Texte arabe; vol. II, fasc. I: Traduction et notes; vol. II, fasc. II: Introduction et glossaire. Paris. Stumme, H. 1894. Tripolitanisch-tunisische Beduinenlieder. Leipzig. Xrayyif, M. d-D. 1991. aš-Šiʕr aš-šaʕbī t-tūnisī. Awzānuhū wa-ʔanwāʕuhū. Lībiyā. V. Ritt-Benmimoun, South Tunisian Bedouin poetry in written sources 347