The celebrated Egyptian singer Umm Kulthum is one of the most successful re-animators of the Arabic qas̩īda in the twentieth century. Her work reveals a profound understanding of the movement of the qas̩īda from the personal to the public, from reflection to engagement, and from self to other/others. Her selection of poems, her editing of them, and her final performances all attest to her ability to “translate” and “rewrite” the archetypal form for her times, revealing in it a call for outward engagement (social, political, historical) that can only arise from a most personal and inward of postures. Not only evoking the tradition but also striking significant contemporary chords, these poems-turned-songs show how Umm Kulthum rewrote the Arabic qasida and forged powerful statements with deep and lasting reverberations. By studying her selections from pre-modern poetry as well as from the poetry of her contemporaries, my project showcases Umm Kulthum’s understanding the Arabic qas̩īda’s structure and ethos and her ability to activate this archetypal structure on a popular level through selection, abridgment, framing, and performance.