Semantic Transformations of Pain in the Poetry of Muzaffar Al-Nawwab: A Discourse-Analytical Study

Abstract

This study examines the representations and semantic transformations of pain in the poetry of Muzaffar al-Nawwab, approaching it as a dynamic symbolic structure that extends beyond individual emotion toward collective discourse. The research analyzes a selected corpus consisting of three poems representing different stages of al-Nawwab’s poetic development: “Tarnīmat Istaīqaẓat Dhāt Yawm,” “Banafsaj al-Ḍabāb,” and “al-Quds ʿArūs ʿUrūbatikum.”

Employing a qualitative analytical approach supported by lexical classification and a coding matrix, the study investigates the semantic fields and discursive contexts in which pain is articulated. The findings reveal a gradual shift from psychologically individual expressions to politically and ideologically charged discourse. Pain evolves from a subjective emotional theme into a structural and rhetorical device that performs argumentative and mobilizing functions within the poetic text.

The study concludes that al-Nawwab transforms pain into a discursive mechanism reflecting collective political consciousness. It further suggests that future research may expand this approach through digital lexical analysis across a broader poetic corpus to deepen the understanding of semantic transformations in modern Arabic poetry.