Author’s Intention versus Readers’ Interpretations of Izz Aldin Al_Shwaikh’s Ahlam (Dreams) Poem

Abstract

This research investigates mature and immature readers' interpretations which may affect the author‟s intention of his/her literary work and whether the intended meaning by the original author may differ from the readers‟ interpretations. Therefore, the researchers investigate the Arabic poem of Izz Aldin’s Ahlam (Dreams). A questionnaire is designed and targeted 30 respondents. The original author is also contacted to find out what he means by the lyrics and a selected list of words which was chosen randomly by the researchers. The study concludes that readers brought their emotions into interpretation and the author intentions and readers‟ interpretations are somewhat different. Mature readers‟ interpretations were close to the author ones; whereas, immature readers were mainly different from theirs.