The broken ego in the introductions of Imru' al-Qais

Abstract

Our study, entitled (The Broken Ego in the Introductions to Imru’ al-Qais al-Talliyya), aims to explain the state of brokenness in the poet Imru’ al-Qais as he stands on the ruins, and to explain the obstacles to that brokenness, which varied between regretting the pastures of his family and his beloved, and they have become study drawings that only animals can be comforted with, and at other times. He made standing on the ruins a contemplative philosophical feature by making agreements between the state of the lands and their richness in the past. He explained what the moment of poetic revelation turned into when it became ruins, likening it to the human condition in life and the inevitability of immortality.

The phenomenon of brokenness accompanied Imru' al-Qais, sometimes when he stood on ruins he knew, remembering their inhabitants and those of his relatives who were there. Other times we found him broken when standing on a crumbling ruin whose inhabitants he did not know, influenced by philosophical visions of finitude and annihilation that he saw in the ruins and attributed to humans. Despite the Arab's pride in strength and endurance and his serious attempts to avoid showing himself in a place of brokenness, we found Imru' al-Qais broken, unable to bear what he saw of ruins, despite his companions' calls for patience and endurance. The motives and causes of brokenness varied for Imru' al-Qais. Sometimes he cried over the separation from his beloved while he stood on the ruins. Other times he burned with brokenness over the separation from his family who were left behind by animals that did not reconcile with humans and took their place. Other times he cried over a ruin unknown to him, but he looked at it with a contemplative look that led to comparing humans to the homes that had become crumbling ruins.