Wafir

Wāfir (وَافِر, literally 'numerous, abundant, ample, exuberant') is a meter used in classical Arabic poetry. It is among the five most popular metres of classical Arabic poetry, accounting (alongside ṭawīl, basīṭ, kāmil, and mutaqārib) for 80-90% of lines and poems in the ancient and classical Arabic corpus.^[1]

Form[]

The metre comprises paired hemistichs of the following form (where "–" represents a long syllable, "u" a short syllable, and "uu" one long or two shorts):^[2]

| u – uu – | u – uu – | u – – |

Thus, unlike most classical Arabic metres, wāfir allows the poet to substitute one long syllable for two shorts, an example of the prosodic element known as a biceps. Thus allows wāfir lines to have different numbers of syllables from each other, a characteristic otherwise only found in kāmil, and some forms of basīṭ.^[3]

Wāfir is traditionally represented with the mnemonic (tafāʿīl) Mufāʿalatun Mufāʿalatun Faʿūlun (مُفَاعَلَتُنْ مُفاعَلَتُنْ فَعولُنْ).

History[]

Historically, wāfir perhaps arose, along with ṭawīl and mutaqārib, from hazaj.^[4] In the analysis of Salma K. Jayyusi, the Umayyad poet Jarir ibn Atiyah used the metre for about a fifth of his work, and at that time "this metre was still fresh and did not carry echoes of great pre-Islamic poets as did ṭawīl and baṣīt. Wāfir had therefore a great potential for introducing a diction nearer to the spoken language of the Umayyad period."^[5]

The metre, like other Arabic metres, was later borrowed into other poetic traditions. For example, it was adopted in Hebrew, where it is known as hamerubeh^[6] and became one of the pre-eminent metres of medieval poetry.^[7] In the Arabic and Arabic-influenced vernacular poetry of Sub-Saharan Africa it also features,^[8] for example in Fula^[9] and Hausa.^[10] It also underpins some oral poetic traditions in Palestine today.^[11] However, it was not used in Urdu, Turkish, or Persian (or perhaps, rather, it can be said to have merged for linguistic reasons with hazaj).^[12]

Examples[]

The following Arabic epigram by ‘Ulayya bint al-Mahdī is in wāfir metre:^[13]

كتمتُ اسم الحبيب من العباد * ورذدتُ الصبابة في فوعادي

فواشوقي إلى بلدِِ خليّ * لعلّي باسْم مب أهوى أنادي

katamtu sma l-ḥabībi mina l-‘ibādī / wa-raddadtu ṣ-ṣabābata fī fu’ādī

fa-wā-shawqī ’ilā baladin khaliyyin / la‘allī bi-smi man ’ahwā ’unādī

| u – – – | u – uu – | u – – || u – – – | u – uu – | u – – |

| u – – – | u – uu – | u – – || u – – – | u – – – | u – – |

I have hidden the name of my love from the crowd: / for my passion my heart is the only safe space.

How I long for an empty and desolate place / in order to call my love's name out aloud.

An example of the metre in Fula is the following poem by (1817-?):^[9]

Kulen Allaahu Mawɗo nyalooma jemma, / Mbaɗen ka salaatu, hooti mbaɗen salaama

He dow ɓurnaaɗo tagle he Aalo’en fuu, / Sahaabo’en he taabi’i, yimɓe himma.

Nufaare nde am mi yusɓoya gimɗi, anndee, / mi woyra ɗi Naana; ɓernde fu firgitaama

He yautuki makko, koowa he anndi juulɓe / mbaɗii hasar haqiiqa, cunninaama.

| u – – – | u – uu – | u – – || u – uu – | u – uu – | u – – |

| u – – – | u – uu – | u – – || u – – – | u – uu – | u – – |

| u – uu – | u – uu – | u – – || u – uu – | u – uu – | u – – |

| u – uu – | u – uu – | u – – || u – – – | u – – – | u – – |

Let us fear Allah the Great day and night, / let us continually invoke blessing and peace

Upon the best of creatures and all his kinsfolk, / his companions and followers, men of zeal.

Know ye, my intention is to compose verses / and with them to lament for Nāna; every heart is startled

At her passing, everyone knows that the Moslems / have suffered loss indeed, and have been saddened.

References[]