OF THE AUTHORS represented the work of Nizar Qabbani is the most memorable. Qabbani, while writing about people and places far from the West, succeeds in bring the reader close to an understanding of his literary environment. Rejecting the narcotic apathy in the midst of progress that he considers the downfall of "Our defeated generation...," Qabbani appeals to the young to ignore their parents' example "For we have failed/Are worthless and banal as a melon rind."
In "Bread, Hashish and Moonlight" Qabbani attacks the fatalistic attitude reflected in the other poems. He dispels as an illusion the belief the fulfillment in death can substitute for fulfillment in life. As a result he is forced to dismiss his countrymen bitterly and absolutely:
They console themselves with an opium we call fate
And destiny
In my land, the land of the simple...
Where we slowly chew on our unending songs--
A form of consumption destroying the east--
Our east chewing on its history,
Its lethargic dreams,
Its empty legends...