[sq1020]

Wow, just reading classical Arabic poetry was hard enough for me! It was one of the more frustrating genres of classical Arabic that I read. Having to look up every other word was just not my cup of tea. I did like some of al-Mutanabbi's stuff though. One of my old professors is legend in the field.

[ralmidani]

I have to look up a lot of words from classical (especially pre-Islamic) poetry as well. For my own poetry I use words that I, and anyone reading/listening, can understand more easily. When I said “classical” I meant the meter and rhyme aspects, not necessarily the vocabulary.