دراسة سيميائية في ديوان (تلاوة الطائر الراحل) للشاعر سامي مهنا

Abstract

This study features a preface and three themes. The preface aims to define the origin of semiology in order to assure the term’s Arabic roots and overcome the problem of having many terms as translations for semiology. The first theme tackles the semantic relation including the divan’s cover, title, and content. The poet chose John Martin’s painting representing the most noticeable semantic themes like ascending, rising, elevation, transcending, and salvation as a cover. While the rock’s great height stands for the theme of ascending ,rising , and elevation, which is a center in the divan, the person standing on the peak of the rocks parallels humans ability to reach the top and survive the abyss. The other elements in the painting (the bird, the prison fortress, and the water) refer to Icarus’s myth which inspired the poet.  

 The semantic colors of the title “the leaving bird recitation” get through the cover and content as the holiness presented in the word “recitation” suits the theme of holiness in Icarus’s myth. The holiness intended in the title, the cover, and the semantic prospects of the poems is the sanctity of humans freedom to rise, elevate, rebirth and be released. On another level, the word “bird” in the title and the bird’s picture on the cover get together as the two birds embody a spiritual trance of soaring and levitation.

 The second theme considered is body semiology introduced from a mystic view. Whereas a mystic believes that taking the spiritual side against the physical one is the way of salvation and purifying himself from life sins, the poet conceives the human body as a salvation cradle and a soul glare. Thus, the gap between desires and spiritual glitter fades in this divan. The last theme sheds light on mythical intertextuality semiology and the merge of the religious and historical intertextuality. Some of the distinct mythical characters are Ishtar, Gilgamesh, and, most notably, the ox, which was thought to be holding the earth on its horns, used by the poet to embody the idea of balance between body and soul. Merging religious and historical intertextuality appears clearly in the characters from the Islamic age to show similarity between the partial disputes about khilafa and the sectarian disputes that have wasted the Arab nation’s resources.