خلاصة:
Ahmad Dahbour is a Palestinian resistance poet and one of the contemporary Arab symbolist poets. Given the political and social atmosphere of Palestine and following the new generation of Arab symbolist poets, he has engaged in symbolism and the use of myth in his poetry. The use of myth in his first collection, Al-Dawari wa Uyoun al-Atfal, is in a primitive and raw form, whereas in the collections Hakadha wa Huna wa Hunak, it possesses more cohesion and complexity. The myths employed in Dahbour's poetry are of Greek and religious origins. He manipulates these myths, employing each in a new way that meets the needs of his era. Greek myths such as Medusa, Midas, and Oedipus serve as symbols of alienation and displacement in his poetry, while religious myths such as Christ (PBUH) represent the hero myth, Abraham (PBUH) represents the myth of sacrifice, and John the Baptist (PBUH) represents the myth of creation. In this essay, by looking at the trend of myth in Arabic poetry, the nature of myth, and the relationship between myth and literature, the prominent myths in the poetry of Ahmad Dahbour are addressed.
ملخص الجهاز:
Given the political and social atmosphere of Palestine and following the new generation of Arab symbolist poets, he engaged in symbolism and the use of myth in poetry.
Greek myths such as Medusa, Midas, and Oedipus serve as symbols of estrangement and displacement in his poetry, while religious myths such as Christ (AS), the hero myth and Ibrahim (AS) as the myth of sacrifice and altruism, and Yahya (AS) as the myth of creation.
As previously mentioned, Ahmad Dahbour is the heir to the poetry of first-generation poets who employed myth in Arabic literature, such as al-Sayyab.
In this poem, the poet has a new perspective on the myth of Medusa and, with a compassionate gaze, does not consider her evil, but rather deems her deserving of pity; because she is an eternal cursed being who wishes to love people and, with one look, not turn them into stone!
At the beginning of this poem, the poet expresses Medusa's misery and helplessness in her own words, evoking the compassion and sympathy of the audience, and says that all Medusa's possessions are a stone that kills fire and heat and buries light and glad tidings alive; a stone that is everything to Medusa, around whom the sun boils, and within her, a coldness is just as burning; when there is no flower, how can she love, when there is no intellect, how can she go mad, and when she has no ear for listening, what is her voice: «حجر ميت الحرارة يئد النور والبشارة حجر کل ما أنا، تلک ، حولی، الشمس تغلی، و فی برد منافی ليس لی وردة فکيف أحن ؟ لم يکن لی عقل فکيف أجن ؟ کيف صوتی و ليس فی الأفق أذن ؟» (Dahbour, 1990: 145).
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