When Melodies Gather: Oral Art of the MahraMain MenuOverviewAcknowledgmentsBorn to be Digital?About the MahraHuman and Geographical ContextFind Your PoemTheory of ClassificationIndex of PoemsGlossary (please wait while the terms load)BibliographiesbibliographySamuel Liebhaber92edd610c0d14d00181bd949250cbe90dae08f10
Conventional Opening recording
12017-10-10T20:51:36+00:00Stanford University Pressaf84c3e11fe030c51c61bbd190fa82a3a1a1282411media audio fileplain2017-10-10T20:51:36+00:00Stanford University Pressaf84c3e11fe030c51c61bbd190fa82a3a1a12824
This page is referenced by:
12017-10-10T20:51:36+00:00Conventional Invocation9poemplain2020-03-03T06:13:57+00:00The first three lines of an ʾōdī we-krēm krēm by an unknown poet from the inland desert. The entire text was recorded as a digital file on a cell phone belonging to a Mahri speaker from Shiḥn who was visiting al-Ghaydha in July 2008. I transferred the file to my digital recorder by placing it against the speaker of the cellphone while the clip played. I did not have the opportunity to transcribe or translate this poem in its entirety; however, I have included it here because it provides a good example of the formulaic motifs that introduce a typical ʾōdī we-krēm krēm tribal-historical poem. I have included a recording of the entire poem even though only the first three lines are transcribed below.