‘Alā ẓahrⁱ fāḥišatⁱⁿ tusāṭ by Muḥ ammad T. ‘Urayqāt A poetic call for cultural upheaval

One of the essential characteristics of Erekat’s poetry is that it is difficult. This article examines the poem’s tributaries: the co-text, social context, everyday speech, and ancestral symbolism. In a world poeticized through writing, where women’s suffering is commonplace and all that winter symbolizes is crushed, emerges the clairvoyant, suffering, and solitary poet. The enclave of solitude is shattered by the poet’s compassion for an adulterous woman being whipped.