Spanish poetess Virginia Fernández Collado’s latest book ‘Layla’s Songs’ has been published by an African Publishing House
Virginia writes in her introduction that the history of Majnun and Layla goes back to a local Arab tradition that can be dated to the second half of the seventh century
By Ashraf Aboul-Yazid
“To contemplate the beauty from Majnun, you have to have Layla’s eyes”.
Books that are similar in their subject matter have a certain charm; between Qais bin Al-Mulawwah’s poetry collection “Majnun Layla” as narrated by Abu Bakr Al-Walabi, or “Majnun Layla” the biography written in Turkish by Murat Sertoglu, or a poetic play written by Salah Abdel Sabour and translated into English by Dr. Muhammad Anani entitled “Leila and the Madman”, and perhaps as a poetry collection, in Spanish and English together, written by the Spanish poet Virginia Fernandez Collado, given to me in the Venezuelan capital of Caracas, to take its place next to texts inspired by the biography of the most famous lovers in the heritage of Arabic literature.
At that time, you feel as if all these books are speaking secretly to each other, on the shelves of my library as they remember – when the evening comes – the story of a poet who resisted the desert with love.
To Have Layla’s Eyes
“To contemplate the beauty from Majnun, you have to have Layla’s eyes”.
You can read it fully, in Arabic, in Aqlam Arabia Monthly Magazine from Yemen
This is how the Spanish poetess Virginia Fernández Collado begins her talk about her latest collection, (Layla’s Songs), in which she played the role of Qays ibn al-Mulawwah’s lover, and which she published in Spanish and English, by an African publishing house!
The Andalusian poetess tells of her first encounter with the story (Majnun and Layla) when reading the anthology “Women of Light”, referred to the slogan chosen for the international conference on women’s Sufism, which was held in the Spanish city of Avila on October 29-31, 1999 under the auspices of the International Center for Sufi Studies of that city, which geographically, temporally, and therefore culturally covers a wide extending from China to California, and passes through India, ancient Persia, and the Iberian Peninsula…, or from the Vedic ages to the fifties.
The coupling of “women” and “light” may re-question the privilege of the Supreme, the Absolute, or the Divine, which sooner or later acquires “masculine” characteristics in its earthly translation.
Once again, Sufism has become a marginal area in the “counter-cultural” space, for example, in this anthology about Indian women we read: “The Sufi woman in India is not only certainly atypical, but also anti-normative; That is, its ambiguity places it outside the defined scope of the activity, and therefore outside the established social boundaries.”
The Author
Virginia Fernández Collado won the first prize (in poetry) in the 12th Youth Creativity Competition, Ciudad de Almería (her hometown) in 2011. Her poems have been published in Spain, Chile, and elsewhere in literary periodicals, and some of her poems have appeared in co-authored books. She has written several books. Published, most recently (Layla’s Songs), and has curated several poetry anthologies.
She is a business administration professor in secondary education and holds a PhD in Business Administration from the University of São Paulo. A PhD in Applied Economics as well as a Master’s degree in “Financial Consulting” from the Business School, Madrid.
Virginia talked about Qais and Laila with her husband, the iconic Malian poet Ismael Diadié Haidara , who is the publisher of the collection issued by the Fundo Kati publishing house. He told her a beautiful story, after which she decided to move on to poetry, so he recommended that she read Ahmed Al-Ghazali, which she did with great interest, because she discovered the different stages that love goes through, and researchers narrate them:
“Love, relationship, infatuation, passion, ecstasy, adoration, sorrow, longing, yearning, enchantment, worship.”
The History of Majnun and Layla
Virginia writes in her introduction that the history of Majnun and Layla goes back to a local Arab tradition that can be dated to the second half of the seventh century. One version of the legend tells us that Layla and Qays, belonging to different tribes, fell in love like Romeo and Juliet; Layla was married off by her parents to another man, and Qays went into exile in the desert with only wild beasts and stars; where Layla’s love swelled and Qays became Majnun (Mad Man), and took that name.
When Layla’s husband died, she went to look for her lover in the desert, but Layla was no longer physically desirable. Layla lived on in his heart, and died, making her love eternal. Layla means night in Arabic. The love story was a symbol in Sufism and has been written by many writers and poets throughout the ages.
In this poetic version of the legend of Majnun and Layla – the Spanish poetess used some common characters from Persian poetry, which are considered and constitute an authentic reservoir of images with symbolic values such as: the rose – beauty – aware of itself. The nightingale – his beloved, who sings of his double suffering: first, because of the contempt of his beloved and then because of her death. The moth – irresistibly attracted by the fire of a flame, not only flutters around it, but ends up throwing itself into it, consuming itself completely and thus showing its perfect love. The cypress – the sacred tree of Zarathustra: the slender stature. The ruby – the lips. The narcissus – the eyes. The hoopoe – the ideal messenger. The moon – the beauty of the face. The fairy – the beautiful. The lily – her skin.”
The love story was a symbol in Sufism and has been written by many writers and poets throughout the ages.
This poetic version of the story is based, as Virginia says, on Nizami’s Layla and Majnun, in its Spanish version, which is based on the English version edited by Dr. R. Gelbke, in collaboration with E. Mattin and G. Hill, from his own German version. To describe the different stages of love that Qays goes through, the poet relied on Ahmad al-Ghazali’s book. In this poetic version of the legend, the verses are recited in Layla’s voice.
The book was introduced by the Syrian poetess Maram Al-Masri, who said: “When you hold a book in your hands to read you prepare yourself psychologically to discover what its pages conceal, what feelings it will give you? What journey will it take you on? A good book will give you this and quench your hunger for beauty, for poetry and knowledge. In the introduction of this book, Virginia explains the story of the poet Qais’s lover of Laila. Qais bin Al-Mallouh lived first in Bani Amer’, The Children of Amer’, neighborhood in Wadi Al-Hija’, The Valley of al Hijaz’, between Makkah and Madinah. It is a great love story. It is a story of eternal love, a timeless story, found in Romeo and Juliet’ and in Tristan and Ezur’, it leads to madness or to death. There are many versions explaining how Qais got to know Laila. One such story tells how he loved Laila in his youth, and the feelings of love began to grow and grow day by day; how he lived in deprivation and isolation and died single in a secluded valley. His body was found later in the open air was taken to his family. This was in the 7th Century. They called him ‘Majnoon Laila’, ‘The madman of Laila’.
Another story tells how Qais happened to meet some girls. He greeted them. They asked him to speak to them. He got down from the horse that he was riding, spoke to them in poetry, and ate with them. Later on, another boy came, and the girls became occupied with him. They sang poetry to him, and he ate with them. Later, they ignored Qais, which made him feel angry.”
The next morning, Maram continues her narration, Qais returned to the same place, but he did not find the girls. Instead, he found Layla. She asked him to talk to her. He treated her in the same way he had lived with the girls the day before. She talked to him without moving away from him. He was very sad, so she took pity on him. She told him that she loved him in poetry. As soon as he heard her, he fainted.
Nizami Formulates the Story
Virginia says that she got her knowledge of the story of Majnun Layla, which tells the story of Qays ibn al-Mulawwah and Layla al-Amiriya, from the biography written by the poet Nizami Ganjavi, a poet whose real name was Elias ibn Yusuf ibn Zaki ibn Mu’id, but who chose the name Nizami for himself which he used to end his verses.
As for the name Ganjavi, he goes back to his origins in the city of Ganja in Azerbaijan where he was born.
The story of Layla and Qays was a chapter in a love quintet that also included the story of Khosrow and Shirin, among five long narrative poems called the Five Treasures (in Persian: Panj Ganj), which Lord Byron called “the Romeo and Juliet of the East.”
In Nizami’s version, which was inspired in turn by Amir Khusrau Dehlaf’s Majnun and Layla, Qays and Layla fall in love from childhood and when they grow up Layla’s father does not allow them to be together. Qays becomes obsessed with Layla and is nicknamed Majnun (from the jinn) by the common people, literally meaning possessed by a jinn, the same title given to the semi-historical figure Qays ibn al-Mulawwah of the Banu Amir tribe.
Before Nizami’s time, the legend of Qays was widely circulated in Persian chronicles, early stories and oral tales. The story of Majnun was documented in the Book of Songs and the Book of Poetry and Poets by Ibn Qutaybah. These stories were short, unconnected and with a slight plot. Nizami brought together Sufi and secular sources about Majnun and embodied them in a vivid image of the two well-known lovers.
Many Persian poets subsequently imitated Nizami and wrote their own versions of this romance. Nizami drew attention away from the platonic love poetry, which is characterized by the sensual attraction and abandonment of the beloved, often due to an unfulfillable longing. Qays ibn al-Mulawwah, according to the famous and popular narratives, falls in love with Layla, and begins to sing of his love for her in poetry, mentioning her name frequently in his poems, until he is nicknamed “Majnun of her.”
When he asks for her hand in marriage, her father refuses because it would be a scandal if his daughter married someone mentally unstable. This was soon followed by Layla’s marriage to a wealthy merchant of noble origin from the Thaqif tribe in Taif. He was handsome with a red complexion and was called Ward al-Thaqafi. The Arabs called him Ward after the red flower.
When Majnun heard of her Layla’s marriage, he fled the tribe’s camp and wandered the surrounding deserts. His family finally gave up hope of his return and left him food in the wilderness. They would sometimes see him reciting verses of poetry to himself or writing with a stick in the sand.
In front of the public library, I stood in Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan, in front of a mural of the poet Nizami, among the icons of Azerbaijani literature, in the company of my friend, the Russian-Azerbaijani poet Eldar Akhadov, and we remembered the love stories immortalized in Nizami’s poetic epics, which became a source for poets after him.
According to Dr. Rudolf Gelpke: “Many later poets imitated Nizami’s work, even if they could not reach his level and certainly did not surpass him, such as the Persians, Turks and Indians, to name only the most important of them. The Persian writer Hikmat counted no less than forty Persian versions and thirty Turkish versions of the story of Layla and Majnun.” According to Vahid Dastgerdi: “If we search the existing libraries, we will find more than 1000 editions of Layla and Majnun.” Although the story was fairly well known in Persian literature in the 12th century, it was Nizami’s masterpiece in Azerbaijan that dramatically increased its popularity in Persian literature.
Some stories generally depict Layla moving with her husband to a place in northern Arabia, where she fell ill and died. In other versions, she died of heartbreak at not being able to see her eternal lover. Majnun was found dead in the wilderness in 688 AD near Layla’s grave. He had three poems inscribed on a rock near the grave, the last three poems attributed to him.
The Madman in Turkey
In Istanbul, as I usually do when buying some rare books, I was attracted by a book called (Layla and the Madman) or in Turkish (LELÂ iLE MECNUN) by Murat Sertoglu, and the cover is inspired by movies more than the reality of the desert, and I decided to browse it, to read a part of the biography of Layla and the Madman in Turkish, which undoubtedly inspired Nizami in the same way:
“At that moment, it became clear to Qais that Nawfal saw him from afar, and he got on his horse and came after him. When he saw how the Madman was praying to God, he suddenly became angry. He addressed him with extreme anger:
“What kind of prayer is this?” He asked. “Will I hear such things from your mouth? It is clear that you are a truly crazy person! Although our army must be victorious in order to confront the tribe of Layla’s army, and you know this very well, you are praying for the victory of the other side. Is it appropriate for you to pray like this when I have sacrificed so much for you? Or did I hear wrong? Are you praying from our time?”
The madman lowered his head:
– “No, you heard right! I pray for them. Since you heard my prayer, you must have known the reason.”
– “What a pity! What a shame! I expected everything, but I did not expect this. It turned out that this sacrifice I made for a madman like you was nothing but madness!”
The madman did not respond. Nofal left.
The fierce battle continued until the evening, but it did not yield any results. Nofal was already beginning to regret taking this adventure. In fact, if he could, he would have withdrawn his soldiers and left that same evening. But he could not do that. Because in that case he would be considered to have accepted defeat. This news would spread everywhere, and all his years of honor and fame would be destroyed. Now he had to win the war he had fought at any cost.
In fact, the next morning, he came at the head of his army, and attacked with such violence that those in front of him realized that they could not resist no matter what they did. So they inevitably surrendered. Laila’s father appeared before Nofal in a miserable state. The father was brought to the commander and immediately fell at Nofal’s feet:
– “O prince! You have won the war. Now you are – I am also a prisoner of war. You can do with me whatever you want. Just as I am your prisoner, my daughter Laila is also your prisoner. You can give her to whomever you want. There is only one point. If you will allow me, let me say it too.”
– What?
– “My daughter Laila, the daughter of the sheikhs of the Banu Asad tribe, is engaged to Ibn Salam. Their wedding will also take place soon. I believe that you know this tribe and you know yourself. Taking her fiancé by force to marry her to a madman will greatly upset Ibn Salam and his tribe. I do not know what they will do. But you are a sheikh famous for your justice. It is entirely up to you to decide.”
– “Let me tell you that I deeply regret taking on this mission now. I think that the young man for whom I risked so much was truly mad. Because when he was fighting you yesterday, he was praying for your army to win, not ours. You are absolutely right not to give your daughter to such a man,”
Eldar Akhadov told me that when the story of Layla and Majnun entered Azerbaijani literature, an adapted Azerbaijani version, Dastan-i-Layla wa-Majnun, was published in the 16th century by Fuzuli and Hijri Tabrizi, and the famous composer Uzeyir Hajibeyov borrowed Fuzuli’s version and used it to create what became the first opera in Central Asia, performed on January 25, 1908 in Baku.
In Egypt, the story had been staged before in the late 19th century, when Ahmad Shawqi wrote his poetic play about the tragedy, which is considered the best work in modern Arabic literature. Majnun’s lines from the play are sometimes confused with his original poems.
Laila of Salah Abdel Sabour
Therefore, it was not strange that the innovative poet Salah Abdel Sabour took inspiration from the story in his poetic play “Laila and the Madman”, and since we are discussing the poems of a Spanish poetess who speaks in the name of Laila, let us read what our great Arab poet wrote on her tongue, talking to her lover, Saeed:
Laila: Why don’t you believe in the future?
Saeed: Rather, I fear it because I believe in it, I believe that every era must have a future, sometimes I almost notice it with the eye, and that is why I see it wrapped in a black cloud
Laila: How?
Saeed: In a country where the law does not rule, there is no future, where people go to prison by chance, there is no future, in a country where poverty expands in its body, like a snake in the sand, there is no future, in a country where women strip naked in order to eat, there is no future
Laila: Saeed. Think about our future…
Saeed: My mother also had hopes for the future
Laila: Forgive me, Saeed. You are talking about a condition, not all people’s fates are this bad
Saeed: I am not talking about a condition, I am talking about mine
Laila: Think about love
Saeed: I only live for love
Laila: Saeed, I want you
Saeed: I am yours, Laila
Laila: I am too, so that I can carry you on my eyelashes like a lost dream. I want to put you in my eyes like light. Saeed, look at me, touch me and feel me. I am a taut string that wants to be undone in your hands, singing and rhythms
Saeed: Oh… sex. Our eternal curse. The upside-down face of love
Laila: No, rather the smiling face of love. Saeed. My body wishes for you as clay wishes to be created. My body desires you as fire desires fire
Saeed: And if it goes out
Laila: It flares up again
Saeed: A filthy fire. It produces nothing but filth
…..
Laila: Saeed… my love. Alas… you are ruined and destroyed. You are only fit to wander in the walls of your black ruins. Alas
I loved death. I loved death. ”
Virginia… Laila’s feminine voice
In fact, this quote brings me to the idea of Laila’s absent voice, which if poets evoke it, whether it is the poet Nizami or the poet Salah Abdel Sabour, or others, it is also absent even if she speaks.
Here, in Salah Abdel Sabour’s text, she abandons the concerns of the world that her lover cares about, for the sake of her own pleasure and future. That is why I find what Maram Al-Masriddd wrote in her introduction to the collection to be true:
“Virginia speaks love through Laila with the tongue of woman. She has taken the power of Qais’ madness and through Laila gives women a voice that they were deprived of a long time ago. History always glorifies men, rarely women. With pure lyrics, Virginia presents us a collection of poetry where poems tell us of a historical ancient love. She has modernized it, as if it is today. How can we write about such love? A love unique and mad in this period of rapid love, of multiple love, and of the Internet, in which everything is easy? Because love was and still is the most important thing in the world that we are searching for, like gold, like diamonds. We live in a time full of fears, of diseases, of insecurity. We live in silent war. We adhere to the light and forget the darkness and forget to declare our humanity. Only poets renew the meanings of words and stories and breathe life into them. This is what Virginia presents us, readers and lovers, a book full of poetry and beauty because poetry protects our hearts and imaginations from stiffness and drought. Those who know Virginia know her humanity.”
Virginia speaks love through Laila with the tongue of woman. She has taken the power of Qais’ madness and through Laila gives women a voice that they were deprived of a long time ago
We read how “Layla” is mentioned in many of Aleister Crowley’s works, especially his religious texts such as: (The Book of Lies), in which it is believed that Layla and Majnun found shelter in a village in Rajasthan, India, before their deaths. Their grave is believed to be in the village of “Bijnoor” near “Anupgarh” in the “Sriganganagar” district, where a rural legend there says that they fled to that area and died there. Hundreds of lovers and newlyweds from India and Pakistan come there to attend their special exhibition for two days in June, despite the lack of accommodation.
This is interesting, when I visited Rajasthan, and entered Taj Mahal, I do not know why the story of Qays and Layla came to mind, perhaps because the mausoleum embodies an immortal love story as well. Taj Mahal was built by Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan in memory of his wife Mumtaz Mahal with construction starting in 1632 AD and completed in 1648 AD.
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There is a funny and different version of the story that comes in a modern way, as Majnun met Layla in school. Majnun fell in love with Layla and was fascinated by her. The mad student was punished by the school principal because the lover was busy with Laila instead of his school work. Because of some magic, Laila would bleed whenever the madman was beaten. The families learned about this strange magic and began to feud and prevented them from seeing each other. Then they meet again in their youth and the madman wishes to marry Laila, but “Tabriz”, Laila’s brother, does not allow her to marry the madman and bring shame on the family. Tabrez and the madman fought fiercely for Laila and in the end the madman killed Tabrez. The news reached the village and the madman was arrested and sentenced to be stoned to death. Laila could not bear it and agreed to marry another man on the condition that the madman would remain safe in exile. Her conditions were accepted and she married the man but her heart remained attached to the madman. When her husband learned about this, he went with his men to the desert to search for the madman. When he found the madman, he challenged him to a fight to the death. The moment his sword pierced the madman’s heart, Laila collapsed in her house. Laila and the madman were buried next to each other after the husband and the two families prayed for their souls. The legend continues that Layla and Majnun met again in heaven where they loved each other forever.
One of the many miniatures depicting scenes from the story in Persian is “The Fainting of Layla and Majnun,” which depicts a prominent event in the tragic story of Qays and Layla, in the third book of Nizami Ganjavi’s Quintet. After Qays and Layla were forcibly separated from each other due to the quarrels of their families’ clans, Layla was forced to marry another man, and Qays was isolated in the wilderness for many years, the two passionate lovers meet again for the last time before their deaths, thanks to Qays’s older messenger.
After meeting in a palm grove outside the camp of Layla’s clan, they faint from longing and yearning. The old man is shown trying to wake the lovers, while wild animals protect Qays, “Majnun Layla” (“King of the Wilderness”), and attack approaching strangers.
The setting and time of this story are hinted at through the two tents. The two figures in the center of the picture and the dark sky in the background. The style of painting and the inscribed figures are typical of the city of Shiraz during the second half of the sixteenth century. Many manuscripts from that period were made for local marketing and export abroad, rather than being commissioned by the king as was often the case. This particular painting appears to have been completed at the same time as the completion of the aforementioned pentameter composition, which appears on the left page of the painting.
Perhaps I will conclude my lines with selections from Virginia’s book (Layla’s Songs):
***
(1)
In the night of the world / I hear laughter / coming from the mountains of Najd. / Oh mother/ when I was parted from your arms/ like a girl who is separated/ from her mother’s arms, / I cried/ infinite stars that fell/ from my eyes/ like little lights, / but in my chest/ harbored a hope/ that never came./ The lions guarded/ my beloved / the one I never saw.
***
(2)
In the night of the world / where everything curves/, a shadow comes/ what to pose/ about the real man.
In one night of the world/ when I feel the cold of the ground/ in my feet, / and covered in autumn leaves/ dragonflies sing / but doe the dragonflies sing? L they can sing a slight hoot, / like that of angels./ I have entered a city/ open walls, / a choir of seraphim inhabits my chest,/ and I have the crazy Majnu/ dressed like a prince/ in gold, /at my feet.
(It is surprising that when I was translating this very poem, in which the Spanish poetess describes Layla’s feet covered with autumn leaves, I found in her album a parallel image, as if she was inspired by these moments to embroider with them, as an Andalusian artist poetess, the structure of her poem)
***
(3)
The School
He soon went to school, / where the dearest children went/ of the nobles among the nobles. / There, / I was,/ in a conspiracy of the stars, / with gazelle eyes, / slender as a cypress.
We fell in love/ one after another/ without noticing the envious eye, / but a black shadow/ was looming over our heads: / My family pushed me away,/ young Qais,/ who from then on was like a madman, / I’d wander back and forth looking for the roses/ from that garden/ that burned his heart./
Oh young nightingale, / that you sing my love. / I sing like a nightingale
My love, / cool as spring /comes./ The sun purifies/ and turns your skin into purity,/ that’s what he calls me/ and says: Purity, / and the echo responds: Whiteness.
On his chest full of flowers/ rest and I’m a puppy, / and the meadows were green / of her flowery body
And the sunbeams were white/ from the hands of my beloved. /The birds that nest in your hair / singers dance/ the dance of love.
Rivers and rivers descend through the valleys, / and in the oaks the nightingales sing/ and in the lilacs the bees flutter, / the mountains pour water / that descends and goes down/ and it becomes happy/ singing.
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Ashraf Aboul-Yazid is a renowned Egyptian poet, journalist, novelist, travelogue writer and translator. He is author of around three dozen books and Editor-in-Chief of Silk Road Literature Series.
