Time, The Obsession with Fear and Hope: A Reading of Selected Poems By Al-Sayyab, Al-Bayati, and Amal Dunqul

Abstract

There are many critical studies that have dealt with time in various literary texts in poetry and prose alike, but most of these studies are divided into two parts:
First: I studied time as one of the techniques of constructing narrative text in particular and creative text in general. I studied the techniques of anticipation and retrieval, and of disrupting the narrative or accelerating its pace.
Second: Researchers dealt with real time and psychological time in creative texts, with all their similarities, differences, and a sense of length or shortness of time depending on the psychological state that the person is experiencing .
This study is very different from previous studies, because it deals with time in terms of it being a frightening obsession that reminds a person of the inevitable end and disappearance. It also pays attention to the other opposite feeling, when the moment in time constitutes a positive feeling full of hope, when the soul longs for a moment in time in which it reaches... To achieve a goal, wish, or success.
Time constitutes a frightening and terrifying obsession that disturbs a person in his moments of solitude whenever he thinks about himself, or recalls some of his memories, and regrets the years of his life that have passed, and whenever he looks at himself in the mirror, or at an old picture, he feels the imprints of time clearly visible in his form, movement, and color. His hair, which had turned white due to time, its cruelty and tyranny .
We will discuss this moment and its manifestations in the poetry of three modern-day poets (Al-Sayyab, Amal Dunqul, and Al-Bayati).