Mısırlı Şair ʿAzîz Abâze’nin Leyle ve Leyle Şiirinde Hüzün Teması

Sadness is one of the fundamental emotions of human existence and manifests itself in different ways throughout the course of life. This state, which includes intense emotions such as helplessness, grief, sorrow, and hopelessness, can leave deep and lasting marks on a person’s inner world. Sometimes sadness arises after a loss, and sometimes it takes shape through a person’s search for meaning and their relationship with life. Sadness is not merely an individual emotion but also a profound and internal experience that accompanies existential questioning. One of the most effective mediums for expressing this intense emotion is literature. Literature, particularly through poetry, enables individuals to make sense of and aesthetically express complex emotions such as sadness, longing, and loneliness experienced within their inner world. In this sense, literature is not merely a means of expression, but also an experiential realm that imbues emotions with meaning and artistic dimension. Since poetry requires emotional depth and inner sensitivity, the theme of sadness has become one of the most frequently explored and powerfully resonant themes in the genre. Poetry and poets have played a central role in Arabic literature throughout all periods. In the classical period, poets were not only aesthetic creators, but also figures who carried social memory, shaped values, and even influenced the intellectual direction of society. This situation did not remain limited to the classical period but continued into the modern period; with the emergence of new forms such as free verse and prose poetry, poetic forms of expression diversified, and a transformation began in which individual emotions were expressed more freely. This transformation enriched the treatment of the theme of sadness in poetry in terms of both form and content. One of the poets who addressed the theme of sadness in modern Arabic literature is the Egyptian poet ʿAzīz Abāza. After losing his wife, ʿAzīz Abāza wrote numerous poems on the themes of nostalgia and sadness. Abāza incorporated intense emotions into his poems, influenced by the personal tragedies he experienced. The poet’s collection of poems, Ennât Hāʾira, is dominated by feelings of sadness. One of the poems on the theme of sadness in the collection is Layla wa Layla, which the poet wrote to his wife. In this poem, where the theme of sadness prevails, the poet clearly expresses his feelings towards his wife. ʿAzīz Abāza’s poem Layla wa Layla reveals how the theme of sadness is treated in a poetic elegy. In this study, the life of ʿAzīz Abāza, one of the prominent figures of contemporary Arabic literature, is briefly discussed, and his poem Layla wa Layla is examined thematically, with a particular focus on the traces of the emotion of sadness that stand out in the poem. This poem, written based on the poet’s personal experiences, is analyzed not in terms of its formal aspects but in terms of its emotional and semantic dimensions. The study will evaluate how the poet addresses the theme of sadness in his poem Layla wa Layla, analyzing it thematically and, at times, technically. In this way, both the poet’s personal pain and the process of its transformation into artistic expression will be examined.