The Load Bearing Metaphor and the Poetics of Palestinian Fatigue: A Cognitive-Semiotic Reading of Mourid Barghouti?s Rannat al Ibra (The Needle?s Ring)

Objective: This study proposes an integrated cognitive-poetic and pragmatic-semiotic model for Mourid Barghouti?s Rannat al-Ibra, examining the poem as a laboratory for the load-bearing metaphor?a figurative network sustaining semantic, narrative, and rhythmic weight while reorganizing reading time and sensory focalization through contextual cues. Methods: A dual macro?micro protocol was employed. Six conceptual maps (cloth/embroidery; sensory spectrum; needle?s ring; space; moon/light; hand/care) structured the analysis, and 84 micro-units were coded for sensory channels, semiotic shifts (iconic?indexical?symbolic), internal punctuation (ring, pause, visual cut), and force dynamics. The Ogden-Richards triangle was pragmatically expanded to include the movement from signifier to idea to referent. Four operational indices guided the analysis: Structural Load Index (SLI), Rhythmic Syncopation Measure (RSM), Index of Ethical Focalization (IEF), and Care-to-Sovereignty Transition (CTS). Results: Caregiving escalates into civil sovereignty through iterative acts; the moon sequence redistributes the gaze via ethical focalization; spatial tension alternates between scattering and compression; and ?load? governs rhythm rather than depletion. Iconic?indexical?symbolic functions shift systematically across contexts. IEF peaks in the moon sequence, CTS rises at closure, and SLI aligns with RSM during moments of ringing, sting, and visual cut. Conclusion: Barghouti?s metaphor emerges as a pragmatic cognitive mechanism that engineers awareness?timing, coloring, and reclaiming naming as sovereignty. The study formalizes the load-bearing metaphor as a transferable heuristic and introduces measurable indices for cognitive load and inner rhythm, enriching methodologies in contemporary Arabic poetics.