الغربة القسرية وتحديات البقاء في شعرمحمود درويش

“If only time would return one day”. A beautiful expression that we hear very often in all Arab countries, it carries a lot of meanings, some of which are beautiful, and some are stressful and tiring for the soul; because of the painful memories it contains. Alienation is a conscious person’s awareness of his need for a homeland, even when he is in the country in which he was born and grew up loving it, because this homeland has changed so much that it is no longer possible to be comfortable about it. Usually, this alienation occurs when the homeland becomes a dwelling for dark brute thinking, or a place in which ignorance grows like the moss climbing the walls of old homes. On the other hand, expatriation is the person’s feeling of nostalgy to his country after emigrating because of need or suppression, while holding the country’s image in the form of beautiful reminiscences in his imagination, or childish love stories, or sweet bitter memories that cannot be forgotten whenever alienation and expatriation are both congregated within one person. This is when the considered person felt alienation in his own homeland before his departure, and then felt nostalgic to his homeland after emigration; this new feeling becomes an unstable psychological state that lingers in a constant life of wandering in place and time, searching for another homeland. The feeling of alienation creates the most severe and agonizing human feelings, because it is produced by economic, political, social and cultural circumstances that surround humans, and cause the collapse of social relationships and shaking of relation with the person’s own self, or between him and others, or society. It is the actual schizophrenia, the intrapersonal breakdown from self, the resentment and complaining, as well as isolation and hostility. It is different than expatriation that is caused by travelling or emigrating a country to another for personal reasons, related to economy, education, work or pursuing knowledge and expertise. Expatriation by travelling or emigration might be a personal escape from pressures caused by circumstances or political, economic, religious and social conflicts in our countries, but it remains a personal decision, a choice that anyone can voluntarily pick, and it is different that alienation discussed here, even though both cases are somehow interlocking in some causes within the general scenes of our Arab countries and its despicable reality.