The title is a semiotic system with semantic and symbolic dimensions that entice the researcher to trace its connotations and try to decipher its symbolic code. Many semiotic linguistic researches and studies have appeared, a large part of which has been devoted to the study and analysis of the title from several aspects: syntagmatic, semantic, and pragmatic. The title has aroused great interest among Western critics, such as Gerard Genette, Leo Hock, Robert Scholes, and Jean Cohen, but the methodical study of the title in the field of poetry, unlike in prose, is recent, as Jean Cohen asserts. It is important to investigate the title in Janabi’s poetry due to its semantic contents, because the title “has very diverse and rich suggestive signs, much like a text, or rather it is a parallel text, according to Gerard Genette.”

Hatif Janabi pays great attention to the title, as it is clear that he chooses it after long thought and scrutiny. Title semantics express messages and codes the poet wants to pass and deliver to the reader, hoping that his text will reflect these eloquent images. Since Janabi’s poetic achievements are prolific and include many poems and lyric sections, I will limit myself to titles that present some of the indications that attract attention due to their symbolic and suggestive interpretations.

The book Farādīs, ayā’il wa ‘asākir (Paradises, Deer, and Soldiers), draws the reader’s attention to its elegant and inspiring title. It has multiple interpretations and may at times take us to meanings that go beyond the poet’s intentions. It can be said that through the title of the book, a poet seeks to draw attention to the summary of the theme of worldly struggle. The Earth at its origin is the desired paradise, but its reality says it is the battleground between good and evil, the field of war and peace. Here lies the symbolism of the deer, which motivated the poet to present it through the culture of the diaspora from which he came, where most of his youth and later life was spent, and with whose culture he was deeply familiar. In the Polish diaspora, Hatif Janabi became acquainted with the symbolism of deer as a symbol of peace, yet a victim of others.