Comparison of Al-Ghuds and Haifa in the Poetry of Samih Al-Ghasem; a Semantic Investigation of his Collection of Poetry

Document Type : Research Paper

Authors

1 Visiting Professor, Arabic Language and Literature, University of Guilan Guilan, Iran

2 Professor, Department of Arabic Language and Literature, Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran, Iran,

Abstract

The city is an open area whose repeating linguistic characteristics contribute to creating meaning and expanding contemporary poetic images. With its diverse functions, the city displays a true image of man’s life and identity, generally defines the human self, and characterizes its link with the internal and external challenges of the motherland. Samih Al-Ghasem attached great significance to the cities of Al-Ghuds and Haifa and believed the two cities had a specific linguistic position because the two, in his poetry, embrace various images and perspectives which describe the reality trend of life, as being occupied by the Zionists, and show the poet’s emotional equilibrium with the sensitive events that unfold inside their borders, thereby forming a spirit of resistance and national concerns towards them. The research has selected two occupied cities of Haifa and Al-Ghuds from among various cities that Samih Al-Ghasem has intended in his poetry. The research also uses a descriptive-analytical approach to compare the most important cognitive concepts those two cities have in common. Thus, a summary of research results suggests that the comparison of the two cities in the poetry of Samih Al-Ghasem reveals specific and general features. The general features indicate common cognitive relations between the two cities that can be divided into three subjects of addressing tragic scenes of children, displaying concerns for originality and identity, and the crisis of negligence and indifference to current developments. However, its specific features include the partial realist description of scenes of destruction of Al-Ghuds and displacement of its residents, in addition to optimistic and pessimistic perspectives of the current status; meantime, as for Haifa, the poet mostly looks to the Israeli’s hostile measures, describing them with the ugliest attributes.
This research uses a descriptive-analytical method to answer the following three questions: 

What is the position of Al-Ghuds and Haifa in the poetry of Samih Al-Ghasem in terms of the way words effectively contribute to diverse themes?
Given the examples, how would Samih Al-Ghasem describe the cognitive dimensions of Al-Ghuds and Haifa? and
How are the two cities' most notable and common conceptual contexts described by Samih Al-Ghasem from a functional perspective?

While recalling the cities in contemporary Palestinian Poetry, it has dedicated a special place to the use of vocabulary and symbols through it that identifies further affiliations and desires of the poet and reflects social and inherent concerns and anxieties of the poet; since the cities in Palestinian poetry became the dramatic scene where the essence of images, themes and new literary codes in the furnace of events are revealed that in  contemporary critical study based on sign processes and indications. Therefore, Palestinian cities for their great poets such as Samih al-Qasim, are considered as a gift and good source in order to draw new images and add aesthetic background in his idea of resistance in such a way that their major use of the vocabulary suggests the inspiring East where the nature and national identity of a poet, while realistic view and emotional stances, are tied together. Our study was focused on the cities that Samih al-Qasim’s poetry has paid attention. The current study has chosen two cities of Jerusalem and Haifa on a selective basis. Although the overall theme of poems places these cities among the common National and patriotic issues, each of them has a unique innovative signs than the other that can be distinguished. One of the instances is the painful realistic feature appeared most in Jerusalem, and the other is the ethical signs dedicated to city of Haifa while optimistic and pessimistic view to the city of Haifa. Therefore, this study aims to analyze call of Jerusalem and Haifa in both Samih Al-Qasim's poetry in terms of statistics and content to show hidden images and indication based on the descriptive - analytical method for analysis of literary text and to decode the signs and indications.

Keywords

Full Text

مقایسه قدس و حیفا در شعر سمیح القاسم، بررسی معناشناختی در مجموعه‌های کامل شعری او

حامد پورحشمتي *

 كبری روشنفكر **

چکیده:

شهر، مکانی باز است که ویژگی‌های زبانی تکرارشونده‌ی آن به آفرینش معانی و گسترش تصاویر شعری معاصر کمک می‌کند. شهر با کارکردهای گوناگونی که دارد، صحنه‌ی واقعی از زندگی و هویت انسانی را به نمایش می‌گذارد و چه بسا به صورت کلی می‌تواند موجب تعریف بهتر خود انسانی و نشان‌دهنده‌ی میزان پیوند او با چالش‌های درونی و بیرونی سرزمین باشد. سمیح القاسم برای شهرهای قدس و حیفا اهمیت زیادی قائل ‌بوده و جایگاه زبانی خاصی برای آنها در نظر گرفته است؛ زیرا آن دو در شعر او پذیرای دیدگاه‌ها و تصاویر متعددی هستند که برخی از آنها به بیان سیر واقعیت زیستی، آن طوری که در سیطره اشغال صهیونیست قرار دارد، اشاره می‌کند و برخی دیگر، نشان‌دهنده‌ی تعامل عاطفی شاعر با رویدادهای حساسّی است که داخل مرزهای آنها رخ می‌دهد و موجب شکل‌گیری روحیه‌ی مقاومت و دغدغه‌های ملی نسبت به آنها می‌گردد. پژوهش ما از میان تمامی شهرهایی که سمیح القاسم در شعر خود مد نظر قرار داده است،  قدس و حیفا را به عنوان دو شهر تحت اشغال صیهونیست انتخاب کرده است و سعی دارد با رویکرد توصیفی- تحلیلی، به مقایسه‌ی مهمترین مفاهیم شناختی مشترک میان آنها بپردازد. از این رو خلاصه‌ی نتایج پژوهش حاکی از آن است که مقایسه‌ی این دو شهر در شعر سمیح القاسم دارای ویژگی‌های عام و خاص است. ویژگی‌های کلی آن‌ها نشان‌دهنده‌ی روابط شناختی مشترکی است که می‌توان آن‌ها را به سه موضوع تقسیم کرد که شامل پرداختن به صحنه‌های تراژدیک کودکان، نشان‌دادن دغدغه‌های اصالت و هویت، و نمایش بحران کوتاهی و بی‌تفاوتی نسبت به تحولات جاری در کانون رخ‌دادهای آنها است. ولی ویژگی‌های خاص آن مبتنی بر توصیف جزئی واقع‌گرایانه نسبت به صحنه‌هایی از ویرانی شهر قدس و آوارگی ساکنین آن در بین نگاه‌های خوش‌بینانه و بدبینانه نسبت به وضعیت کنونی آن عرضه می‌شود، در حالی که شاعر پیرامون شهر حیفا عمدتا به رفتارها و واکنش‌های خصمانه‌‌ی رژیم صهیونیستی توجّه دارد و زشت‌ترین صفات منفی را نسبت به آن ارائه می‌دهد.

واژگان کلیدی: شعر پایداری فلسطین، سمیح القاسم، قدس، حیفا، مقایسه.

 

*  استاد مدعو، رشته زبان و ادبیات عربی، دانشگاه گیلان، گیلان، ایران (نویسنده مسوول). poorheshmati@gmail.com

**  استاد تمام، گروه زبان و ادبیات عربی، دانشگاه تربیت مدرس، تهران، ایران. kroshan@modares.ac.ir

References

1- Books
Holy Quran.
Bakhtin, M. (1987). The novelistic discourse, translated by Muhammad Barada, 1st Edition, Cairo: Dar Al-Fikr for Studies, Publishing and Distribution. [In Arabic].
Rezwan, A. (2012). Jerusalem in modern Arabic poetry, Amman: Gulf House for Publishing and Distribution. [In Arabic].
Abbas, I. (1978). Trends in Contemporary Arabic Poetry, Kuwait, The National Council for Culture, Arts and Letters. [In Arabic].
Al-Azza, A. G. (1989). Suns of the Morning and Al-Wad Al-Qadeem, Jerusalem: Publications of the Palestinian Writers Union. [In Arabic].
Aghagh, G. (2001). The significance of the city in contemporary Arab poetic discourse; a study in the problem of aesthetic reception of the place, Damascus: Union of Arab Writers. [In Arabic].
Al-Qasim, S. (1987). Diwan of Samih al-Qasim, Volume 1, Beirut: Dar al-Awda. [In Arabic].
............ …… (1993). complete works of the poet Samih Al-Qasim, Volume 2, 3, 4 and 6, Kuwait: Dar Al-Saad Al-Sabah. [In Arabic].
Ghajja, M. (2013). Jerusalem in the eyes of poets, 1st edition, Qatar: Ministry of Culture, Arts and Heritage. [In Arabic].
Courtel, A. (2009). Dictionary of World Myths, translated by Suha Al-Tarihi, Syria: Nineveh House. [In Arabic].
Al-Masadi, A. (1983). Criticism and Modernity, 1st Edition, Beirut: Dar Al-Tali`ah. [In Arabic].
Palestinian Encyclopedia Authority (1990). The Palestinian Encyclopedia, Volume 1, Volume 6, Palestine: Al-Muhtideen Library. [In Arabic].
 
2- Theses:
Abyat, Z. (1987). The image of the city in modern Arabic poetry, Master's thesis, Yarmouk University, Jordan. [In Arabic].
Ladado, R. (2005): Jerusalem in Contemporary Palestinian Poetry (2004-1967), Master's Thesis, supervised by Ibrahim Nimr Musa, Palestine, Birzeit University. [In Arabic].
Margha, I. (2006). The City in the Poetry of Samih Al-Qasim, Master's Thesis, Palestine, Hebron University. [In Arabic].
Al-Washahi, W. (2014). The Social Life of the Palestinians of Haifa under the Israeli Occupation, Master's Thesis, Yarmouk University, Jordan. [In Arabic].
 
3- Journals and conferences:
Balawi, R and Abad, M. (2012). “Summoning cities in the poetry of Yahya al-Samawi”, Fasnama Criticism and Applied Literature Daneshkdah Literature and Human Sciences Daneshgah Razi, 2(6), 121-136. [In Arabic].
Roshenfekr, K and Zare Barami, M and Ghobadi, H. A. (2011). “Applied Analysis: Drones May High Resistance Dar Ash’ar Samih Al-Qassem, Hassan Hosseini and Kaiser Aminpur”, Journal of Comparative Languages and Literature, 2(4), 41-71. [In Persian].
Roshenfekr, K and Poorheshmati, H. (1438): “The Symbolic Motif of Jerusalem in the Poetry of Mahmoud Darwish; Statistical and Semantic Study”, Contemporary Literature Studies Quarterly, 8(31), 75-89. [In Arabic].
Salem, A. (2017): “Jerusalem in the Poetry of (Samih Al-Qasim) through Three Poems”, Al-Manara Magazine, Al al-Bayt University in the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, 23(1), 245-278. [In Arabic].
................. (2018): “Trends of the “Quds poem” in Samih Al-Qasim’s poetry: “The Book of Jerusalem” as a model, Apjir magazine - academic platform journal, Turkey, (1), 79-93. [In Arabic].
Al-Samarani, Y. T. (2014). «Visual images and their interactions in the poetry of Al-Akma in Shaban Burd - stylistic applications», College of the Great Imam, may God have mercy on him, University Department of Fundamentals of Religion in Samarra, 10(38), 1-40. [In Arabic].
Soltan, T. F and Ghazanfari, S. H. (2008): “Jerusalem in the Arab Geographical Sources in the Abbasid Era,” Journal of Research of the College of Basic Education, University of Mosul, Iraq, 8(4), pp. 208-228. [In Arabic].
Al-Samaena, M. (2018): “Nostalgia for Jerusalem in Contemporary Palestinian Poetry”, Journal of Scientific Research in Arts, Ain Shams University, Egypt, 2(19), pp. 1-28. [In Arabic].
Fares, A. (2011): “The Defense of Haifa in the Memory of Abbas al-Haj Saleh (1928-2009)” Jerusalem Annals, (11), 43-52. [In Arabic].
Qassem, N. (2014): “Jerusalem in the intertextual poetic writing of Samih Al-Qasim”, Amarabak Journal, Arab American Academy of Sciences and Technology, 5(12), pp. 17-36. [In Arabic].
Ghourari, S. (2018): “The Presence of the City of Jerusalem in the Thought of Imam Muhammad Al-Bashir Al-Ibrahimi: Its Manifestations and Effects”, Apjir - Academic Platform Journal of Islamic Research, 2(3), 1-44. [In Arabic].
Mostafa, M. (2002). "The Structure of Morphology and Contradiction in a Mu'allaqah Introduction to Obaid bin Al-Abras". The Second National Forum “Semiotics and the Literary Text”, Algeria: Mohamed Khider University, 333-344. [In Arabic].
Mousa, I. (2011): “Jerusalem between the Inscription of Identity and Enhancement of Resistance in Mahmoud Darwish's Poetry,” Anaquel de Estudios Árabes, 22, 173-189. [In Arabic].
Najafi Iwaki, A. (2015). “The Correspondence of the Senses and Its Forms in the Poetry of Abd al-Muti Hijazi,” Journal of the Arabic Language and Literature, 12(1), 49-69. [In Arabic].
 
4- newspapers:
Zamiri, H. (2015). Al-Buraq Wall. Islamic property, Palestinian identity, Al-Asima newspaper, Wednesday, February 25, issue ninth. [In Arabic].
آفاق الحضارة الاسلامية
Volume 25, Issue 2 - Serial Number 50
Autumn & Winter
2023
Pages 37-68

Files

Share

How to cite

Statistics