Images of Time in the Poetry of Hassan

Abstract

Time has remained an obsession of poets and a central focus of their attention, as well as an inexhaustible source of inspiration. It has played a prominent role in enriching Arab poetry, and poets have been fascinated by its flow and captivated by its power, attributing to it the acts of life and death, good and evil. Likewise, time constitutes an obsession for our poet Hassan al-Sousi, as images of time dominate most of his poems and represent the prevailing feature of the majority of his poetic collections. It is as though time is his foremost concern while he attempts to render it static; yet time is in constant flux and limitless motion, possessing a destructive force and an authority that no one can withstand. Images of time in his poetry are manifested through the day, yesterday, and tomorrow; the night and its representations; and the day and its representations. Time is also portrayed through the year and its dimensions, such as the year and the lifespan, as well as the four seasons and their images. Furthermore, time appears through its three temporal dimensions (the past, the present, and the reality). The poet’s time is essentially his past—the time of love and passion, and the memories of youth and the spring of life. The present, standing before him with all its tyranny, dictates its will upon him, leaving him unable to object. His present is undesirable, for it is the time of gray hair, which he despises. As for the future, it remains unknown and is therefore feared and dreaded. We also encounter other representations of time embodied in life, fate, destiny, death, and departure. The poet adopts images of time as symbols, connotations, and similes through which he embodies his life experiences within a creative vision that seeks to ensure permanence and survival, in an attempt to challenge time—an adversary before whom no one is capable of standing.