The Significance Of White Color In Muhammad Imran’s Poetry

Abstract

Color constitutes a significant feature in the poetic lexicon of Muhammad Imran, as he accords it considerable attention; it is rare to find a poem of his in which he has not employed a set of colors. The presence of colors in his poetry is not arbitrary, for color possesses a distinctive linguistic code that plays its role in generating the game of meaning. Therefore, this study aims to examine the aesthetics of chromatic phenomena in Imran’s poetic creativity through the color white, following a statistical analysis that recorded the instances in which he explicitly used the term (white) amounting to 113 occurrences. The study adopts the aesthetic artistic approach and draws upon the tools of semiotic methodology, particularly in tracing significations and attempting to relate them to the general context of the text. The research arrives at several findings, the most significant of which is that the white color in his poetry is employed in two principal modes: the first is its negative connotation, including the meanings of annihilation and death; the second is its positive connotation, including the meanings of immortality, freedom and dignity, peace, and mystical (Sufi) significance. Imran employs the techniques of binary oppositions and synesthesia in his use of white. The study finds that the connotations of this color in his work bear an overarching aesthetic dimension infused with political meanings, serving the thematic function of this color as emblematic of defeat and weakness. In addition, the white color is imbued with mystical connotations dictated by the years of his final illness, particularly in his later poetic phases, where white became more complex, tending toward obscurity, symbolism, and displacement.