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Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Introduction
- Part I The Poet Between Two Expatriates
- Part II Single and Collective Hero – Humanization, Animalization and Objectification
- Part III Title Indications, Allusiveness and Symbols
- Part IV Textual Openness and Employment of Myths, Religions, and Holy Books
- Conclusion
- Bibliography
- Summary in Arabic
2 - Semantic Possibilities of Symbols, Vagueness, and Mystery
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 14 October 2023
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Introduction
- Part I The Poet Between Two Expatriates
- Part II Single and Collective Hero – Humanization, Animalization and Objectification
- Part III Title Indications, Allusiveness and Symbols
- Part IV Textual Openness and Employment of Myths, Religions, and Holy Books
- Conclusion
- Bibliography
- Summary in Arabic
Summary
The contents of Janabi’s poetry are often very intense and full of symbols, semiotic references, and semantic drifts, which give the poem the character of vagueness in most cases. Less often, poetic sentences come in a difficult to understand enigmatic context, but they open a wide door of interpretation and reflection. Sometimes, specific words come as a semantic key, which contributes to deciphering the poet’s hints and his mysterious phrases, and with their help the reader is guided to the intent of the text and its message. For example, in the first poem, “Ṯalāṯat Būrtrīhāt,” of the collection Walīmat al-asmāk, the poet uses the word “portrait” with meta-indications that call for the recipient’s reflection and deep thinking. This brings us back to the concept of portraiture, which focuses on showing facial features and expressions. The most important factor affecting this kind of painting is lighting, where the expression of the face, which reflects character, may be changed by modifying the light falling upon it. Portraiture is the art of drawing a character as the painter sees it; hence, the painter is the best person to understand the features of the painted subject. Therefore, portraiture is one of the types of painting that artists see as complex and difficult, because it depends on presenting the character through lighting. In “Būrtrīh 2” (Portrait 2), the world appears lost, mysterious, a waste land behind closed doors. In the shadow of war, killings, bloodshed, humiliation of mankind, and those who are waiting to open the doors of locked life, the poet resorts to the possibility of a supernatural force that may alter the miserable reality of the living people. He expresses it with signs that indicate the existence of life in space, observing our planet. However, the poetic hero is satisfied with asking the question, without knowing the truth, leaving himself and us thinking about this mysterious matter:
News about the dead killed meaninglessly, and the sins are increasing, Living people queue up at closed doors
in search of what opens them, there are those who are retreating, with drawing:
I do not know where?
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- The Poet and ExistenceText Contents and the Interaction of Reality, Myths and Symbols in Hatif Janabi's Poetry, pp. 100 - 116Publisher: Jagiellonian University PressPrint publication year: 2021