The Poet and Existence. Text Contents and the Interaction of Reality, Myths and Symbols in Hatif Janabi's Poetry

 This study reveals important aspects in the contents of the poetic achievement of Hatif Janabi – the son of the Arab environment with its ancient culture, and at the same time a companion of Polish culture, which is distinguished among European societies by its unique Slavic character. Janabi’s poetry expresses a great sensitivity to the hardships of life in a world of painful alienation, revealing anxieties of expatriation and the writer’s philosophy of existence. This is what makes his poetry an expression of human concerns and a revelation close to the soul, not to mention its great intellectual value that makes it a true representative of two ancient cultures – Eastern and European.

The topics of Janabi’s poetry are varied, as they touch on many aspects of a person’s life, his being, setbacks, hopes, and disappointments. They highlight multiple manifestations of human savagery and draw attention to the humanization of animals and objects in search of traits that humans had lost. Just as the contents of the poetic texts attract the attention of the reader and the critic, their semantic and rhetorical predicates also arouse interest. Interpretations of the texts and their titles reveal the aesthetics of poetic contexts and their symbolic and intellectual value.

Poetry becomes the partner of the desert and emptiness simultaneously: both are the source of the creator’s fear. Despite the clear contradiction between dark poetry and lit space, Janabi unites these two opposites into one whole, which can be comprehended only by poets. It is only they who are able to envision a complete life among wild sands, filled with secrets. In this lies the symbolism of the desert, unveiling its surreal nature filled with the abundance of various images and contradictions, impossible to notice by means of an inattentive glance. The poet can do nothing but worriedly push away all fears of getting lost in this completely dark world.