In Xanadu did Kubla Khan
A stately pleasure-dome decree :
Where Alph, the sacred river, ran
Through caverns measureless to man
Down to a sunless sea.
So twice five miles of fertile ground
With walls and towers were girdled round :
And there were gardens bright with sinuous rills,
Where blossomed many an incense-bearing tree ;
And here were forests ancient as the hills,
Enfolding sunny spots of greenery.
But oh ! that deep romantic chasm which slanted
Down the green hill athwart a cedarn cover !
A savage place ! as holy and enchanted
As e'er beneath a waning moon was haunted
By woman wailing for her demon-lover !
And from this chasm, with ceaseless turmoil seething,
As if this earth in fast thick pants were breathing,
A mighty fountain momently was forced :
Amid whose swift half-intermitted burst
Huge fragments vaulted like rebounding hail,
Or chaffy grain beneath the thresher's flail :
And 'mid these dancing rocks at once and ever
It flung up momently the sacred river.
Five miles meandering with a mazy motion
Through wood and dale the sacred river ran,
Then reached the caverns measureless to man,
And sank in tumult to a lifeless ocean :
And 'mid this tumult Kubla heard from far
Ancestral voices prophesying war !
The shadow of the dome of pleasure
Floated midway on the waves ;
Where was heard the mingled measure
From the fountain and the caves.
It was a miracle of rare device,
A sunny pleasure-dome with caves of ice !
A damsel with a dulcimer
In a vision once I saw :
It was an Abyssinian maid,
And on her dulcimer she played,
Singing of Mount Abora.
Could I revive within me
Her symphony and song,
To such a deep delight 'twould win me,
That with music loud and long,
I would build that dome in air,
That sunny dome ! those caves of ice !
And all who heard should see them there,
And all should cry, Beware ! Beware !
His flashing eyes, his floating hair !
Weave a circle round him thrice,
And close your eyes with holy dread,
For he on honey-dew hath fed,
And drunk the milk of Paradise.
قبلاي خان
(أو: رؤيا في حلم - مقطوعة)
ترجمة: د. عادل صالح الزبيدي
في زنادو قضى قبلاي خان
بإقامة قبة أنس فخمة
حيث جرى ((ألفُ)) النهر القدسي
عبر كهوف لا يقدر أن يسبر غورا منها الإنسان
ليصب ببحر لا تشرق شمس فيه.
عشرة أميال من الأرض الخصبة
أحيطت بالجدران وبالأبراج
وحدائق زاهية تتلوى داخلها الغدران
وتزهر فيها أشجار بخور عدة،
وثمة غابات غابرة كالهضبات سحيقة
تتكشف عن بقع مشمسة خضراء.
عجبا ! ياللهوة تلك الغائرة الرومنسية
تنحدر من التل لتخترق تعاريش من الأرز خضراء
مكان وحشي ! يشبه في قدسيته وسحره
مكانا مسكونا بشبح امرأة تنحب من أجل عشيق جني
تحت القمر الآفل،
ومن تلك الهوة، بغليان هياج متواصل
وكأنْ هذي الأرض تتنفس بنفثات لهاث متحشرجة وسريعة
تفجر نبع جبار فجأة
وفي خضم تفجره بنوبات متسارعة
تتقافز أشظاء هائلة كوابل برد يرتد عن الأرض بعيد سقوطه
أو كالعصف المتناثر من تحت المـِدرس،
ووسط الصخر الراقص هذا فجأة
وبغير فتور قذف النبع ُ النهرَ القدسي ليجري
خمسة أميال يتلوى منسابا مثل متاهة
عبر الوديان وعبر الغابات جرى النهر القدسي
ليبلغ إذاك كهوفا لا يقدر أن يسبر غورا منها الإنسان
فيغور بنوبة هيجان نحو محيط لا نأمة لحياة فيه
ووسط خضم الفوضى هذي يسمع قبلاي خان
عن بعد أصوات الأسلاف منبئة بالحرب.
وطفا ظل القبة
فوق الأمواج إلى منتصفه
حيث تناهى للسمع اللحن الممتزج
الآتي من عند النبع وتلك الأكهف.
كانت معجزة من صنع نادر
قبة أنس مشمسة ذات كهوف ثلجية !
فتاة بين يديها آلة قانون
رأيت ذات مرة في رؤيا
كانت فتاة حبشية
وكانت تعزف على قانونها
وتغني جبل أبورا.
فلو أني أقدر أن أحيي في داخلي
سمفونيتها وأغنيتها
لبلغت بي البهجة عمقا
يجعلني أشـيـّد بألحان متواصلة ثرة
تلك القبة في الهواء
تلك القبة المشمسة ! تلك الكهوف الثلجية !
وكل من يسمع لا بد أن يراهما هناك
والكل لا بد أن يصرخ، حذار ! حذار !
من عينيه المبرقتين، وشعره العائم في الهواء !
خطـّوا ثلاث دوائر حوله
واغمضوا أعينكم بوجل رباني
فقد كان طعامه المنّ
وشرابه حليب الفردوس.
"There is a peculiar ambivalence in Kubla Khan allowing the widest divergencies of critical interpretation," says T.S. Eliot. Samuel Taylor Coleridge's Kubla Khan; or, A Vision in a Dream: A Fragment takes its title from the Mongol and Chinese emperor Kublai Khan of the Yuan Dynasty. The tale of its composition is the most celebrated and enigmatic in the history of English poetry.Coleridge himself, in the 1816 Preface to the prescribed poem ,terms it "a psychological curiosity." The poet who was addicted to opium, fell asleep under the spell of the addictive when he envisaged the vision he embodies in his poetry. Before falling asleep, he had been reading an account of Purchas his Pilgrimage in which Kubla Khan commanded the building of a new palace; Coleridge asserts that while he slept, he had an exotic vision in a trance-like state, and composed simultaneously while sleeping, some three hundred lines of poetry, "if that indeed can be called composition in which all the images rose up before him as things, with a parallel production of the correspondent expressions, without any sensation or conscious effort."
As he tried to recreate the poem, he was successful in reconstructing the first three stanzas. Subsequently, the composition of the poem was interrupted by a "person on business from Porlock". As an hour elapsed, he was unable to revive the rest of the dream under the influence of opium. The final stanza is said to be written after this intruding and thwarting interval. The poem is a metapoem. It at once reflects its own process of creation, and stands out as the ideal of the creative self. The pleasure dome envisaged by the emperor ,at once transforms itself to the poem that Coleridge reconstructs vividly through the adumbration of his dream.
Cleanth Brooks claims that the language of poetry is the language of paradox. Likewise, the opening stanza represents the poetic paradigm as the conjunction of opposites. The historical Kubla Khan is placed adjacent to the mythical Alpheus. The individual aspiration of Coleridge to resurrect his poetic vision, is set against the stately inclination of Kubla Khan to build his pleasure dome. The oriental ideal is juxtaposed against the Western exemplar of Coleridge. The mathematical precision of the pleasure dome is set against the infinity of 'caverns measureless to man'. The 'pleasure' embodied by the dome is in antithesis to the sacredness of the river. Fertile (natural) ground is enclosed by (artificial) walls. Nature is girdled by artificiality. It is devoid of natural inspiration echoed in terms such as "the sunless sea". Inspiration manifests itself gradually: "Enfolding sunny spots of greenery," where greenery 'stand for 'fertility' and 'productivity'.
Simultaneous to the construction of each of the stanza, the muse of the creative faculty bursts forth. In the first stanza,the sunlight embodies the impetus. In the second, it assumes the form of the a "deep romantic chasm" that slanted down a green hill, occasionally spewing forth a violent and powerful burst of water, so immense that it flung boulders up with it "like rebounding hail." The passion is inherent in the metaphor: "As e'er beneath a waning moon was haunted / By woman wailing to her demon-lover," The moon has always been a an emblem of declining powers of the creative faculty for Coleridge; it has been utilized in his "Dejection: An Ode". The pleasure-dome's shadow floated on the waves, where the mingled sounds of the fountain and the caves could be heard. Passion and instinct reign in the second stanza, in Gothic overtones, in the form of the Lady under the moon craving for her demon lover. It is also implicit in the phrase 'A savage place! As holy and enchanted'. The passion of impulse is not only dreaded, but is also revered as it 'holy'. It is enchanting and captivating as brought forth by a wizard of black magic. Sorcery is in total opposition to the word 'holy', with religious connotations; as the two are enjoined. The poet creates a Gothic atmosphere of awe, as is his nature to render the supernatural natural. The powers of reminiscence began to subside as the 'mighty fountain' settles to a "to a lifeless ocean".
And 'mid this tumult Kubla heard from far
Ancestral voices prophesying war !
These voices may be the lost vision of the poem, that lies not outside but in his genetic faculties symbolized by 'ancestral voices'. They may also allude to the shadows of the poetic predecessors that challenge him to overshadow 'the anxiety of influence' as stated by Harold Bloom in his essay. "In The Anxiety of Influence (1973), he formulated a controversial theory of literary creation called revisionism. Influenced strongly by Freudian theory, Bloom believes that all poets are subject to the influence of earlier poets and that, to develop their own voices, they attempt to overcome this influence through a process of misreading. By misreading, Bloom means a deliberate, personal revision of what has been said by another so that it conforms to one's own vision. In this way the poet creates a singular voice, overcoming the fear of being inferior to poetic predecessors."Coleridge ,here,endeavours to look to his unconscious rendering of the poem, as it more original than conscious rendering of the the same.
Here Coleridge strives to search for his lost voice that had been lost in the midst of composition,with the intrusion of the guest. This guest may at once typify his writer's block.His composition, with regards to "Kubla Khan" is ,therefore also a quest for the original identity of the poem. The theme of quest is reiterated through the symbol of the 'caverns'.The cave has always been a sign of ' the search for truth' or 'the quest for self' in masterpieces of literature like E.M.Forester's "Passage to India".
The shadow of the dome of pleasure
Floated midway on the waves ;
Where was heard the mingled measure
From the fountain and the caves
The thwarted vision now only remains as a visual shadow: "The shadow of the dome of pleasure /Floated midway on the waves;" or it manifests itself as remote audible resonances : "Where was heard the mingled measure/From the fountain and the caves."Coleridge, eventually, immortalizes his vision, though it is not fully realized in his imagination:
It was a miracle of rare device,
A sunny pleasure-dome with caves of ice !
When this ideal is finally verbally concretized in terms of structure, it conglomerates the various metaphors that have hitherto functioned as the signs of poetic inspiration: the water is crystallized as 'caves of ice'. Also the pleasure dome is "sunny': abundant with adequate sunlight. 'Caves of ice' exemplify that it is primarily through inspiration, that the quest is ultimately fulfilled. Note, that the pleasure dome is entirely Coleridge's and not acknowledged in his source material. Also the two primary raw materials of the dome,the 'sunny' rays and caves of 'ice' complementary entities, yet again, as in the dialectic pair Heat/Ice.
The fourth stanza embodies the crux of the poem. The poet affirms that he once had the enthralling vision of the damsel singing of Mount Abora. This apparition is at once is the painted metaphor of 300-hundred-line magnum opus he failed to fully realize. Coleridge would then recreate the pleasure-dome in air. As to how he would create it in air: it is out of lyric and music. The marriage of lyric and music is indubitably 'song'. However, the poet is not only satisfied with 'song', he wants 'symphony' to accompany it, to craft an aura of awe. The poet seeks to generate an atmosphere that captivates his audience, as though he has cast a spell on them
As people visualize his 'flashing eyes" and "floating hair, his magnificent wizard-like powers will then not only be dreaded as they "cry, Beware ! Beware !".They will also be venerated with 'holy' trepidation as "he on honey-dew hath fed, / And drunk the milk of Paradise." A circle will be weaved around him thrice. The number 'three' has its own significance as it symbolizes the Christian Trinity ,the Hindu Trinity .etc. Further, this threeness or triad, has always been considered a sacred-like oneness. Again, the number three also emblematizes the unity of body, mind and spirit. At that point,the poem itself is above all other considerations of the mind,body and spirit; but it is also surrounded by these. As a circle is woven around him thrice-fold; a three-dimensional halo will be conferred upon him, that is not only divine, but also real
another one
"Kubla Khan" (1798)
Summary
The unnamed speaker of the poem tells of how a man named Kubla Khan traveled to the land of Xanadu. In Xanadu, Kubla found a fascinating pleasure-dome that was “a miracle of rare device” because the dome was made of caves of ice and located in a sunny area. The speaker describes the contrasting composition of Xanadu. While there are gardens blossoming with incense-bearing trees and “sunny spots of greenery,” across the “deep romantic chasm” in Xanadu there are “caverns measureless to man” and a fountain from which “huge fragments vaulted like rebounding hail.” Amid this hostile atmosphere of Nature, Kubla also hears “ancestral voices prophesying war.” However, Kubla finds relief from this tumultuous atmosphere through his discovery of the miraculous sunny pleasure-dome made of ice.
In the last stanza of the poem, the narrator longs to revive a song about Mount Abora that he once heard a woman play on a dulcimer. The speaker believes that the song would transport him to a dream world in which he could “build that dome in air” and in which he can drink “the milk of Paradise.”
Analysis
A recurring motif throughout Coleridge’s poetry is the power of dreams and of the imagination, such as in “Frost at Midnight,” “Dejection: An Ode,” and “Christabel.” In “Discovery and the Domestic Affections in Coleridge and Shelley,” Michelle Levy explains that Coleridge’s “fascination with the unknown reflects a larger cultural obsession of the Romantic period” (694).
Perhaps the most fantastical world created by Coleridge lies in “Kubla Khan.” The legendary story behind the poem is that Coleridge wrote the poem following an opium-influenced dream. In this particular poem, Coleridge seems to explore the depths of dreams and creates landscapes that could not exist in reality. The “sunny pleasure-dome with caves of ice” exemplifies the extreme fantasy of the world in which Kubla Khan lives.
Similar to several of Coleridge’s other poems, the speaker’s admiration of the wonders of nature is present in “Kubla Khan.” Yet what is striking and somewhat different about the portrayal of nature in this particular poem is the depiction of the dangerous and threatening aspects of nature. For example, consider the following passage:
But oh! that deep romantic chasm which slanted
Down the green hill athwart a cedarn cover!
A savage place! as holy and enchanted
As e’er beneath a waning moon was haunted
By woman wailing for her demon-lover!
And from this chasm, with ceaseless turmoil seething,
As if this earth in fast thick pants were breathing,
A mighty fountain momently was forced:
Amid whose swift half-intermitted burst
Huge fragments vaulted like rebounding hail,
Or chaffy grain beneath the thresher’s flail:
And ‘mid these dancing rocks at once and ever
It flung up momently the sacred river (lines 12-24)
In “Secret(ing) Conversations: Coleridge and Wordsworth,” Bruce Lawder highlights the significance of Coleridge’s use of a feminine rhyme scheme in the above stanza, in which the last two syllables of the lines rhyme (such as “seething” and “breathing”). Lawder notes that “the male force of the ‘sacred river’ literally interrupts, and puts an end to, the seven successive feminine endings that begin the second verse paragraph” (80). This juxtaposition of female forces versus male forces parallels the juxtaposition of Coleridge’s typical pleasant descriptions of nature versus this poem’s unpleasant descriptions. In most of Coleridge’s works, nature represents a nurturing presence. However, in “Kubla Khan,” nature is characterized by a rough, dangerous terrain that can only be tamed by a male explorer such as Kubla Khan.
The last stanza of the poem was added later, and is not a direct product of Coleridge's opium-dream. In it the speaker longs to re-create the pleasured-dome of Kubla Khan "in air," perhaps either in poetry, or in a way surpassing the miraculous work of Kubla Khan himself. The speaker's identity melds with that of Kubla Khan, as he envisions himself being spoken of by everyone around, warning one another to "Beware! Beware!/His flashing eyes, his floating hair!" Kubla Khan/the speaker becomes a figure of superstition, around whom those who would remain safe should "Weave a circle[...] thrice" to ward off his power. Coleridge conflates the near-mythic figure of Kubla Khan manipulating the natural world physically, with the figure of the poet manipulating the world "in air" through the power of his words. In either case, the creative figure becomes a source of awe, wonder, and terror combined.
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