압둘 와합 알바야티(1926~1999)의 가면(Mask) 기법 연구

A Study on the Mask of Abd al-Wahāb al-Bayyāti

As a leading Arab poet in the free-verse movement with a politically-committed leftist attitude, he was looking for a new way to continue his engagement in the battle against injustice. In 1962 he wrote his prose play Muḥākama fī Nīsābūr based in its historical framework on Harold Lamb's Omar Khayyam: A Life. Although not successful as a play, it opened for al-Bayyati the possibility of a new style in his poetry - the style of speaking through a persona, through a mask. The masks which al-Bayyāti used include historical persons like Umar al-Khayyām, al-Ma'arrī, al-Ḥallāj, and al-Mutanabjī drawn from the Arab-Islamic heritage or like Alexander the Great, Hamlet, Picasso, Hemingway, and Che Guevara drawn from Western history. They also include imaginary persons like Sindbad and the elusive 'Ā'isha, who might be al-Khayyām's beloved or a woman al-Bayyāti knew or created as persona symbolizing his ideals. His main concern for using masks is to present what he calls "the exemplary hero" in the modern age and in all ages, and to portray the feelings of this hero and express the social and cosmic crisis he faces. And not all personalities of the past can be used for his chosen purpose. And even when they are used al-Bayyāti does not necessarily abide by their historical identities in detail but he may exaggerate some characteristics and invent or ignore other things in order to make his point.