With Al-Mutanabbi

I don''t want to study Al-Mutanabbi then; Those who read these chapters should not read them as knowledge, nor as criticism, and should not expect from them what they expect from books of science and criticism. Rather, they are conveyed thoughts that are stirred up in me by reading Al-Mutanabbi in an Alpine village in France, reading Al-Mutanabbi in other places. There is no order or consistency, and it is not consistent. Rather, it is intermittent and scattered reading. I go to it sometimes because I want it, and I go to it other times. Because my soul disputes with me about the writers of French literature, so I oppose her, prevent her, and force her to listen to Al-Mutanabbi or talk to him. It is a reading that if it depicts anything, it depicts a person''s tyranny over himself, his playing with his time, his tampering with his mind, his disobedience to his whims, and his obedience to this whim sometimes. Say whatever you want about this speech that you read: Say: It is speech dictated by a man who thinks about what he says. And say: It is talk that its speaker is raving about. Say: These are words that come from opinion and selfishness. And say: It is speech that comes from abnormality and unruliness. You are right in all of this; Because I send myself as I am. Taha Hussien