شعرية الرحلة في كتاب ’’على نهر كونهار‘‘ للدكتورة مريم البادي The Poetics of Travel in On the Kunhar River by Dr. Mariam Al-Badi Section Articles

Abstract

This study seeks to approach the poetics of travel in Dr. Mariam Al-Badi’s book “On the Kunhar River” by focusing on description as a central structural and aesthetic component in shaping travel discourse. The study proceeds from a critical perspective that views travel literature not merely as a record of events and scenes, but as a form that artistically reproduces them through language, reflection, and the interweaving of the self with place, time, and the other. The research analyzes the representations of description through five main axes: the description of people and their customs, the description of place, the description of time, the description of animals, and the description of plants, while clarifying their semantic and aesthetic functions within the text.

The reading reveals that “On the Kunhar River” goes beyond the limits of tourist travel writing and becomes a literary text saturated with poetics. The natural and human scenes in Pakistan are transformed into spaces for contemplation, comparison, and the evocation of memory. The presence of the writing self also emerges as an organizing element of the narrative vision, as the observation of mountains, rivers, villages, and people is inseparable from inner emotion and aesthetic interpretation. The study shows that description in the text does not serve merely a decorative function, but contributes to the construction of meaning, reveals the distinctiveness of place, deepens the human dimension of the journey, and transforms fleeting everyday details into literary images with suggestive power. Thus, “On the Kunhar River” becomes a travel text open to aesthetic reading, not simply a record of a travel route, but a writing experience that combines autobiography, observation, and poetic imagination.