Madīd (metre)

The Madīd (مَدِيد, "protracted") metre is one of the metres used in classical Arabic poetry. The theoretical pattern of the metre is as follows, where u = a short syllable, – a long syllable, and x = anceps (either long or short):

فَاعِلَاتُنْ فَاعِلُنْ فَاعِلَاتُنْ فَاعِلُنْ

Fāʿilātun Fāʿilun Fāʿilātun Fāʿilun

| x u – x | x u – | x u – – | x u – |

However, more usually the metre is found in a trimeter version. The full version of the trimeter is as follows:

فَاعِلَاتُنْ فَاعِلُنْ فَاعِلَاتُنْ

Fāʿilātun Fāʿilun Fāʿilātun

| x u – x | x u – | x u – – |

In two of the examples below, the metre is used in a catalectic trimeter version (i.e. shortened by one syllable), as follows:

فَاعِلَاتُنْ فَاعِلُنْ فَاعِلُنْ

Fāʿilātun Fāʿilun Fāʿilun

| x u – x | x u – | x u – |

In the above catalectic trimeter version, the 2nd and 3rd anceps syllables (x) are usually long (never both short),^[1] and the 3rd is almost always short.^[2] The final foot | u u – | may become | – – |.

The Madīd metre is only rarely used. Only 0.43% of Vadet's corpus of 1st–3rd century AD poetry are in this metre.^[3] It does not occur at all in Stoetzer's corpus of 8th-century poems^[3] or in the 10th-century poet al-Mutanabbi.^[4] The tetrameter version is rarely found in practice except in prosodists' examples.^[5]

Examples

Tetrameter

The longer tetrameter version of this metre is rare. The following line, a mother's lament for her son, is found in the Ḥamāsa, an anthology of poems compiled in the 9th century by Abū Tammām:^[6]

ليت قلبي ساعةً صبرهُ عنكَ مَلَك * ليت نفسي قُدِّمت للمنايا بدلك

layta qalb-ī sāʿatan * ṣabra-hū ʿanka malak

layta nafs-ī quddimat * li-l-manāyā badalak

| – u – – | – u – || – u – – | u u – |

"Would that my heart for an hour * could control its grief for you;

Would that my soul could be sacrificed * to Fate instead of you."

In this version, there is a clear break between the two halves of the hemistich.

Trimeter

The trimeter is more common than the tetrameter. The following line is by the 8th-century Iraqi poet Abu-l-ʿAtahiya:^[7]

إنّما أنتَ بوادي ٱلمنايا * إن رماكَ ٱلموت فيه أصابا

ʼinnamā ʼanta bi-wādi l-manāyā

ʼin ramāka l-mawtu fīhi ʼaṣābā

| – u – – | u u – | – u – – |

| – u – – | – u – | u u – – |

"Lo, you are dwelling in Fate's vale;

when Death strikes you, it will not fail."

Trimeter catalectic

More often the trimeter is used in a catalectic version, that is, with the final syllable missing. A well known poem in this catalectic version is the following by the Baghdadi Sufi poet Sumnūn al-Muḥibb (also known as Samnūn, died c. 910 AD):^[8]

كان لى قلب أعيش به * ضــــــاع منى فى تقلبه

رب فاردده عليّ فقد * ضاق صدري في تطلبه

وأغث ما دام بي رمقٌ * يا غياثَ المستغيثِ به

kāna lī qalbun ’aʿīšu bihī

ḍāʿa minnī fī taqallubihī

rabbi fardudhu ʿalayya fa-qad

ḍāqa ṣadrī fī taṭallubihī

wa-ʼaḡiṯ mā dāma bī ramaqun

yā ḡiyāṯa l-mustaḡīṯi bihī

– u – – | – u – | u u –

– u – – | – u – | u u –

– u – – | u u – | u u –

– u – – | – u – | u u –

– u – – | – u – | u u –

– u – – | – u – | u u –

"I had a heart which I lived with;

I lost it in its turning.

Lord, return it to me, since

my breast has become narrow in searching for it.

And succour me as long as life remains,

O succour of him who seeks assistance."

Another version of the metre is used by the Arabian poet Baha' al-din Zuhair (1186–1258) in the love ode which begins:^[9]

کل شیء منک مقبول * وعلی العینین محمول

والاذی یرضیک من تلفی * هین عندی ومبذول

kullu šayʼin minka maqbūlū

wa ʿala l-ʿaynayni maḥmūlū

wa-l-laḏī yurḍīka min talafī

hayyinun ʿindī wa mabḏūlū

– u – – | – u – | – –

u u – – | – u – | – –

– u – – | – u – | u u –

– u – – | – u – | – –

"Everything from you is acceptable

and bearable in my eyes;

And what pleases you of my destruction

is easy for me and (readily) bestowed."

In this version of the metre, the final u u – is optionally changed to – –. This variation, affecting the last three syllables of the line, is also found in the Basīṭ metre, and is also common in Persian poetry.^[10]

Medieval Hebrew poetry

This metre is almost never used in medieval Hebrew poetry. However, Halper quotes a piyyut written by the 12th-century Spanish scholar Abraham ibn Ezra in the trimeter version of the metre, which runs as follows:^[11]

אֶשְׂמְחָה כִּי אֶפְתְּחָה פִּי לְהוֹדוֹת‎

אֶעֱנֶה טוּב מַעֲנֶה שִׁיר יְדִידוֹת‎

’esmĕchah ki ’eftĕchah pi lĕhodot

’e‘ĕneh tuv ma‘ăneh shir yĕdidot

| – u – – | – u – | – u – – |

Because of the rarity of short syllables in Hebrew, Ibn Izra chooses the long alternative of each anceps.

See also

• Metre (poetry)#The Arabic metres
• Arabic prosody

References

1. "Madīd", Encyclopaedia of Islam, Second Edition.
2. Wright, W. (1896), A Grammar of the Arabic Language, vol. 2, p. 367.
3. Golston, Chris & Riad, Tomas (1997). "The Phonology of classical Arabic meter". Linguistics 35 (1997), 111-132.
4. Frolov, Dmitry (1996). "The Circles of al-Khalil and the structure of Luzumiyyat of Abu 'l-'Ala' al-Ma'arri". Studies in Near Eastern Languages and Literatures. Memorial Volume of Karel Petraček, Praha, 1996, 223-236.), p. 3.
5. "Madīd", Encyclopaedia of Islam, Second Edition.
6. Quoted by Halper, B . "The Scansion of Mediaeval Hebrew Poetry". The Jewish Quarterly Review vol. IV, (1913–14), p. 215.
7. Quoted by Halper, B . "The Scansion of Mediaeval Hebrew Poetry". The Jewish Quarterly Review vol. IV, (1913–14), p. 216.
8. Sumnūn. Encyclopaedia of Islam, Second Edition.
9. Quoted in A.J. Arberry, Arabic Poetry: A Primer for Students no. 24.
10. L.P. Elwell-Sutton (1976), The Persian Metres, pp. 128–135.
11. Halper, B . "The Scansion of Mediaeval Hebrew Poetry". The Jewish Quarterly Review vol. IV, (1913–14), p. 216.

External links

• A recitation of Sumnūn's kāna lī qalbun.
• A traditional lesson on the Madid metre by Muhammad Hasan Uthman (in Arabic)