Yemeni Terza Rima Its Characteristics and Concept for Tehamian People [Archives:1999/40/Culture]
October 4 1999
Saleh Abdulbaqi
Cultural Editor
Its tune and rhythm do not differ from those of the Arab Teresa rima. Hence, I will deal with the distinguished taste of Tehamian Terza Rima. We will also recognize the important constituents which formed the basic frame of Terza Rima in general. I have talked with Sheikh Mansour Wasel, a member of the Parliament and the advisor in the cultural forum in Al-Jarahe in Zabeed, and reached this conclusion .
First of all, I would like to point out that that Yemeni Terza Rima, which appears in Sana’a, Lahj, Hadramout and Tehamah areas were formed by their demarcating features, and by the classical ways that they follow as the traditional environmental frames. Terza Rima for Tehamian people is the songs which praise our Prophet Mohammed ( all pray upon Him), or by mentioning the Glory of God’s Names and some of His Features. They like this kind of poetry because they want to polish their hearts and sharp their minds and behaviors. Sufism has come from this art. So they are called ‘ Al- Makhsodeen’. They gave it this name because it has a special intention. It also has another meaning for Tehamian people, which is ‘Al-Shallal’, which represent the waterfall. This waterfall reflects the real environment that they live in and their suffering.
“Shallaloon” is set in a high place in the marriage occasions ‘Al-Aross’ (like the waterfall), to sing and to make their sound heard by audience. On the other hand, the wise men come to interpret the ambiguous meanings of poetry , which describe two things either “Holy Ka’abah” or some times they have different meanings which are difficult to be understood by any one. There is a proverb which say: ‘let them guess whatever they want, we have the meaning’. We find that they always project through their poetry the beauty of women, but it seems that they talked about religion.
Sheik Al-Harfash has mentioned on his traditional book ‘Al-Kafek’ the different ways of poetry. There is mention about the features of Terza in Tehama like the song of Sheik Al-Badae, and also of Nasser Al-Zabedi. Through Terza, they mentioned two kinds of clouds. The first one represents the rainfall cloud, and the other represents some kind of woman’s beauty.
So, we find so many features in the songs which describe flirtation, desertion, nature, praise and so forth. All these kinds are very close to the poetical classics, but in-spite of its multiple kinds, it is a Sufi Terza. There are a number of classical schools as Gaber Rizkh, which become one of the famous Yemeni Terza in Tehama. There is also another classical school which is called Omar Barakat school, the supreme Sheik in Sama’ae area. This classical school has been called ‘Al-Smee and Al-Maksood. This name was known as Al-Zaideah and Harad area in North Hodeddah.
There are so many professional singers who have graduated from these schools, and who have different forms of this arts. We have to mention some of those people as Hassan Omar Abdullah Bokar, Mohammed Al-Halasabe, Nasser Heleil, Abu Al-Kaith and others.
During my exploration, I have come across different skills of those singers. Some of them follow the traditional Terza Rima styles, while the others use their own styles. They took these feature from ancient traditional rhythm of Yemeni traditional songs. I urge upon those singers to follow the same traditional ways of their ancient grandfathers, and preserv it from fading away.
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