Live Encounters Poetry & Writing September 2025
Modern Arabic Poetry and the Discourse of Resistance,
essay by Dr Salwa Gouda.
Modern Arabic poetry has evolved into one of the most sophisticated and potent mediums for political dissent across the Arab world, serving as both witness and weapon in struggles against colonialism, authoritarianism, and social injustice. Unlike traditional Arabic poetry that often-celebrated tribal glory or romantic ideals, contemporary Arab poets have forged a new literary tradition where verse functions as an act of rebellion—preserving collective memory, articulating unspoken truths, and mobilizing resistance movements through the sheer power of metaphor and rhythm. This essay explores how major Arab poets from Palestine, Syria, Iraq, Yemen and beyond have transformed classical Arabic forms into revolutionary texts, examining specific poems that became manifestos for liberation movements and analyzing the unique devices that make poetry such an effective resistance tool under censorship.
The Palestinian poetic tradition offers perhaps the most striking examples of verse as resistance. Mahmoud Darwish, often called the “voice of Palestine,” mastered the art of transforming personal exile into collective anthem. His 1964 poem “Identity Card” begins with the defiant lines: “Write down! / I am an Arab / And my identity card number is fifty thousand.” These deceptively simple words weaponized bureaucracy’s dehumanization, turning the Israeli occupation’s ID system into a platform for asserting Palestinian existence.
The poem’s repetitive structure (“Write down!”) mimics official documents while subverting their purpose, a technique that made it perfect for protest chants during the First Intifada. Darwish’s later work “Under Siege” (2002), written during Israel’s siege of Ramallah, demonstrates his evolution toward more complex imagery: “We have brothers behind the horizon / who are preparing for our dawn… We smell the fragrance of our past / coming on the shoulders of the wind.” Here, Darwish transforms military occupation into a sensory experience where memory becomes both burden and weapon, showing how modern Arabic poetry balances immediate political commentary with timeless artistic merit.
Syrian poet Adonis (Ali Ahmad Said Esber) revolutionized resistance poetry by fusing avant-garde techniques with ancient Arabic symbolism. His 2011 poem “This Is My Name,” responding to the Syrian uprising, declares: “I write in a language that kills its readers / in a country that devours its children.” Paradoxical imagery captures the impossible position of intellectuals under dictatorship, where even language becomes complicit.
Adonis’s earlier masterpiece “A Grave for New York” (1971) uses the mythical fall of a city to critique both Western imperialism and Arab authoritarianism: “New York is a woman / holding, between her legs, a rag / called liberty.” Such visceral metaphors allowed Adonis to bypass censors while delivering devastating critiques, proving that modernist experimentation could serve radical politics. His work demonstrates how contemporary Arab poets have expanded classical Arabic poetry’s capacity for layered meaning, creating texts that operate on both aesthetic and revolutionary levels simultaneously.
Also, Nizar Qabbani transformed love poetry into political rebellion through his signature blend of eroticism and revolutionary fervor. After the catastrophic Arab defeat in the 1967 Six-Day War, his incendiary poem “Margins on the Notebook of Defeat” lambasted Arab leaders: “My people entered history barefoot / and left it barefoot… What a people! / They die like insects / and don’t complain.” The shocking insect metaphor, combined with the poem’s abrupt, staccato rhythm, created a verbal monument to Arab shame that circulated clandestinely across the region. Qabbani’s later “Children of the Stones” (1988) celebrated Palestinian youth during the First Intifada: “They write their names with their fingernails / on the cheeks of soldiers… / They are the new prophets / carrying pebbles in their hands / instead of scriptures.”
By depicting stone-throwing children as sacred figures, Qabbani sacralized resistance while exposing the absurd power imbalance of the conflict. His work exemplifies how modern Arab poets have appropriated and subverted classical Arabic poetry’s religious and romantic conventions for political ends.
In addition, the contribution of Arab women poets to resistance literature has been equally transformative, though often overlooked. Iraqi pioneer Nazik al-Mala’ika’s 1949 poem “To Wash Disgrace” daringly connected colonial violence to gendered oppression: “They pressed their nails into my flesh / and left me naked at the crossroads / where dogs and strangers pass.” The visceral female imagery made Iraq’s political humiliation painfully personal, establishing a template for later feminist resistance poetry. Yemeni poet Amina Atiq’s 2016 work “Borders” continues this tradition: “My country is a woman / stitching her wounds with barbed wire / while the world brings bandages / too small to cover the scars.” Atiq’s metaphor of the nation-as-woman critiques both foreign intervention and patriarchal nationalism, showing how contemporary Arab women poets navigate multiple layers of oppression. Their work expands resistance poetry’s scope by insisting that true liberation must address both political and gender oppression simultaneously.
Moreover, in the digital age, new generations of Arab poets continue adapting ancient forms to modern resistance struggles. Palestinian poet Mosab Abu Toha’s 2020 poem “Self-Portrait as a Bomber” juxtaposes childhood innocence with military violence: “At seven I learned to tie my shoes / at nine, to distinguish F-16s from drones / by their sound.” The brutal matter-of-factness of this progression captures how occupation distorts childhood, while the title’s shocking metaphor forces readers to confront the dehumanization of Palestinians. Such contemporary works demonstrate Arabic poetry’s continued relevance in an era of hashtag activism, where compressed, shareable verses can circulate globally while maintaining literary depth.
What makes modern Arabic poetry uniquely effective as resistance literature? First, its mastery of classical Arabic forms gives it cultural legitimacy that political speeches lack. When Darwish employs the Qasida’s traditional repetition or Adonis subverts Sufi imagery, they tap into deep cultural reservoirs while transforming them. Second, poetry’s inherent ambiguity—its “code” of metaphor and symbolism—allows it to evade censorship that would suppress direct political statements. Finally, the oral tradition of Arabic poetry makes it perfect for protest; from Darwish’s recitations in Beirut refugee camps to verses chanted during Arab Spring demonstrations, these poems live in the air as much as on the page.
From Darwish’s elegies to Adonis’s allegories, modern Arabic poetry confirms that artistic expression remains one of the most potent weapons against oppression. These poets have created what might be called a “literature of persistence” works that document suffering while refusing to accept it as permanent. Their verses function as both mirrors and scalpel: reflecting brutal realities while dissecting their causes. In doing so, they’ve expanded the very possibilities of political art, proving that poetry can be simultaneously beautiful and dangerous, personal and collective, traditional and revolutionary. As long as injustice persists in the Arab world, its poets will likely continue perfecting this vital tradition, ensuring that even when revolutions are crushed, their essence survives in lines memorized, recited, and passed on like sacred texts of resistance.
© Dr Salwa Gouda
Dr Salwa Gouda is an accomplished Egyptian literary translator, critic, and academic affiliated with the English Language and Literature Department at Ain Shams University. Holding a PhD in English literature and criticism, Dr. Gouda pursued her education at both Ain Shams University and California State University, San Bernardino.
She has authored several academic works, including Lectures in English Poetry and Introduction to Modern Literary Criticism, among others. Dr. Gouda also played a significant role in translating The Arab Encyclopedia for Pioneers, a comprehensive project featuring poets, philosophers, historians, and literary figures, conducted under the auspices of UNESCO. Recently, her poetry translations have been featured in a poetry anthology published by Alien Buddha Press in Arizona, USA. Her work has also appeared in numerous international literary magazines, further solidifying her contributions to the field of literary translation and criticism.
Dear Salwa, This article is brilliant. Makes me want to know more. We could learn so much from each other. If some of us could get together to share and celebrate our work. wouldn’t it be wonderful? I have worked in International schools and value such exchanges. Congratulations and thank you for bringing us a little closer.
Terry.