Manifestation of popular and superstitious beliefs in Nizar Qabbani’s romantic illustrations

Recognizing popular and superstitious beliefs as an important part of popular culture introduces the behaviors of people and their ways of thinking and living. Sometimes beliefs set the course of life for the masses to guide them what to do in different aspects of life and what to turn away from. In fact, the positive and negative effect of these beliefs from the past to the present in people’s beliefs and lifestyles cannot be ignored. Human beliefs, generally logical or irrational, scientific or superstitious, are rooted in the ancient culture of any nation which have either remained intact in the same way or have undergone changes over a long period of time. These beliefs are sometimes rooted in the fears of the people of the past and sometimes in the lack of knowledge and insight of the past. They include doing things that have no rational roots. It can be acknowledged that all these beliefs originate from popular thoughts, feelings and emotions, and the belief and acceptance of these beliefs depends on the type of insight and thinking of each person about them. The purpose of writing this article is to examine the modernist view of love as one of the most ambiguous and attractive topics in the works of the famous romantic poet Nizar Qabbani in the field of Arabic literature. Thanks to his valuable cultural treasure, he has been able to express many of his romantic feelings by using superstitious notions. Thus, with the connection between modernity and tradition, it has gained a high position in the field of literature. Factors such as poetic talent and experience, proximity of the poet’s poetic language to the language of the masses, understanding the importance of popular culture and literature, people’s way of life in the eyes of the poet, the attractiveness of these beliefs, and people’s desire for these beliefs have provided a background for the use of popular and superstitious beliefs in the layers of love poems to unite the audience, which is the general public.
Assuming that the culture and life of people was one of the greatest sources of inspiration for Nizar’s poems. This research has examined his works with a descriptive and analytical method. It has been shown how Nizar’s view of popular and superstitious beliefs is reflected in his poems and how he has used these beliefs to reflect his culture, depicted love as the most ancient phenomenon and the most complex subject in the lyrical literature, and used the spice of popular and superstitions beliefs such as coffee divination, giants, magic, etc. With these items, he has created a new realm in depicting romantic concepts such as the complexity and ambiguity of love, the glory and power of love, sincerity and loyalty.
Nizar as a modern and anti- superstition poet tried to create a new atmosphere in the Arabic poetry and to engage his audience, which is the general public devoted to a significant portion of his poems, to popular and superstitious beliefs. Since the poet was fully acquainted with the beliefs of the common people and completely fluent in the terms and language of the people in the street and the bazaar, he got the language of his poetry close to the language of the masses. He understood the appeal of these beliefs and the passion that people had for them. He had an eloquent and powerful pen to express the complexity and ambiguity of love, the glory and power of love, the value and importance of love, sincerity and loyalty. The description of the pain of love and the suffering of the lover has been successfully performed through popular and superstitious beliefs such as coffee divination, jinn, giants, magic rugs and hand palm lines.
The beauty and sweetness of the concept of love in this research is due to the connection of traditional beliefs and the poet’s new perspective on love. He has very skillfully put the two together and made his love popular. Nizar has used these beliefs as a basis for analyzing emotions and expressing inner states, which is a new step in portraying love and the beloved and the states of the lover. In his personal view, in fact, the high frequency of such beliefs in his poems and language has little to do with the acceptance or non-acceptance of these beliefs. Nizar has tried to pass a wealth of information about popular beliefs and superstitions through the filter of his poetic and romantic imaginations and paint them with a poetic glaze. By doing so, he creates romantic images to praise and describe love. The beloved and the states of the lover, who are full of spirits and feelings.