Eighth: the symbols and the images

08Eighth: the symbols and the images

The symbol

• The eagles: ambition, freedom, dignity, insistence — and all that the eagle suggests of strength, far sight, sharpness of vision, being the highest-flying and strongest-winged of birds.
• The poet used its plain name "eagles" and not its nicknames (such as "father of the black" or "father of the finger"), and used the plural form described as "the free ones (al-taliqa) three times, to suggest ambitious, gifted, free and proud human beings.
• The rabbits: inertness, weakness, cowardice and clutching at life — they are known for fear, panic and love of food.
• Symbols of elevation: the mountains, the impossible, the suns, the stars, the lighthouses, eternity, space, the summits.
• Symbols of inertness: the plains, the deep narrow pass, the shadows, the burrow.
• All the symbols aim to bring out the high meanings a human being should take on.

The images

• New poetry relies on the total, unfolding image, not only the partial one, and joins the image to the symbol.
• Partial borrowed images: the eagles, the rabbits, space, the horizon, the mountains, "hunger burns their insides", "they take pride".
• The eagles are likened to suns and stars in height and independence of course.
• The obscurity that appears in some images clears up quickly under attentive reading.

Drawing on heritage

• "Tremble with fear" is drawn from the Qur'anic verse "the day the trembler trembles (yawm tarjifu al-rajifa)" — suggesting extreme panic.
• "The spearheads succeeding one behind the other" is drawn from the old saying "the spearheads broke upon the spearheads (takassarat al-nisal 'ala al-nisal)" — suggesting resistance and insistence.