Start in science. Persian poetry as a key to Iranian culture - If you had to make a stranger fall in love with Persian poetry very quickly, how would you do it?
Artist Viktor Merkushev
Published according to the edition:
Persian lyric poets of the 10th–15th centuries.
Moscow, Edition of M. and S. Sabashnikov, 1916.
The texts are given in accordance with modern spelling standards and are given with slight abbreviations regarding the biographical information about the authors, set out in the introductory article by A. Krymsky
Introduction
(From the editor of the 1916 edition)
I. Goethe once said: “The Persians, of all their poets, for five centuries, recognized only seven as worthy; - and after all, among the others rejected by them, many will be cleaner than me!”
The septenary of poets, about which Goethe speaks, is the fruit of a misunderstanding, there is some historical and literary inaccuracy. Responsible for the inaccuracy, let's say, is not Goethe himself, but his Orientalist authority Jos. von Hammer, the author of the German translation of Hafiz's "Diwan", the German translation which served the old Goethe as the material for his own very famous collection "Westostlicher Diwan". Hammer, bowing to the number "7" beloved by all peoples, decided to combine the seven major Persian poets he liked most into a selective "seven-fold necklace", into a "seven-star in the sky of Persian poetry." This Hammer septenary included poets of the 10th-15th centuries, i.e., the classical period: the author of the Book of Kings Firdousi, the romantic narrator Nizami, the panegyrist Enveri, the inspired mystic Jelyaleddin Rumi, the wise moralist Saadi, the gentle lyricist Hafiz, the versatile Jami. Hammer did not include all other major Iranian poets of the 10th-15th centuries in his “septenary”, and among the excluded are, for example, the pessimistic philosopher Khayyam, the sage-pantheist Attar, the lyricist and epic Khosrov of Dehli, the singer of the one world religion Feyzi and and many others, before whose talent Goethe, with every right, could bow. The Persians, however, absolutely do not know such “seven stars in the sky of their poetry”, and those poetic talents that Goethe admired do not at all belong to the category “rejected by the Persians”. Nevertheless, with all the historical and literary inaccuracies, the remark of the "great old man" Goethe does not cease to be characteristic. Characteristic and highly instructive is the fact that Goethe saw in Persian literature an unreasonable wealth of first-class talents.
The book of translations published by Academician F. E. Korsh is very bulky. From this alone it is clear that she does not at all claim to exhaust all the literature of the Persians, or at least only their lyric poetry. A comprehensive Persian anthology would have to be at least a huge, compact volume, perhaps even two compact volumes. And this collection of poetic translations serves for another, more modest task: let the Russian public be offered a few sparkles from the extremely rich Persian poetry - and nothing more!
It is also not necessary to think that the samples offered are entirely selected pearls of Persian lyrics, entirely the most typical examples from it.
We must reckon with the history of the emergence and appearance of translations of Acad. F. E. Korsha. Initially, all of them were intended for my three-volume History of Persia and its Literature, where they were first published, in their poetic form, among my many scientific and prose translations, covering Persian literature with sufficient uniformity. Masterful poetic translations of acad. F. E. Korsha then turned out to be only an addition, only a very valuable decoration of my “History of Persia and its Literature”, but then there could be no question of them exhausting the whole essence of Persian poetry: this was not required. Now, when all his poetic translations are extracted separately and published as a special, independent collection, intended not for Iranian scholars, but for the general public, it has to be directly emphasized that not everything that the erudite academician was engaged in is the most popular and most typical for Persian lyrics, and not everything that he translated from this or that poet is the best and most characteristic in the work of that poet. F. E. Korsh, dwelling on some Persian poem, sometimes proceeded not from aesthetic considerations, but from purely scientific, historical and literary interests, which do not always coincide with aesthetic ones. Of course, this limitation cannot be stated about his translations from Saadi and Hafiz, the luminaries of Persian lyric poetry: what F. E. Korsh translated from them is quite characteristic of the work of Saadi and Hafiz and fascinating for the widest range of readers. But, for example, from Dzhelaleddin Rumi, F.E. Korsh translated not the famous “ghazals” of Dzhelaleddin (none of them caught Korsh’s attention), but “quatrains”, i.e., that department of Dzhelaleddin’s poetry, which for Jelyaleddin is not typical at all and, quite likely, not even all of it belongs to him. After all, a considerable part of the “quatrains” attributed to Jelyaleddin appears both in the earlier Khayyam and in later pessimistic moralists: these are the so-called “wandering quatrains”, the authorship of which Iranian studies have not yet figured out. Acad. Korsh became interested in Dzhelaleddin's "quatrains" quite like a philologist: they are little known to Europeans, even almost unknown, and meanwhile they can serve as material for understanding the composition of the divan of the remarkable poet Khayyam. Khayyam is the most famous of the old Persian poets at present; he is the idol of the British and Americans; but it has not yet been clarified with accuracy which of the verses attributed to him are actually composed by him and reflect his true way of thinking, and which are attributed to him later and can throw a completely false light on his worldview. The more any "wandering" quatrains, going under various author names, will be published, the more material will be given to resolve the issue of Khayyam's true, not falsified worldview. By translating the quatrains attributed to Dzhelaleddin Rumi, F. E. Korsh thought to increase the number of historical data for solving the so-called. "Khayyam issue". Every Russian philologist, of course, will thank the translator. But whether Dzhelaleddin's quatrains would be as interesting to the average non-specialist reader as they are to the specialist, the translator did not ask himself about this.
Translations from Khayyam himself acad. Korsh didn't give any.
In the absence of such translations in the currently published book “Persian Lyricists”, the ordinary Russian reader would run the risk of completely weakening his interest in the translations of Dzhelaleddin’s quatrains: they, by themselves, without prior acquaintance with Khayyam’s quatrains, lose a lot. In addition, the absence of translations from Khayyam in the current edition would constitute a significant gap in general - both literary-historical and aesthetic; the reader would not get a proper, integral impression of the overall picture of the Persian lyrics. In order to eliminate this shortcoming, I considered it necessary to insert into the edition I am editing the translations from Khayyam, which were prepared by I.P. Umov, a common student of mine and academician F.E. Korsh. Having in front of him, in the translation of I.P. Umov, the most important quatrains of Khayyam, the Russian reader will properly appreciate both the quatrains attributed to Jelyaleddin and the quatrains of Khayyam's predecessors - Ibn Sina and Abu Seyid of Khorasan, and in general will understand the importance and value of this literary genre.
It cannot, of course, be denied that by including in the collection of translations made by one person translations of another person, I somewhat violate the unity of the translation style. But that the general picture of Persian poetry will benefit greatly from the inclusion of samples from the great Khayyam, just as much will benefit the reading Russian public, there is no need to argue about this.
In the end, no matter what reservations one has to make about the composition of the currently published book, about some of its incompleteness, one can still hope that the Russian reader will get a very good general impression from the Persian lyrics of the classical period, i.e. X-XIV centuries.
II. To correctly comprehend classical Persian lyric poetry, we must always remember that it is all covered with so-called. Sufi. Sufiism is Muslim mysticism with pantheistic overtones. Its origin is partly Buddhist, partly Christian-Neoplatonic (through Greek philosophical literature, translated under the caliphs). Persian lyrics are full of pantheistic views. And besides, it has its own special, conditional allegorical language, like that which Christians see in the Old Testament biblical Song of Songs.
The world, according to the Sufis, is an outflow, an emanation of the Divine, and, in its apparent diversity, it has only an illusory existence. The world and God are one. Man is a drop from the ocean of the Divine. It is not worth getting attached to the ghostly local world, especially since it is a continuous vale of suffering. One can have fun in this world, enjoying a single random moment; but it is much better not to become attached to pleasure, and instead to kill one's “I”, to mortify one's flesh, to approach the All-One alive in order to drown in Him, to merge with Him, to blur like a drop in the ocean. The Sufis compare striving for the Divine, the attraction to ecstatic unity with Him, with love for a darling or a friend, with intoxication, etc., and therefore their poetry, in addition to philosophical and pessimistic ideas, also glorifies mystical hedonics. Thus, the poet praises, for example, spring, a garden, a feast, an elegant cupbearer, a dear friend - but in reality all this means the mystical desire of the soul of an ascetic contemplator for unity with God. The poet lyrically yearns why his dear friend is hard-hearted and does not pay attention to her courtier, but in reality this ascetic groans why he has not had mystical inspiration and ecstasy for a long time.
It is possible that the European reader will have a question: “What, the Persians do not have ordinary, literal, non-mystical poetry? Do they not have poetry that, without any allegory, would sing of true, universal love, the true beauty of nature, true fun?! ”
We will have to answer: perhaps there is no such poetry in Persian literature. Not left. In the 10th century, the literary custom still fully allowed genuine eroticism, genuine hedonism, but then a rather hypocritical custom gradually established itself in literature - to write about non-mystical human lyrical life in such a way that the verses would not shock holy people. To write in such a way that devout people can understand even the most sinful hedonics and sensuality as an allegory, as a high piety expressed in a mystical form. The opposite deal also took place: holy people, or poets of undeniably mystical, wanting their works to be liked by secular patrons of the arts, tried to write realistically and did not build very violent allegories. The consequence of this custom was that now we often cannot determine how one should understand this or that poet, especially since the Sufis themselves easily enroll everyone in their ranks. And a special disagreement exists in relation to the sheikh of the Sufis Hafiz, the king of the lyric ghazal of the XIV century, the greatest anacreontic lyric poet of Persia. Neither the general public nor scientists can agree: was this or that love or Bacchic ghazal written with a mystical or not with a mystical mood?
This question will probably remain unresolved forever.
On the one hand, the calm situation of Shiraz, which suffered little from the Mongols in the thirteenth century due to the clever policy of its atabeks, and which settled down well in the fourteenth century, favored the praise of the joys of life. Hafiz in his youth, perhaps with full reality, experienced everything that his gazelles hedonically sing about. But, presumably, even in his youth, following the fashion, he wrote in such a way that his songs of true love and pleasure would not make an unpleasant impression on the religious Sufi reader. On the other hand, in his old age, when Hafiz was a Sufi sheikh and when his soul could lie only in asceticism and strictly mystical hedonics, he probably used the impressions of his youth and therefore wrote very realistically.
In any case, it should be noted that while the Sufis (and many Orientalists) consider Hafiz a pure mystic, Hafiz's poems are sung by the people as love songs. Obviously, a similar measure will have to be applied to the poems of Khayyam, and to Jelyaleddin's quatrains, and to Saadi's ghazals. Genuine erotica and genuine Bacchism, mystical erotica and mystical Bacchism, have merged in Persian literature into an inextricable tangle.
For a European reader, not a historian of literature, when reading Persian lyrics, it will probably be most convenient to be guided by the rule of one of the critical publishers of Hafiz's sofa: allegorical interpretations were not given to him by the commentators.”
Prof. A. Krymsky
Abu-Seid Ibn-Abil-Khair Khorasan (967 - 1049)
quatrains
1.
The sadness that torments my soul - here it is!
Love that confuses all doctors - here it is!
The pain that interferes with blood in tears - here it is!
That night that always hides the day - here it is!
2.
I asked for medicine for a hidden disease.
The doctor said: "For everything, shut up except your friend." -
“What is food? "- I asked. “Blood of the heart,” was the answer.
“What should be thrown away? "-" Both this and that light.
3.
4.
Oh Lord, open the way for me to my dear friend,
Let my sad voice fly to her,
So that she, in separation from whom I do not know clear days,
She was with me again, and I would be with her again.
5.
Do not judge, mullah, my attraction to wine,
My addiction to love and revelry:
In sobriety, I only communicate with strangers,
And I hold a drunken sweetheart in my arms.
6.
Watch out at night: in the night for secrets, lovers are all together
Around the house, where - their friend, rushing like a swarm of shadows.
All doors in those hours are locked,
Only one other door is open for guests.
7.
In those days when the union of love between us is indisputable,
Heavenly bliss is funny to me.
Whenever without you, paradise would be opened to me,
I would be in paradise and bored and dark.
8.
My sins are like raindrops,
And I was ashamed of my sinful life.
Suddenly a voice sounded: “Throw empty thoughts!
You do your thing, and we do ours.”
9.
To the knowledge of the Divine by the direct path
It alienates itself and lives entirely in God.
Don't acknowledge yourself! believe: there is only one God!
“Only God is divine” is also calling us.
Abu-Ali Ibn-Sina (Avicenna) (980-1037)
quatrains
1.
With a circle of two or three fools, for this reason alone
In themselves, who have seen the color of earthly wisdom,
With these donkeys in a donkey's disguise:
Otherwise, you are a heretic and a sinner.
2.
My mind, though it wandered not a little in this world,
He didn’t penetrate into the hair, but cut through the waves.
A thousand suns in the mind shine with a bright light,
But I still did not know the construction of the atom.
3.
From the abysses of the earth to the heights of the sky
I have solved all the questions of life completely;
Every trick and obstacle surrendered to me,
I revealed all the secrets, only death is dark to me.
4.
Oh if I knew who I am and what I am
And after that I spin around in the world like crazy!
Am I destined for happiness? then I would live in peace,
And if not, then I would shed tears like a river.
Omar Khayyam (c. 1048–1123)
Translations from Khayyam belong to I.P. Umov, a student of Acad. F.E. Korsha.
1.
From the dwellings of unbelief, only one moment
To the knowledge of peaks;
And from the darkness of doubt to the light of assurance
Only one moment.Know the sweetness - the joy of a short life
In the fleeting hour:
The meaning of the whole life is only a breath,
Just a moment for us.
2.
We are told that in the bushes of paradise
We will embrace the marvelous houris,
Blissfully delighting yourself
The purest honey and wine.Oh, if then by the Eternal
In holy paradise it is allowed
Is it possible in a fleeting world
Forget beauties and wine?
3.
I'll take a sizzling glass
Full of the gift of young vines,
And I'll drink myself into a frenzy
To the madness of ardent dreams.I will reveal to you, burning,
A whole world of miracles then;
And living speech will flow,
Like flowing water.
4.
I was born ... But from that
The universe is useless.
I'll die - and there's nothing in glory
Light won't win.And so far I have not heard
Alas, no one
Why did I live, why did I suffer
And I'll die for what.
5.
I will drink, die without fear
And intoxicated I will lie underground,
And the aroma of wine - from the ashes
He will rise and stand over me.Drunk will come to the grave
And the smell of old wine
Inhale - and suddenly, as if struck,
He falls down drunk.
6.
7.
I breathe young forces with charm
And I shine with tulip beauty;
My camp is built, filled with desire,
Like a young cypress in the garden.But alas! Nobody knows
Why, filled with fire,
My Artist Supreme is wonderful
Decorated for decay me?
8.
You are destined, O heart,
Always bleed
Destined for your torment
Change bitter sorrow.Oh my soul! why
Did you move into this body? -
Or then, so that at the hour of death
Departed irretrievably?
9.
The book of youth is closed
All, alas, already read.
And ended forever
Clear joy spring.And when did you arrive
And ready to take off
The bird is wonderful, what is sweet
"Pure youth" was called?!
10.
Carefree life rushed by
Days, fate data in destiny.
As if the wind is fleeting
Flew across the field of life.What to mourn? - I swear by my breath
There are two insignificant days in life:
The day that became my memory
And - not coming for me.
11.
I'm in a fight with myself, in confusion,
Always always!
What should I do? For crimes
I'm full of shame!Oh, may You be full of forgiveness -
But deep down
You saw everything - and I'm embarrassed,
What should I do?!
12.
If hopes are in vain
And hopes and dreams,
So why bother then?
In this world of vanity!We arrive at our destination late.
We won't be able to rest
As fate repeats it is menacing:
"It's time to hit the road again! ”
13.
And the nights turned into days
Before, us, oh my dear friend;
And the stars did the same
Your circle, predetermined by fate.Ah, be quiet! go carefully
To the dust under your feet:
You trample on the ashes of beauties,
Remains of their wondrous eyes.
14.
To you, O Sky-Chariot,
There is weeping and bitter moaning;
For a long time mocking mortals
Your inevitable law.Oh, if your chest were opened,
Earth, Earth! how much we
We would find the remains in a layer of dust,
Like a bottomless treasure in the abyss of darkness.
15.
Cover me underground
When I calm down forever;
Don't put stones on me
To remember me man.But my ashes, that mortal clay,
Mix with scented wine
Blind a brick, and a jug
It will serve as a cover later!
The world is insignificant, and everything is insignificant,
What in a miserable world have you known;
What I heard is vain and false,
And all that you said is in vain.You thought in a humble hut.
About what? for what? - It's nothing.
You went around the ends of the universe -
But everything before Eternity is nothing.
17.
Look, I have lived in the universe,
But he did not know worldly benefits;
I was tormented by instantaneous life,
But he did not know any blessings;I burned like a beacon of fun,
Extinguished without leaving a trace;
Crashed like a hangover bowl
Turning into nothing forever.
Saying goodbye to sea waves
As if before a long separation,
A drop wept; a sea
Laughing at childish flour:"Do not Cry! I am everywhere in the universe
I feed lakes and rivers:
You after an instant separation
You will be with me again forever.”
That marvelous secret
I hide from everyone.
That word short clothe
Your speech is incapable.The countries shine before me...
But the language of the earth is dumb:
About a miracle. secrets that you don't know
Unable to tell!
Khaqani (1106–1199)
quatrains
1.
Love is a bird skilled in songs of sorrow
Love is a nightingale, trained in unearthly speeches,
Love is being with being about your soul in a dispute,
Love is what you destroy yourself with.
2.
The ailment that I have experienced before invades the heart,
And, having invaded, now it will not calm down, as it used to.
I'm looking for a cure, but in vain I'm only tormented by hope;
I strive for peace, but peace is not available to me.
3.
My sadness and joy she only wine;
And severity and mercy to me - her business in full.
Until death, by betraying the union, I will not upset her.
So I decided; and what she knows, she knows.
4.
You are a rose, and I am a nightingale inspired by passion;
And I give my heart and song to you alone.
Far from you, I am silent, submitting to misfortune;
Only after a date with you I will sing again.
5.
Today love is tormented by the heart so painfully,
That it is difficult for him to reach you until tomorrow.
I myself threw it at your feet voluntarily ...
But speeches are superfluous; one can only breathe about it.
6.
Poison from the evil eye has penetrated into our union;
We shy away from each other like strangers;
When we meet, we find it difficult to find the proper word;
But we both know how we both grieve in secret.
7.
Leave this world where the strongest are harsh to the weak,
From the place of sadness, run away with rejoicing in your chest.
Fate gave you a soul, and with it you accepted fetters;
Return it to fate - and leave as a free creature.
8.
Oh, have mercy, kill me like this, if I'm worth death,
So that I dreamed of finding the source of life in the killer:
With the wine of your lips and the enchanting eyes of the game
Make me drunk and then stop my days.
9.
While the fire in me of my bold youth was still alive,
I fluttered madly like a moth, not knowing what fear was.
That fire went out, and the burnt moth fell;
Where they were, there remained only ashes and ashes.
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"Persian motifs", inspired by acquaintance with medieval Persian poetry, memories of Central Asia and the Caucasus, were written by Yesenin in the last year of his life, from autumn 1924 to August 1925.
In "Persian Motifs" the same main themes for the poet sound: love for everything beautiful in life, for native land. The poet considered these poems the best of all that he had written.
Evening light of the saffron edge,
Silently roses run through the fields.
Sing me a song my dear
The one that Khayyam sang
Silently roses run through the fields.
Omar Khayyam was a prominent scientist, astronomer, mathematician, but he won world fame with poetic miniatures.
To live life wisely, you need to know a lot:
Two important rules remember to start:
You'd rather starve than eat anything
And it's better to be alone than with just anyone.
Yesenin's favorite colors are gold and blue, they have a lot of personal for the blue-eyed, golden-haired poet: Russia itself, with its piercing blue autumn sky and heavy ears of ripened bread. Surprisingly, Persia, created by the imagination of the poet, resembles the Motherland with its delicate saffron color.
Sergey Yesenin:
The air is clear and blue
I'll go out to the flower beds.
Traveler, leaving in the azure,
You won't reach the desert.
The air is clear and blue.
Is it a whisper, a rustle or a rustle
Tenderness, like the songs of Saadi.
Instantly reflected in the look
Month yellow charm,
Delicate like the songs of Saadi.
Saadi believed that a person needs to live two lives: in one, look, sometimes be mistaken, look again, in the other, check the accumulated experience. His books mix "sweetness with bitterness", fiction with fact. The poet was the first to name the term "humanism".
All the tribe of Adam is one body,
Created from the dust,
Over human grief you did not cry forever, -
So will people say that you are human.
Everything is beautiful in love - does it bring us
Suffering, she or balm.
He who is in love hates power and the kingdom.
He sees his support in poverty.
He drinks pure wine of suffering,
Silent, though it seems bitter.
In "Persian Motives" we will not find crude naturalism in the disclosure of the theme of love. Persian - the embodiment of tenderness and purity. The poet's poems speak only of the desire to understand the beloved, just to see her.
Where the threshold is strewn with roses.
There lives a thoughtful peri
In Horossan there are such doors,
But I couldn't open those doors.
I have strength in my hands,
There is gold and copper in the hair.
I have enough strength in my hands
But I couldn't open the door.
The key word is "rose" - a reminder of another great oriental poet - Rudaki. He was called "Adam of the poets of Persia." He wrote philosophical and love poems, in them - the discovery of nature and man.
The sage is drawn to goodness and peace. You are alone among hundreds of thousands of faces.
A fool is drawn to war and strife. You are alone without a hundred thousand faces.
Came ... "Who? - "Darling" - "When? "-" Early dawn.
Fleeing from the enemy... "Who is the enemy?" - "Her own father" -
And twice I kissed ... "Whom?" - "Her mouth."
“Mouth?” - “No” - “Well?”. "Ruby" - "What?" - Crimson - fire.
One of the main motives of Sergei Yesenin's cycle is longing for his native land. Love for Russia is stronger than love for the dream country of Persia.
You are good, Persia, I know
Roses, like lamps, burn.
And again to me about a distant land,
They say elastic freshness.
You are good, Persia, I know.
Persia! Am I leaving you?
I'm parting with you forever
For the love of my native land
It's time for me to go back to Rus'.
— My choice determined the case. I entered the Institute of Asian and African Studies in the Indian department, but then, back in 1971, the final distribution of languages did not depend on the applicants. As a result, I ended up in Persian and was very sad. However, as the poet Nizami wrote, what tastes like vinegar may turn out to be sugar. And so it happened. found interesting books and met good teachers. When I, an excellent student and a smart student, entered the graduate school of the Institute of Oriental Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences, my supervisor, Professor Magomed-Nuri Osmanovich Osmanov, began his acquaintance with the fact that he said sternly: “You don’t know the Persian language!” I gratefully remember his lessons in "close reading" of poetry all my life.
— What is the place of Persian poetry in the modern world?
“About the same as any other venerable poetic tradition. Since the Persian classics have been actively translated into Western languages since the 19th century, there are readers and admirers for them in every generation. As for academic research, quite active work is being done here, both in Iran and abroad. Many of the surviving texts have not yet been published or introduced into scientific use, therefore, in the era of digital technologies, the modern description of the manuscript collections of libraries is of particular importance.
— If you had to make a stranger fall in love with Persian poetry very quickly, how would you do it?
“I wouldn't do it for anything. Compulsion to love is doomed by definition. But for those who have already fallen in love with Persian poetry in Russian translations, I would suggest “reading around”, expanding your understanding of the history and culture of Iran, and also not forgetting that any translation is the fruit of co-authorship, and pay attention to names translators. And for those who are young, curious and not lazy, there is only one advice: in order to fall in love with Persian poetry, one must learn the Persian language. I will cite as an example the translator Osip Rumer. He read Omar Khayyam in English translation Fitzgerald, published a Russian poetic version in 1922 and realized that he had fallen head over heels in love. Then he took the trouble to learn Persian, and in 1938 his famous translation of three hundred rubais from the original into Russian was published.
— What was the most interesting — or important, scary, funny — thing you learned while working with Persian poetry?
— The most interesting — both important, and terrible, and funny — turned out to be connected for me with the translation process. Persian classics are designed for the sophisticated reader. Even the bearers of the tradition themselves sometimes had hermeneutical difficulties; Thus, the poet Jami was going to, having met Nizami in paradise, finally ask him about the meaning of a thousand vague places. So the most interesting and important thing is to unravel the meaning of another incomprehensible line, the worst thing is when all the resources are exhausted, and the meaning does not line up, and the funniest thing is if you suddenly get lucky and understand how simple everything really is.
If you had the opportunity to tackle a completely different topic now, what would you choose and why?
– In Indo-European studies, research has long been conducted on the reconstruction of the “Indo-European poetic language". I would have learned ancient Greek, Sanskrit, Old Irish, completed my studies in Avestan and would have searched in the monuments of ancient poetry for the archetypes of formulaic combinations familiar to me from Persian material.
Songs of Shiraz
(Persian folk poetry translated by A. Revich)
"... For the sparkle of gazelle eyes, I will give my life and honor"
Shiraz is the heart of Iran. Almost a thousand kilometers to gosouth of the capital to get to this cozy city, sung in verse and
legends. Halfway to it, Isfahan will meet with unique blue
and cream-domed mosques, swaying minarets, with many
workshops-shops for chasing metal.
An hour on a winding mountain road- and behind a small pass
Shiraz is opened to the eye, which the Iranians since ancient times call the city
roses and nightingales. There are really a lot of roses, they fill the central
street and outskirts, where the tombs of the great medieval poets are buried in flowers
Saadi and Hafiz. And you will no longer hear nightingales in Shiraz, except in
university park or in the famous orange grove. And about feathered
Iranians say? After all, for them nightingales are poets and folk singers, creators of
poetic folklore. However, it would be wrong to think that beyond
In Shiraz or, let's say, in the whole province of Fars, people live without songs. On rice
fields of Gilan, in the mountains of Khorasan, in the steppes of the central part of the country at any
season you can hear how a shepherd or a lone traveler on a donkey pours out
there is longing in the song, and not a soul around him ... But in Fars, where did the name come from
the whole country - Pars (Persia), folk traditions stronger, folklore
more diverse and the voices of the singers, apparently, louder. It is no coincidence therefore
it is here that more songs are recorded than in other parts of this large country
Folk poetry of Iran evolved over the centuries in close association with
classical literature. Sometimes not only the reader, but also the researcher
can tell exactly what elements came into written poetry from folklore
and which ones, on the contrary, got into folklore from poetry. Both folklore and literature
we meet the names and images of Farhad, Leyla, Majnun, Yusef and others;
plots of folk quatrains came to Omar Khayyam and, in a new way, they
meaningful, enriched folklore.
Persian-Tajik literature- this is a huge spiritual wealth,
which was duly appreciated by the classics of Western European and Russian
literature. It is no coincidence that Goethe paid deep respect to her, who, under
under her influence wrote his famous "West-Eastern Divan" and the merits
some Iranian poets in the development of world literature, maybe
undeservedly, put above their own. And A. Pushkin, as you know, were "Gafiza and
Saadi ... the names are familiar. "And not only the names. Pushkin knew and appreciated them well
creation. The spirit of the East, the figurativeness of Persian literature are imbued
many of his works.
The classical poetry of Iran was seriously studied by L. Tolstoy. Especially
he liked the stories and sayings of Saadi on moral topics. Some of them
he used in compiling his "Russian books for reading".
Passion for Hafiz for a long time took possession of A. Fet, who left
beautiful transcriptions of his ghazals. Finally, "Persian motives" by S. Yesenin
in their spirit and lyricism they are connected with hafiziana, although the poet names
Ferdowsi, Khayyam and Saadi.
The high artistry of Persian-Tajik literature in many respects
explained by its rich sources. Among them are written
ancient Persian literature, the so-called Shuubite poetry, created
Iranian poets in Arabic in the VIII-IX centuries, and, of course, oral
creativity, widespread among the peoples living in the territory
Iranian states since ancient times.
Acquaintance with the folklore of Iran showed that most
its most common poetic form is finish (quatrain).
Russian scientist A. A. Romaskevich, later professor of the Leningrad
university, during his trips to southern Iran, he managed to record
four hundred quatrains, translations of which, together with the Persian text and
transcriptions have been published. The scientist believed that the origin of this
poetic form goes back to the distant pre-Muslim past. In the very
fact, in the "Avesta" - the sacred book of the Zoroastrians (Zoroastrians, or
fire worshipers - confessors of Zoroastrianism, the ancient religion of Iran until the 7th century.
Its founder was Zoroaster (Zarathushtra).) - part of the verses consisted (according to
Romaskevich) from a series of four-line stanzas, with each line (verse)
contained in itself eleven syllables. Such is the poetics of folk
quatrains.
Dobeiti can be attributed to the lyrical kind of poetry. These quatrains are not
only state a fact or event, but also express an attitude towards it, give
assessment. Their performers, most often unknown singers, sang about love, about beauty.
beloved, about the joy of meeting her, about the suffering from unrequited love,
about unfulfilled desires, about fidelity and, conversely, about the infidelity of a loved one.
The main characters of love songs are young people, boys and girls. Their thoughts
feelings and experiences - this is the main content of quatrain songs. Together
at the same time, folk quatrains are fully saturated with everyday material, in
they can clearly hear a variety of life circumstances, sad
motives for their occurrence.
Dobeiti are not recited, but sung. When singing, the performer has a great
the ability to freely handle poetic meter. In eleven syllable
finish the third line, as a rule, contains not eleven, but thirteen
syllables. And sometimes, although rarely, there are longer verses or even
short, seven syllables. The fact that folk quatrains do not fit into
the aruz framework seems to be one of the reasons why the Iranians
never call them "robai" (Robai - in Arabic, Persian and
Turkic-language poetry, a quatrain, as a rule, of a philosophical content,
written according to the laws of Aruz. A common form of a poem that has
their author.), although they share many other characteristics with the robai. Before
in total, quatrains, like robai, are completely independent works,
containing a complete thought. Even in cases where Iranian
folklorists are trying to compose a kind of song from individual quatrains
on a certain topic and head them "Loneliness", "Loyalty",
"Separation", "Foreign land", each quatrain of such a song continues to live its own
life, remains independent and independent of its neighbors.
Songwriters personify natural phenomena, plants, animals,
treat them like rational beings. The singer himself or his lyric
the hero likens himself or the one to whom he refers to living or
even inanimate nature: "I am a fish", "I am a white bird", "I am a pistachio
tree", "we are grains in one pomegranate", "we are two fused cypress trees", "you -
little dove, and I am a falcon", "if you are a pearl, then I am amber", "if you are
silver, then I am gold." In Persian folk poetry, these personifications and
similitudes acquire a unique beauty and imagery.
The whole complex of relationships between man and nature
was deep and
high poetic level developed by Omar Khayyam and found a brilliant
artistic embodiment in his robes.
The reader can get acquainted with the whole variety of Iranian folk poetry. In this to him
expressive translations of Alexander Revich will help, convincingly conveying
depth and features of folklore, its imagery, lyrical tone,
simplicity and at the same time the richness of the Persian language, which is used
Iranians outside of written literature.
A. Shoitov
Quatrain - FINISH
O girl! I can compare you to the moon
Like the letter "aleph", the straight line is graceful,
I can call you the queen of all beauties
For your mole above your tender lip.
Believe it or not, you took my heart away
You took everything, I'm in love with these intoxicated eyes ...
Black-eyed, you're throwing me glances, aren't you?
You took my heart and you're glad, aren't you?
God, what am I to do with my possessed soul?
I forgot my peace, rushing after my beloved,
She does not need other flowers, their fragrance is magical,
Only aspires to a rose, incomparable to anything, mine.
I gave you a rose, you breathe in the aroma,
Hide this rose on your chest, keep it under your shawl,
You will go along the steppe path, you will not be alone,
Talk to the rose, just open the shawl a little.
I recognize your mouth and for a thousand steps,
Your lips beckon me like the sweetness of fruit,
Your mouth is the Kaaba, and I myself am a pilgrim
And during the night I am ready to venerate the shrine a hundred times.
... Are you a moon or a star, alas, I don’t know myself,
But with the help of my Creator you will soon become
Even if you ascend to heaven, I will find you there.
Blessed is the sunrise and awakening moment
In your arms, oh, how great that moment is!
I will sit on the bed, kiss your cover
And with rose petals I will shower a gentle face.
Look, my friend, it's midnight
On a branch, a drunken nightingale sings,
He believes the secret of the heart to the rose,
No one will spill them with water.
I will throw the lasso, I will go to you like a genie,
For the canopy I will sneak, I will climb into the palanquin,
Let at least a hundred lions protect you,
But I'll break your kiss at least one.
I would like to sit with you side by side at the table
And comb your hair with a comb,
By the will of heaven I became richer than Suleiman
The day I brought you to my father's house.
I will give my life for your crimson lips,
There is nothing crazier than our love,
I got tipsy from love, I lost my mind,
And if I die, call yourself guilty.
Girlfriend needs a rich husband, she looks half-heartedly,
Her ears are missing diamond earrings
She won't hug me, she doesn't need a poor man,
She dreams of a fabulous fiance from the city of Shiraz.
I met the black-eyed one by the willow,
Only houris and peri are so beautiful,
Eyes - like two stars, and the face is
That the proud month will fade in an instant.
Greetings, O pomegranate seed,
I will give my life for you, you are dearer to me than my brother,
Out of a hundred and one, I chose you
Don't betray me, be faithful to me.
Oh my black-eyed, you feed the baby,
Take a break from the cradle for a moment, oh, how good you are!
If you want your baby to live to advanced years,
Let me into your bed for once, my soul!
I look at the silk of your veil - the spirit spirals in my chest,
I look at the beauty of shalwar - wait, don't go!
Some alien rich man took my girlfriend away
Are you still alive, my poor friend Mehdi?
The veil of my dear Nisa, the wicked one, he tore,
He struck my heart with resentment.
Ax me faster! I'll kill their whole family!
Tearing my dear veil, he found his death.
A gentle friend, akin to the moon, has come,
In silks and velvet she came to me,
I so wanted to see her even in a dream,
She came in reality, not in a dream.
My soul, come, I am merged with you forever,
Come quickly to my house, it grieves without you,
Come quickly to my house, come to my arms,
Well, what are you ashamed of? Now what's the shame?
You are there, I am here, and there is confusion and anxiety in my soul,
You have a lot of patience, but I have a little.
I can give my life for your patience,
It's time for me to fly like a dove at your doorstep.
Let's make up, forget about everything
Come on, like brother and sister, sit down together,
After all, life is so short and fate is so perverse,
More - God forbid! We will die apart.
So the forehead cracks that the light fades, to whom will I cry?
Will cover the cheeks yellow, to whom will I cry?
Oh, if I could put my forehead on my dear knees!
But the forehead is cracking, but not dear, to whom will I cry?
Wake up before dawn, wash your curls with incense,
And smear your black eyes with bluish antimony,
And if you wish to please Allah,
Don't forget me in at its best appear before me.
You are slender, my gentle, the light of my eyes,
You are my Egyptian sugar, a pure diamond,
Sit, sit next to me, friend,
You stole my sleep, I would sleep at least for an hour.
I'll turn into your alley, I'll knock on your house,
Click: "Look out soon, I'm waiting around the corner."
If the neighbors tell me: "Your girlfriend is sleeping," -
I'll be circling over you like a white dove.
My cousin, my dill flower,
Why don't you come to the threshold in the evening?
If I say an unkind word to you,
You can plunge a blade into my chest without hesitation.
You are like a flower when you leave the flower garden,
You are like sugar when you come from the reed,
But for me you are the most beautiful and then,
When you leave the bazaar, a little tired, go.
The heart cannot fall into other people's snares,
It only has an unquenchable passion for you,
You then torment my heart,
To not want to steal it.
First, I love your sash and robe,
And secondly, you - from head to toe.
And thirdly, I love to sit next to you,
And let's send the old love to hell.
My old friend, where are you now?
You added to the soul the bitterness of loss.
Oh if I knew that you would be mine
I would build a palace of gold, believe me.
I have experienced many troubles because of you,
My soul has rejected the light because of you,
You shamed me and humiliated me so much,
All my shame - there is no doubt - because of you.
I rushed to you, my slender,
On the cheek of a mole, loving, rushed,
I heard that you want to sell a mole,
After all, you can be late, and I rushed.
Beloved, there is resentment and reproach in me,
I have become attached to you with my soul for a long time,
May fate promise me the best hundred beauties,
Everything will attract me your magical gaze.
Beloved huddled in a corner
How to heal me, she does not know.
The doctor heals the sick with medicines,
The date goes well for the lovers.
On flat roof my friend is coming
My love recognizes me in the distance,
I see her, I feel, oh my god
Mine is talking to her soul.
You are like a flower, let me breathe your scent,
Let me breathe, come to my chest
The heart has only one desire:
Please be my wife.
I will not open my soul to anyone in a foreign land:
Well, whom will I meet there, who would understand my soul?
I have one innermost friend - a lock on my heart,
I hid the key a long time ago, I don't give it to anyone.
You are beautiful, my light, like a chamois on a rock,
Oh, skinny, you're smoking narghile.
Sleepless eyes completely you deprived of sleep,
So hug me, since you are holding me in bondage.
I would give up on a damn life,
But it's impossible, dear, to part with you,
My heart is with my beloved, I don’t know how to be
How can I go on my way without my dear.
We always expect betrayal from a woman,
Insidious darkness in the creation of unearthly,
She is our companion halfway,
And so all life goes its own way.
My dear, my dear, I completely withered,
Look into my eyes, they're drowning in tears
If you, my dear, do not come to the head,
I can’t get up from the unfortunate bed, Allah is a witness in that.
- O high, o sweet-mouthed, you are from Kerman,
What will you take for two kisses, tell me without deceit?
- My kiss is worth as much as the whole of Samarkand with Bukhara,
Here is the price of a kiss, and what did you decide: half a fog?
Hussain said: I was the bouquet of roses,
I was seriously attached to the road,
O vows of women! So it didn't come
When sick, alone, like a dog, I was.
Virgo, you are sweet in a white Kandahar veil,
Believe it or not, you took my heart away
You took everything, I'm in love with these intoxicated eyes,
Into this crystal neck and marble chela.
I want to make my way around you, like a planet,
To be antimony around beautiful eyes, summed up a little,
Let my head lie between your breasts like a button,
I want to wrap around, as if already, your tender chest.
Look at yourself, my dear dove,
Pour handfuls of sand on your head,
If you can't pay money for me,
Throw off the man's hat and put on a scarf.
From my dear hello, she sent two carnations,
To give peace to the heart and patience in full.
Ah, my sweetheart! Did a good deed!
It’s not enough for her that she is slim, tall, but also smart!
Take a rose from your beloved and inhale the smell,
Stick this rose in your curls,
If in your curls the rose will not hold,
Put between the eyebrows and tighten the string.
Each well in the zurna has its own sound, brethren,
There is a cure for every ailment, brethren,
My beloved is ready to kill a friend,
But with God's help, a friend, brethren, will be saved.
To be a victim to me of your antimony blackened eyes,
You did not keep the vows that bound us in the past.
How do you look in the eyes? Isn't it a shame?
Perhaps you were born in the country of the infidels?
Ay, black-eyed, are you making eyes at me?
Having stolen my mind, you are talking fairy tales.
Having stolen my mind, you deftly slipped away,
Why do you publicize love?
My beauty, I want to tell you
That you managed to tie your heart to yourself.
Let me have a hundred written beauties,
To your intoxicated eyes I will rush again.
Tall, slender, your spirit is interpreted, not weak,
You put me on a spit, like a kebab,
She planted me on a spit, look not charred,
Hope for the mercy of Allah is fed by your slave.
Girl, it's not good to tease Allah,
Why did you loosen your braids?
Haven't changed milk teeth yet
And she drove the free bird into the dungeon.
Ay, what a face and camp! What a magical sight!
You are death to a lover, you have lost your shame!
Why did you overwhelm my heart with a lasso?
Looks like the Last Judgment will not frighten you.
My beloved is grumbling today,
Her look is very angry today.
The one who will reconcile her with me,
Do a holy deed today.
I took a rose from my favorite hands
Smelling a rose, he suddenly became mad,
I kiss the rose, I press it to the eyelids,
After all, I received a gift from my favorite hands.
I will say without hesitation, Muslims,
Oh dear, about one of her flaws,
It has no flaws, only false,
I will say this without hesitation.
Hope for women's oaths is a disaster,
Water will not serve as a support for the legs.
You can't tie milk jets with a rope,
A hero will never come out of a coward.
Let the beauty, the daughter of the Bogdykhan, be before us,
Dazzling, sweet, fragrant,
Still no trust in women's words,
For a woman is an instrument of Satan.
You become the wheat, I become the reaper
You will become a gazelle, I will become a catcher,
And if you sit like a dove on the roof,
I will become your wing, a cheerful messenger.
Who has experienced love is not afraid of death,
Blocks and prisons, believe me, not afraid
He is like a hungry wolf, what is a shepherd to him?
Let the shepherds be angry as hell - they are not afraid.
To decorate my face, I'll take white and rouge,
The old people will be kindled and the youths will be intoxicated by my dope,
I will curl my curls into rings, I will unravel my braids,
Let them catch the admirers of all, like a lasso.
I conjure you with your brother, my light,
Your drunken eyes do not harm me,
Eyes do not need to be antimony, you fight without antimony,
Like a kebab, I'm put on a skewer by you.
White bird, you are tough and proud with me,
Flew away from me, I don't know where,
She flew away from me, without thinking for a moment,
That trouble hangs over a beloved friend.
You are on the roof, roses are scattered at your feet,
I would scatter gold if I could
What's the gold! What silver! - pathetic garbage!
I brought you life and soul, God knows.
Peri, peri, why isn't life nice to you?
On the saddest day my mother gave birth to me,
Milk misfortune fed, raised,
And raised - forever gave the villain.
Behind the village of Chardekh, the salt marsh adjoins the sands,
Beloved's persies are like quince fruits,
You are thirteen years old, dear, you got engaged to me,
And at fourteen, let your lips fall to my lips.
He is beautiful, in whose heart love is deep,
He is like Farhad, in whose hands is a pickaxe,
If he is like a lion, he is mighty and brave,
He will meet his Shirin for sure.
Between me and you is a solid wall,
Between me and you - envious darkness,
I myself will come to you at a late hour or early,
I don't need a messenger, I need you yourself.
Like a mullah, you read the entire Koran, my friend,
You can heal the heart from wounds you, my friend,
You, like a sheikh, understand all men's affairs,
And in mine you are a real blockhead, my friend.
You, like a cypress trunk, are straight ahead,
Your eagle eyes drive me crazy
Those tender lips and white teeth
Like a Shiraz shop, where there are a lot of sweets.
Girlfriend, you, like a jug, have a thin throat,
You entered the heart - and breath stole,
You entered the heart of the mistress full,
There she put down roots and spread branches.
My soul, no matter how much you scream,
I'll tear your cover anyway
Then, in order to lengthen the short hem,
So that your leg does not seduce anyone.
I will wander into the Babersh quarter, my flower,
From your eyes I will take the veil, my flower,
No, I probably won't touch the veil,
I will immediately find my flower by smell.
- John Renard. Historical dictionary of Sufism. - Rowman & Littlefield, 2005. - p. 155.
"Perhaps the most famous Sufi who is known to many Muslims even today by his title alone is the seventh/13th century Persian mystic Rumi"
- Annemarie Schimmel."The Mystery of Numbers". - Oxford University Press, 1993. - S. 49.
A beautiful symbol of the duality that appears through creation was invented by the great Persian mystical poet Jalal al-Din Rumi, who compares God's creative word kun (written in Arabic KN) with a twisted rope of 2 threads (which in English twine, in German Zwirn¸ both words derived from the root "two").
- Ritter, H.; Bausani, A. Encyclopaedia of Islam - "ḎJ̲alāl al- Dīn Rūmī b. Bahāʾ al-Dīn Sulṭān al-ʿulamāʾ Walad b. Ḥusayn b. Aḥmad Ḵh̲aṭībī" / Bearman, Th. Bianquis, C. E. Bosworth, E. van Donzel and W. P. Heinrichs. - Brill Online, 2007.
… known by the sobriquet Mawlānā (Mevlânâ), Persian poet and founder of the Mawlawiyya order of dervishes.
- Julia Scott Meisami. Forward to Franklin Lewis, Rumi Past and Present, East and West (revised edition). - Oneworld Publications, 2008.
- Frederick Hadland Davis."The Persian Mystics. Jalálu"d-Dín Rúmí" - Adamant Media Corporation, November 30, 2005. - ISBN 1402157681 .
- Annemarie Schimmel, "I Am Wind, You Are Fire," p. 11. She refers to a 1989 article by Fritz Meier:
Lewis has devoted two pages of his book to the topic of Wakhsh, which he states has been identified with the medieval town of Lêwkand (or Lâvakand) or Sangtude, which is about 65 kilometers southeast of Dushanbe, the capital of present-day Tajikistan. He says it is on the east bank of the Vakhshâb river, a major tributary that joins the Amu Daryâ river (also called Jayhun, and named the Oxus by the Greeks). He further states: "Bahâ al-Din may have been born in Balkh, but at least between June 1204 and 1210 (Shavvâl 600 and 607), during which time Rumi was born, Bahâ al-Din resided in a house in Vakhsh (Bah 2:143 [= Bahâ" uddîn Walad"s] book, "Ma`ârif.") Vakhsh, rather than Balkh was the permanent base of Bahâ al-Din and his family until Rumi was around five years old (mei 16– 35) [= from a book in German by the scholar Fritz Meier-note inserted here]. 36) [= reference to Rumi"s "Discourses" and to Fritz Meier"s book-note inserted here], leaving behind Baâ al-Din"s mother, who must have been at least seventy-five years old."Tajiks and Persian admirers still prefer to call Jalaluddin "Balkhi" because his family lived in Balkh, current day in Afghanistan before migrating westward. However, their home was not in the actual city of Balkh, since the mid-eighth century a center of Muslim culture in (Greater) Khorasan (Iran and Central Asia). Rather, as Meier has shown, it was in the small town of Wakhsh north of the Oxus that Baha "uddin Walad, Jalaluddin" s father, lived and worked as a jurist and preacher with mystical inclinations. franklin Lewis, Rumi: Past and Present, East and West: The Life, Teachings, and Poetry of Jalâl al-Din Rumi, 2000, pp. 47–49. - william Harmless, Mystics, (Oxford University Press, 2008), 167.
- Arthur John Arberry. The Legacy of Persia. - Clarendon Press, 1953. - p. 200. - ISBN 0-19-821905-9.
- Frye, R.N. The Encyclopaedia of Islam - "Dari" (CD version). - Brill Publications.
- Encyclopedia of library and information science, Volume 13(English) . Google Books. Retrieved 18 August 2010.
- , With. 249.
- Pahlavi psalter— article from Encyclopædia Iranica. Philippe Gignoux
- Abdolhossein Zarrinkoub. Naqde adabi. - Tehran, 1959. - S. 374-379.
- Abdolhossein Zarrinkoub. Naqde adabi. - Tehran, 1947. - S. 374-379.
- Armenia in the III - IV centuries. // The World History. - Vol. 2, ch. XXV.:
...Armenia received a writing system that is not only different from Iranian, but also much more accessible to the people than Iranian; the latter, due to its complexity, was quite understandable only to professional scribes. This partly explains the richness of Armenian literature in comparison with the Middle Persian.
- CHARLES-HENRI DE FOUCHECOUR. IRAN viii. PERSIAN LITERATURE (2) Classical.(English) . Encyclopaedia Iranica (December 15, 2006). Date of treatment August 8, 2010. Archived from the original on August 28, 2011.
The distinction between poetry and prose has always been quite deliberate in Persian literature, with poetry given the pride of place. It distinguished itself clearly from prose not only in terms of rhyme and rhythm, but also in the artful play between explicit meaning or meanings and implicit nuances.
- , p. 2: “The prevalent classification of classical literary schools into Central Asia, Transcaucasian, Persian, and Indian originated with Y. E. Bertel’s whose primary emphasis seems to have been on ethnic and regional contributions.”
- , p. 2: "The corresponding nomenclature of Persian literary historians, i.e., "Khorasani, Azerbayjani, Eraqi", and "Hendi", on the other hand, denotes more than anything else, a chronological differentiation".
- PETER CHELKOWSKI. LITERATURE IN PRE-SAFAVID ISFAHAN - page 112(English) . Date of treatment August 18, 2010. Archived from the original on June 19, 2012.
The three main literary styles which follow each other consecutively are known as: Khurasani, Iraqi, and Hindi. The time spans of each style are equally flexible. Within these broad geographical divisions we then come across certain "literary schools" which reflect regional peculiarities and idiosyncrasies and are identified with smaller entities like provinces or towns. For example, there are: the Azerbaijan school, the Tabriz school, or the Shirvan school.
- C. E. Bosworth. ʿAǰam(English) (unavailable link). Encyclopaedia Iranica (December 15, 1984). Retrieved 8 August 2010. Archived from the original on 5 May 2012.
- Ripka, Jan. Poets and Prose Writers of the Late Saljuq and Mongol Periods’, in The Cambridge History of Iran, Volume 5, The Saljuq and Mongol Periods. - January 1968.
"One of the striking features of the Transcaucasian school is its complicated technique."
- Peter Chelkowski. Literature in Pre-Safavid Isfahan International Society for Iranian Studies Iranian Studies, Vol. 7, no. 1/2. - Taylor & Francis Ltd. on behalf of the International Society for Iranian Studies, 1974. - pp. 112-131.
"The three main literary styles which follow each other consecutively are known as: Khurasani, Iraqi, and Hindi. The time spans of each style are equally flexible. Within these broad geographical divisions we then come across certain „literary schools“ which reflect regional peculiarities and idiosyncrasies and are identified with smaller entities like provinces or towns. For example, there are: the Azerbaijan school, the Tabriz school, or the Shirvan school.»
- Muḥammad Amīn Riyāḥī. Sharvānī, Jamāl Khalīl, fl. 13 cent., Nuzhat al-majālis / Jamāl Khalīl Sharvānī ; tāʼlīf shudah dar nīmah-ʼi avval-i qarn-i haftum, tashih va muqaddimah va sharh-i hal-i gūyandigān va tawzīḥāt va fihristhā. - Tehran: Intishārāt-i Zuvvār, 1366. - 764 p.
- Peter Chelkowski. Literature in Pre-Safavid Isfahan International Society for Iranian Studies Iranian Studies, Vol. 7, no. 1/2. - Taylor & Francis Ltd. on behalf of the International Society for Iranian Studies, 1974.
Azerbaijan became the heir to the Khurasani style.
- Francois de Blois.
"The point of the anectode is clear that the diwans of these poets contained Eastern Iran(i.e. Sogdian etc.) words that were incomprehensible to a Western Persian like Qatran, who consquently took advantage of an educated visitor from the East, Nasir, to ascertain their meaning.
- , p. 7-8: "The term 'Transcaucasian' in bertel's classification, and 'Azerbaijani' in the Persian classification, refers to the poetry by cluster of poets associated mainly with the Caucasian Shirvanshahs who, in the course of the eleventh and twelfth centuries enjoyed a relative independence from the Saljuqid empire. A few literary historians trace the origins of this style to Qatran of Tabriz (ca. 1009-1072), whose diction is taken to represent certain characteristics of the pre-Mongol Iranian-Azeri».
- Minorsky.“Marand” in Encyclopaedia of Islam / P. Bearman, Th. Bianquis, C. E. Bosworth, E. van Donzel and W. P. Heinrichs. - 1991. - T. 6. - S. 504.
„According to one of al-Tabari’s authorities (iii, 1388), the shaykhs of Maragha who praised the bravery and literary ability (adab) of Ibn Bai’th also quoted his Persian verses (bi’l-fdrisiyya). This important passage, already quoted by Barthold, BSOS, ii (1923), 836-8, is evidence of the existence of the cultivation of poetry in Persian in northwestern Persia at the beginning of the 9th century. Ibn Bai’th must have been Iranicised to a considerable extent, and, as has been mentioned, he relied for support on the non-Arab elements in his Rustakhs (‘Uludj Rasatikhi’)“
- Jamal-Din Ḵalil Šarvāni. Nozhat al-majāles, 2nd ed / Moḥammad Amin Riāḥi. - Tehran, 1996.
- Tabari. The History of Tabari, 2nd edition. - Asatir Publications, 1993. - V. 7.
حد ثني انه انشدني بالمراغه جماعه من اشياخها اشعاراً لابن البعيث والفارسيه وتذكرون ادبه و شجاعه و له اخباراً و احاديث» طبري، محمدبن ج 1363.
- Archived May 8, 2012 at the Wayback Machine Richard Davis. Borrowed Ware Medieval Persian Epigrams. - Mage Publishers, 1998. - ISBN 0-934211-52-3.
“In preparing the brief notes on individual poets my chief debt is to Dr. Zabihollah Safa's Tarikh-e Adabiyat dar Iran ("History of Literature in Iran", 5 vols., Tehran, reprinted 1366/1987). I have also made use of Dr. Mohammad Amin Riahi’s introduction to his edition of the 14th-century anthology of rubaiyat, the Nozhat al-Majales ("Pleasure of the Assemblies"), as well as using material from other sources."
- Peter Chelkowski."Mirror of the Invisible World". - New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1975. - S. 6. - 117 p.
“Nizami’s strong character, his social sensibility, and his poetic genius fused with his rich Persian cultural heritage to create a new standard of literary achievement. Using themes from the oral tradition and written historical records, his poems unite pre-Islamic and Islamic Iran.”
- Anna Livia Beelaert. ḴĀQĀNI ŠERVĀNI(English) . Encyclopedia Iranica. Retrieved September 3, 2010. Archived from the original on May 5, 2012.
Khaqani's is noted for his extremely rich imagery, drawn from and alluding to a wide range of fields of knowledge-a mannerist, in an even higher degree than other classical Persian poets, both in the way he absorbs and transforms the poetry of his predecessors and in his love of paradox.
- : “The geographical closeness of the territories subject to the Ildeguzids and those under the Šarvānšāh encouraged the flow of intellectuals and poets from one court to the other. It is also possible to speak of a certain similarity of inspiration and of style between the poets born and educated in these areas, to the point of defining them as belonging to the ‘Azerbaijan school’ (Rypka, Hist. Iran Lit., pp. 201-9). The complexity of the language and of the compositional techniques, the originality and multiplicity of the themes, the presence of Persian archaisms and, at the same time, a wide range of borrowings from Arabic vocabulary are among the stylistic features which are common to poets in this cultural context compared with other contemporaries closer to the Khorasani style".
- NOZHAT AL-MAJALES (indefinite)
. Archived from the original Encyclopædia Iranica on August 28, 2011.
“Nozhat al-mājales is thus a mirror of the social conditions at the time, reflecting the full spread of Persian language and the culture of Iran throughout that region, clearly evidenced by the common use of spoken idioms in poems as well as the professions of some of the poets (see below). The influence of the northwestern Pahlavi language, example, which had been the spoken dialect of the region, is clearly observed in the poems contained in this anthology.
- NOZHAT AL-MAJALES (indefinite)
. Encyclopædia Iranica. Date of treatment July 30, 2010. Archived from the original on August 28, 2011.
„In contrast to poets from other parts of Persia, who mostly belonged to higher echelons of society such as scholars, bureaucrats, and secretaries, a good number of poets in the northwestern areas rose from among the common people with working class backgrounds, and they frequently used colloquial expressions in their poetry. They are referred to as water carrier (saqqāʾ), sparrow dealer (ʿoṣfori), saddler (sarrāj), bodyguard (jāndār), oculist (kaḥḥāl), blanket maker (leḥāfi), etc., which illustrates the overall use of Persian in that region"
- NOZHAT AL-MAJALES (indefinite)
. Encyclopædia Iranica. Date of treatment July 30, 2010. Archived from the original on August 28, 2011.
This blending of cultures certainly left its mark on the works of the poets of the region, resulting in the creation of a large number of new concepts and terms, the examples of which can be noticed in the poems of Ḵāqāni and Neẓāmi, as well as in dictionaries.”
- , p. 2: "Christian imagery and symbolism, quotations from the Bible and other expressions inspired by Christian sources occur so frequently in the works of Khagani and Nizami in particular, that a comprehension of their works is almost impossible without a thorough knowledge of Christianity».
- : "The complexity of the language and of the compositional, the originality and multiplicity of the themes, the presence of Persian archaisms and, at the same time, a wide range of borrowings from Arabic vocabulary are among the stylistic techniques which are common to poets in this cultural context compared with other contemporaries closer to the Khorasani style".
- Francois de Blois. Persian Literature - A Biobibliographical Survey: Volume V Poetry of the Pre-Mongol Period Volume 5 of Persian Literature, 2nd edition. - Routledge, 2004. - S. 187.
"The point of the anectode is clear that the diwans of these poets contained Eastern Iranian (i.e. Sogdian etc.) words that were incomprehensible to a Western Persian like Qatran, who consquently took advantage of an educated visitor from the East, Nasir, to ascertain their meaning".
- Muḥammad Amīn Riyāḥī. Sharvānī, Jamāl Khalīl, fl. 13 cent., Nuzhat al-majālis / Jamāl Khalīl Sharvānī ; tāʼlīf shudah dar nīmah-ʼi avval-i qarn-i haftum, tashih va muqaddimah va sharh-i hal-i gūyandigān va tawzīḥāt va fihristhā az Muḥammad Amīn Riyāḥī. See Introduction. - Tehran: Intishārāt-i Zuvvār, 1366.
- Novoseltsev A.P. Chapter III. ASIA AND NORTH AFRICA IN X-XIII centuries STATES OF THE SAMANIDS AND GAZNEVIDS //Institute of Oriental Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences of the East. In 6 volumes. Volume 2. East in the Middle Ages. Story. - Eastern Literature, 2009. - Vol. 2. - ISBN 978-5-02-036403-5, 5-02-018102-1.
“Much later, already in the post-Mongolian time, under new conditions, this community, part of which (in Azerbaijan and Maverannakhr) underwent Turkization, began to break up into two independent ones - Persians and Tajiks. Nothing similar in the IX-X, and in the XI-XIII centuries. was not, and the Tajiks of that time - the general name of the mass of the Iranian-speaking population, connected by a single culture, ethnic identity and language.
- Ripka. History of Iran Literature. - S. 201-209.
The geographical closeness of the territories subject to the Ildeguzids and those under the Šarvānšāh encouraged the flow of intellectuals and poets from one court to the other. It is also possible to speak of a certain similarity of inspiration and of style between the poets born and educated in these areas, to the point of defining them as belonging to the "Azerbaijan school".
- Ripka, Jan. History of Iranian Literature. - Reidel Publishing Company, January 1968. - S. 76.
“The centripetal tendency is evident in the unity of Persian literature from the points of view of language and content and also in the sense of civic unity. Even the Caucasian Nizami, although living on the far-flung periphery, does not manifest a different spirit and apostrophizes Iran as the Heart of the World". Archived from the original on August 28, 2011.
- Neẓāmī." Encyclopædia Britannica. 2009. Encyclopædia Britannica Online. 28 Feb. 2009
Greatest romantic epic poet in Persian Literature, who brought a colloquial and realistic style to the Persian epic. …. Nezami is admired in Persian-speaking lands for his originality and clarity of style, though his love of language for its own sake and of philosophical and scientific learning makes his work difficult for the average reader.
- Julie Scott Meisami. The Haft Paykar: A Medieval Persian Romance. - Oxford University Press (Oxford World's Classics), 1995. - ISBN 0-19-283184-4.
"Abû Muhammad Ilyas ibn Yusuf ibn Zaki Mu'ayyad, known by his pen-name of Nizami, was born around 1141 in Ganja, the capital of Arran in Transcaucasian Azerbaijan, where he remained until his death in about 1209. His father, who had migrated to Ganja from Qom in north central Iran, may have been a civil servant; his mother was a daughter of a Kurdish chieftain; having lost both parents early in his life, Nizami was brought up by an uncle. He was married three times, and in his poems laments the death of each of his wives, as well as proferring advice to his son Muhammad. He lived in an age of both political instability and intense intellectual activity, which his poems reflect; but little is known about his life, his relations with his patrons, or the precise dates of his works, as the accounts of later biographers are colored by the many legends built up around the poet.”
- Yar-Shater, Ehsan. Persian Poetry in the Timurid and Safavid Periods - Cambridge History of Iran. - Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1986. - S. 973-974.
- Sanjay Bumboo. Oblivion of Persian language will leave void in Sikh history(English) . Chandigarh, India - Punjab. The Tribune. Date of treatment August 18, 2010. Archived from the original on January 3, 2008.
He said Persian sources had been important for the researchers of Sikh history. He further added that Persian writings of Bhai Lal were absolutely in tune with the Sikh spirit, which provided the key to unlock the spiritual secrets and mystical flights of Sikhism through his poems.
Giving brief historical facts about Bhai Nand Lal, Balkar Singh said he was one of the 52 poets in the court of Guru Gobind Singh. Son of Diwan Chajju Ram, mir munshi or chief secretary of the Governor of Ghazni, Bhai Lal in a short time acquired great efficiency in Persian and Arabic languages.
After the death of his parents, he decided to return to Multan where he married a Sikh girl, who used to recite Gurbani and knew Gurmukhi. Leaving his family behind, he left for Anandpur Sahib and received Guru Gobind Singh’s blessings. After staying at there for some time, he left to serve as mir munshi under prince Mauzzam (later to become Emperor Bahadur Shah), due to an acquaintance of his father, named Wasif Khan.
Aurangzeb wished to convert him to Islam because he had so beautifully interpreted verses of the Koran. Fearing persecution, Bhai Lal and his family left for the northern India. Leaving his family in Multan, he once again came to stay with Guru Gobind Singh at Anandpur Sahib in 1697. Later, he returned to Multan where he opened a school of higher education in Persian and Arabic.
Professor Singh said Bhai Lal’s seven works in Persian poetry included Diwan-e-Goya, Zindgi Nama, Ganj Nama, Joti Bigaas, Arzul Alfaaz, Tausif-o-Sana and Khatima, and Dastural-Insha, besides three in Punjabi.
- Ashk Dahlén , Kingship and Religion in a Mediaeval Fürstenspiegel: The Case of the Chahār Maqāla of Nizāmi ʽAruzi, Orientalia Suecana, vol. 58, Uppsala, 2009.
- NIZAM al-Mulk Abdol Hossein Saeedian, «Land and People of Iran» p. 447
