Religious Ideals and Influences in "City of Olive Branches"
In the poem “City of Olive Branches” by Nizar Qabbani, there was a clear shift between the beginning and the end of the poem, which was marked by a shift from a sorrowful and pleading mood to a very hopeful tone in the second half of the poem. The poem begins with the use of hyperboles to express an extreme sense of grief. The author says he “wept until every tear had dried,” which is obviously an exaggeration, but this word choice helps express the intensity of his grief to the audience. In addition to the feelings of grief, there are also clear references to the various religions that make up Jerusalem, with mentions of both Muhammad and Jesus only one line apart from each other. This indicates that the author himself is surrounded by a religious environment in which everyone is extremely loyal to their beliefs, suggesting that a lot of the author’s thinking likely evolves from a religious basis.
About half way through the poem, the author’s tone shifts and he utilizes repetition of the word “tomorrow” to provide a sense of hopefulness. Qabbani acknowledges that the present state of Jerusalem is not perfect and even calls it a “city of sorrow,” but then uses future tense words to suggest a futuristic utopia in which Jerusalem is a place of peace and happiness. In addition to the tone providing a sense of hope and peacefulness, Qabbani also uses religious symbolism to strengthen his point that “tomorrow” Jerusalem will be a place of peace and unity. Doves are a universal symbol of peace, and in Christianity they are used to represent new beginnings. For example, in Noah’s ark, he knew that they were okay to leave the boat and settle into the new world that was washed clean after he sent out a dove for the third time and the dove did not return. In addition to the use of the dove, the author also closed out the poem by referring to Jerusalem as a “city of olive branches.” In Christianity, olive branches are another known symbol of peace, as the same dove on Noah’s ark returned once with an olive branch and olive branches were used to welcome Jesus to Jerusalem.
Overall, there are numerous references to religious ideals in the poem “City of Olive Branches,” and this combined with the clear tone shift in the middle of the poem points at the religious ideal of death and resurrection. Death followed by resurrection are commonly found in the Christian Bible, but they are also believed to “apply to the ongoing spiritual life of the believer” (Faw, page 291). The most obvious example of this is the death of Jesus in the Christian Bible and him rising from the dead three days later, but there are many other smaller references to death followed by new life throughout the Bible. There are stories such as when Abraham was told to sacrifice his son Isaac, but this was just a test of his faith. Before Isaac was sacrificed, he was saved, giving him a new chance at a life in which his father, Abraham, was blessed by God (Hebrew Bible, Genesis 22:1-19). Ultimately, Qabbani appears to be viewing the state of Jerusalem from a point of view strongly influenced by religion, so he is predicting that after the grief and hard times that make up Jerusalem at the time he was writing this poem, there will be a time of peace and a sense of rebirth. This view is highly optimistic, but it proves how people tend to look to religious models to analyze and predict the world around them.
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