The poetics of memory and dialectics of presence: a hermeneutic reading of Qushayri's `Ayniyya.

The article's starting point is the impact of the change affecting the classical Arab poet in the move from the pre-Islamic age to the Islamic one. The article analyzes the 'Ayniyya poem of Al-Simma Al-Qushayri as a literary focus point expressing the abrupt change between two ethos, one of a departing age and the other of a new age. The beloved woman in the poem, Rayya, is seen as symbolic of an era that disappeared even though it remained latently present in the lyric. The analysis of the poem concentrates on the movements within, revealing poetic structuring through exploration of the stylistic and metric orders, and their significance. The heightened tension in the poetic text, and the fear of the poetic persona from alienation and the unknown, create the desire to travel to another time of self-fulfillment on new terms. The poem thus encapsulates figuratively the move across two ages, expressing the dynamism of the present, but is also saturated with the past.

Bushra Al-Bustani is Associate Professor and poet. She teaches Arabic Literature at the University of Mosul (Iraq). She has published critical studies and is the author of several poetic collections including Beyond Sorrow, The Song and the Knife, The Fences and I, and Garden Roses.