Persian poetry. 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?
- 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, for 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
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. In order to correctly comprehend the classical Persian lyric poetry, one 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 brief life joy
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.
Here is an excerpt from the book.
Only part of the text is open for free reading (restriction of the copyright holder). If you liked the book, the full text can be obtained from our partner's website.
pages: 1 2 3 4
Rudaki
Sage, philosopher, skillful poet, whose work stood at the origins of the great Persian poetry. For most of his life he was a court poet in Bukhara at the court of the Samanids. However, at the end of his life, luck turned away from him, the poet was excommunicated from the court, returned to his native village, where he lived out his life as a poor blind old man and an unrecognized poet.
Tomb of Rudaki in Panjakent / photo source: wikipedia.org
Rudaki's talent was appreciated only years later. His poems remained in the minds of a whole people, and for many centuries they come to life in the collections of other Persian poets who wrote answers and imitations to them, and his wise aphorisms adorn Persian speech to this day.
Why be offended by a friend? The hurt will pass soon.
Life is like this: today - joy, and tomorrow - pain and sorrow.
The offense of a friend is not an offense, not shame, not an insult;
When he caresses you, you will forget about the quarrel.
Is one bad deed stronger than a hundred good ones?
Is it really because of the thorns of a rose to live a lifetime of shame?
Should we look for new favorites every day?
Friend angry? Sorry, there is no point in this dispute!
Life gave me advice to my question in response, -
Thinking about it, you will understand that all life is advice:
“Don’t you dare envy someone else’s happiness,
Are you not the object of envy for others?
Life also said: “You hold back your anger.
Whoever looses his tongue is bound by a chain of troubles.
Oh, woe to me! fate I did not know worse:
To be the husband of an evil wife who changes husbands.
I will not instill fear in her, if I come to her with a lion;
And I'm afraid of the fly that sat next to her.
Although she is grumpy and rude to me,
I hope I don't die, save the rest of my days.
We know: only God is not like any of the mortals,
You are not similar to anyone, but more beautiful than a deity!
Who will say: "The day is rising!" - will show us the sun,
But only he will point to you first.
You are everything that man in the old days glorified,
And you are the words of praise for the future!
Ferdowsi
Ferdowsi - poet, philosopher, creator greatest work in the history of Persian literature, "Shahname", which covered the history of the reign of all Iranian dynasties and influenced the worldview of an entire people.
Funeral of Ferdowsi. Painting by Gazanfar Khalykov (1934) / photo source: wikipedia.org
After two centuries of Arab domination, Samanid Iran experienced a cultural surge and the growth of national identity, as a result of which the Iranians showed an extraordinary interest in the historical past of their people and sought to recreate it in literary works.
According to legend, Firdousi was promised one gold dinar for each bayt written, which was a very large amount. But the ruler allegedly did not approve of the work of the poet and paid him in silver. Ferdowsi considered this an insult to his talent, moved away from the court and lived in poverty until the end of his life. According to the same legend, Shah Mahmud Ghaznevi, having accidentally heard a verse from the Shahnameh dedicated to himself, hurried to find out the name of the author as soon as possible in order to generously reward him. He ordered to send a rich gift to Firdousi, but he died the day before. At the very time when camels with gifts from the Shah entered one city gate, the body of the poet was carried out through the other.
Another knew how to cut a line beautifully,
With witticisms, the other shone eloquently,
And although a lot of effort went into this brilliance -
What I did, nobody did.
I've been working tirelessly for thirty years
And in the song he recreated the greatness of Iran.
Everything in the world will be covered with the dust of oblivion,
Only two know neither death nor decay:
Only the work of a hero and the speech of a sage
Centuries pass without knowing the end.
Nizami
One of the greatest poets of medieval literature of the East, the largest Romantic poet in Persian epic literature, who brought colloquial speech and realistic style to the epic. Nizami, thanks to his talent, managed to combine in poetry two fundamentally different worldviews - pre-Islamic and Islamic Iran.
Leyli and Majnun. 16th-century miniature from the Hamsa manuscript / photo source: wikipedia.org
His main literary breakthrough was Pyateritsa (Khamsa), a collection of five epic love poems that together paint an ideal picture of the world with an ideal ruler at the head. Later, Nizami's "Five" laid the foundation for writing answers and imitations, this tradition became one of the main distinguishing features of the Persian poetry of the Middle Ages.
Sometimes love goes away on its own
Neither touched the heart nor the mind.
That is not love, but youth fun.
Love has no right to perish without a trace.
She comes to live forever
Until a man perishes in the ground.
Omar Khayyam
There is not a single Persian poet whose fame could overshadow that of Omar Khayyam.
The Western world discovered his work after the release of "Ruba'yata" translated by E. Fitzgerald, but in Iran Khayyam is known rather as an outstanding scientist, philosopher, mathematician, astronomer and doctor. Khayyam's poems turned out to be too dangerous and free-thinking for the Islamic worldview, so he wrote for a close circle of friends and students and did not strive for universal recognition as a poet.
Monument to Khayyam in Bucharest / photo source: wikipedia.org
Nevertheless, he made a huge contribution to Persian poetry, expressing philosophical and edifying ideas in the form of quatrains - "ruba'i" (from the Arabic "slave" - four), in which the first two lines form a thesis, the third line without rhyme - antithesis, and the last line is an instruction and the main idea.
Don't piss off others and don't piss yourself off
We are guests in this mortal world.
And if something is wrong - humble yourself!
Be smart and smile.
Think with a cold head.
After all, everything in the world is natural:
The evil you radiated
Will definitely come back to you.
Who was beaten by life, he will achieve more,
A pood of salt who has eaten appreciates honey more.
Who shed tears, he sincerely laughs,
Who died, he knows that he lives.
I went to the sage and asked him:
"What is love?" He said "Nothing"
But I know a lot of books have been written:
Eternity is written by some, while others - what a moment
It will scorch with fire, then it will melt like snow,
What is love? "It's all human!"
And then I looked him straight in the face,
How can I understand you? "Nothing or everything?"
He said with a smile: “You yourself gave the answer!:
Nothing or everything! There is no middle ground here!
Although not new, I will remind you again:
In the face of both friend and foe
You are the master of the unspoken word
And the spoken word - you are a servant.
Saadi
The future poet was orphaned early and, without completing his education, spent the first half of his life wandering around the Middle East in search of answers to his questions. Saadi spent about 25 years away from his native places, met with completely different people who shaped his worldview. His life was full of adventures.
Manuscript sheet with lines of a poem from "Bustan" / photo source: wikipedia.org
Returning to Shiraz, Saadi created two of the greatest instructive works "Bustan" and "Gulistan", in which he expressed his view of ethics and morality, based on his own experience and observations during his travels. Saadi in his works talks about friendship and enmity, considers the actions of a person in certain life circumstances and, avoiding categoricalness, offers two options for resolving the same situation, leaving the reader the right to choose.
Speech is the highest gift; and loving wisdom
Don't kill yourself with stupid words.
The man of few words will avoid shame;
A grain of ambergris is better than a heap of litter.
Ignorant talkative, O sage, run,
Save your thoughts for the chosen one.
A hundred arrows shot by a bad shooter, all by;
Let one go, but steadily on the target.
The one who weaves slander does not know,
That slander will then kill him.
Do not slander, do not listen to slander!
After all, they say that the walls have ears.
Hafiz
The great Persian poet, who created the image of a new hero, a freethinker with a strong personal beginning, capable, despite all the vicissitudes of fate, to maintain his human dignity and desire for happiness. Persian poetry in the work of Hafiz reached the apogee of the complexity of the language and metaphorical images.
Mausoleum of Hafiz in Shiraz has long turned into a place of pilgrimage / photo source: melli.org
Shamseddin Mohammed (real name of the poet) lived in Shiraz. From his youth, he was drawn to knowledge and for some time earned his living by reciting the sutras of the Qur'an by heart - such a professional reader was called "hafiz" (Pers. "one who recites by heart"). When during his lifetime he gained fame as the greatest master of the ghazal, the nickname Hafiz became not only a literary pseudonym, but also a common noun, meaning a folk poet.
Do not interrupt, O my breast, your tearful starfall:
Let the beats of my heart crush my whole soul!
You will tell us: "I know that Turkic woman well, -
Her family is from Samarkand! But you were wrong, brother:
That girl entered me from Rudaki's line:
"The Mulyana Stream brings us that maiden's scent"
Tell me: who knows peace under the storms of heaven?
O butler, give me wine! At least I'll be glad to sleep.
Isn't it a delusion to seek peace in love?
After all, there is no cure for love, the elders tell us.
You are weak? Renounce drunkenness! But if the strong is sober,
Let, having ignited hearts, incinerate debauchery!
Yes, I think it's time to regenerate people:
The world must be created anew - otherwise it is hell!
But what can Hafiz be able to give with his tear?
In a stream of tears, she floats like a dewdrop at random.
Meanness has become a habit. There is no in the world
No honesty, no loyalty to a vow.
Talent stands with outstretched hand,
Begging for a copper coin.
Looking for protection from poverty and troubles,
A learned man wanders the world.
But the ignoramus now flourishes:
Don't touch him - he will instantly call him to account!
And if someone lays down a verse like
Ringing stream or dawn, -
Be this poet, like Sanai, skillful -
And a stale crust will not be given to a poet.
Wisdom whispers to me: "Get away from the world,
Shut up in yourself, endure this insult.
Become like a flute in your lamentations,
In patience and perseverance - an ascetic.
And my advice: "Fell - start over!"
Hafiz, follow this advice.
The insidious course of fate is invisible and inaudible -
After all, everyone around is deaf, and everyone is equally blind.
Let the sun and moon be the foot of those who are in power,
A bed is also waiting for them - a dark crypt made of clay.
Will chain mail save you from the arrows of smashing fate?
Will you repel the blows of evil destinies with a shield?
Protect yourself with a wall of solid steel -
But the day will come, and death will break through the iron held together.
Close the open entrance of life from lust,
So that your path does not lead you to a den of passions.
On the wheel of fate - look how much dust!
Run from greed, appreciate your meager bread.
I am a hermit. I don't care about games and circuses here.
To the whole universe, if your lane is, I don’t care.
Hey soul! You should ask me at least once what I need!
As long as I get to heaven's doors, I don't care.
Padishah of beauty! Here I am - a beggar, a dervish, a burnt man...
Before the concepts: prosperity, dignity, honor - I don’t care.
I have a bold request; to everything else,
If I can’t pronounce it before God, I don’t care.
You want our blood. You betray us with plunder.
As for the belongings of the poor - where to carry them away - I don’t care.
The mind of a friend is like a cup of Jamshid that reflected the world.
And whether this message has reached you or not, I don't care.
I am grateful to the pearl. Let the sea of noon
It was decided to cover this sandbank with sands - I don’t care.
Away, swindler! My friends are with me! Before I decided
Having agreed with the enemies, you lime me - I don’t care.
I am a lover dervish. If the sultana has not forgotten me,
As far as prayers, before they are lifted up to heaven, I don’t care.
I am Hafiz. My virtue is with me. To slander and slander
What contemptible envy and revenge weave together is none of my business.
At the cost of sad thoughts and sadness
You will hardly find your daily bread.
Zeal, which is inopportune, is worthy of only curses.
Only a rare person finds a treasure, whoever works all the time is rich.
The milkman, who diluted milk with water, praises his goods noisier than others.
If the bird has escaped from the cage, heaven is everywhere for it - on every branch.
No matter how high the peak is, there is a path to it for sure.
Excessive praise is more dangerous than blasphemy.
If you want to be smart, forget your whims:
All whims are worthless fun.
Well, if you live some kind of dream,
Dream of finding peace of mind, right!
All worldly concerns have an empty essence:
Everything in this world is vain, cunning.
We are all given the last sleep to fall asleep -
Oh, if good glory awaited us!
Jami
Persian poet-mystic, Sufi and philosopher. He is the last major representative of the classical period of Persian-Tajik poetry, after which the separate development of Persian and Tajik literature began. Jami is the author of the "Septenary", consisting of seven poems - masnavi, five of which were the answer to Nizami's "Five" and two - the authorship of Jami himself. In addition, he left two sofas (collection of works) of lyrical ghazals and a large number of prose works, both artistic and philosophical.
Yusuf and Zuleikha. 15th-century miniature from a manuscript of Jami's works / photo source: wikipedia.org
We torment with unbearable flour
One who is envious of others.
All my life longing and malice breathing,
His soul is tied with a knot.
Rumi
Rumi, also known under the pseudonym Moulana, is an outstanding Persian Sufi poet.
Rumi family by row political reasons was forced to flee to Asia Minor (Rum), where, after long wanderings, she settled at the court of the Seljuk Turks. Jalaladdin Rumi received a good education and was fluent in Persian and Arabic. After the death of his father, Rumi became imbued with Sufi sentiments, which caused disapproval among the clergy. IN last years Rumi devoted himself to literary creativity and preaching.
Rumi's tomb in Konya / photo source: wikipedia.org
Rumi in his works reveals the idea of the greatness of a person, regardless of his social position and status. Expressing himself in a very metaphorical language and using complex poetic forms, he propagated the ideas of Sufism.
Whenever you trust not words,
And the truth that the heart knows,
Yes, the heart that ignites from the truth,
There would be no limit to miracles.
That's how misunderstanding sometimes
Able to replace friendship with enmity,
How can anger be born in the hearts
The same thing in different languages.
Turks, Persians, Arabs and Greeks walked together.
And here is some kind person
Gave coins to friends
And thus the discord between them brewed
Then the Persian said to others: “Let's go
On the market and angur * we will get!
"You're lying, rogue," the Arab interrupted him in his hearts, "
I don't want angur! I want Einab!”
And the Turk interrupted them: “What a noise,
My friends? Isn’t uzum better!”
“What kind of people are you! - the Greek exclaimed to them -
Let's buy Stafil and eat it!"
And so they came to a decision
But, not understanding each other, they fought.
They did not know, naming the grapes,
They are talking about the same thing.
Ignorance in them kindled anger,
Damage to teeth and ribs.
Oh, if only a hundred-tongue were with them,
He would have reconciled them with one word.
"With your money," he would tell them,
I'll buy what all four of you need.
I will quadruple your coin
And again I will establish peace between you!
Quadruple, though not divided,
I will buy everything I want!
The words of the ignorant bring war
Mine are unity, peace and silence.”
Quote explanation:
* - Angur (Tajik), Einab (Arabic), Uzum (Turkic), Stafil (Greek) - grapes
Amir Khosrow Dehlavi
In the 11th century, Islam spread to the northwest of India, leading to Indo-Iranian cultural interaction. In the 13th century, due to the Mongol invasion, many representatives of Iranian culture migrated to India. Among them was Amir Khosrow Dehlavi.
Alexander visits the sage Plato. Miniature from "Khamsa" Dehlavi / photo source: wikipedia.org
Proximity to the Sufi dervish order "Chishti" was reflected in his work; he praised in verse the head of the order, Nizamaddin Aulia, calling him a spiritual mentor.
Based on Nizami's Five, Dehlavi wrote 10 poems, some of which were responses to already existing works. Skillfully combining Persian plots and Indian reality, the poet managed to create a completely new atmosphere in the seemingly unshakable Persian literary tradition.
I came into this world, already in love with you,
Doomed to torment in advance.
I'm looking for meetings with you, I'm looking for insight,
But I can't forget my pride for a moment.
Oh, have mercy and throw off the thick veil,
So that the heart fell on its face and lost God!
Throw arrogance away, opening your face,
So that pride lifts me to the abode of paradise.
And if you don't grace me with a look,
I will leave this world that became hell during my life.
No, I will not let anyone captivate my heart from now on,
To live in his captivity as a hermit in the desert.
And what did Khosrow hear in response to the groans:
“Your turn will come, hope, O lover!”
Nasir Khosrow
One of the outstanding representatives of classical literature in Farsi was the follower of Ismailism Nasir Khosrow. He led an idle life and, in his own words, traveled a lot, drank a lot of wine, and spent his days in amusements.
A street in the center of Tehran bears the name of Nasir Khosrov / photo source: kojaro.com
However, in the middle of his life, he decides to drastically change his lifestyle and goes on a pilgrimage to holy places. He was prompted to such a turn of fate by a dream in which someone urged him to go in search of truth, pointing in the direction of the Ka'aba. Khosrow himself later described that he woke up from a sleep of forty years.
May your life be a joy to all others.
Give yourself to others like bunches of grapes.
But if you don't have such a big soul -
Let the little one shine like a lamp.
Do not upset people by deed or word,
It is necessary to listen to any human longing!
The sick - heal! Suffering - comfort!
The torment of the earth is sometimes crueler than hell.
You are the riot of youth, like an animal, tame,
Always serve as a joy to your father and mother.
Don't forget that mother made us drunk
The father raised his own child.
Therefore fear in your carelessness
Into their old hearts pour even a drop of poison.
In addition, the hour will blow: you yourself will become an old man,
Do not break, brother, the sacred order.
So, live for everyone. Don't think about yourself
And your lot will shine like the highest reward.
For the horse of eloquence, a running circle -
This is your inner horizon of being.
Who is the rider? - Soul.
Make the mind bridle
Thought is a familiar saddle,
and the victory is yours!
Trouble for the one who took it upon himself
The thing is that there is no strength to fulfill.
When you participate in the jump of the dispute,
Do not get excited, and you will not fall soon.
In the bitter advice that a friend gives us,
Outside - bitterness, in the core - honey.
materials
Hafiz Shirazi (1326 - 1389)
Hajja Shams ad-Din Muhammad Hafiz Shirazi (1326-1389/90)
Persian poet.
Origin: from a humble and poor family.
Hafiz received a full theological education and
became famous as a hafiz (a person who knows the Koran by heart).
Court poetic activity did not enrich the Persian poet Hafiz, and during
In many verses, he speaks of himself as a person without security.
The poet himself became popular after his death.
After his death, all the works of Hafiz were distributed in huge numbers in Iran and beyond.
At the age of 21, he became a student of Attar in Shiraz. He already then wrote poetry, was a famous poet and reader of the Koran at the court of Abu-Ishak, entered the Sufi order - Tariq.
In 1333, Mubariz Muzaffar occupied Shiraz, and Hafiz began to compose songs of protest instead of
romantic poems, for which he was expelled from his native city.
When he was 52 years old, the Shah invited him to return to Shiraz.
The myth was spread that at the age of 60, together with friends, he organized a forty-day
meditative vigil, and his spirit met again with Attar.
He wrote many famous lyrical ghazals - about love, wine, the beauty of nature and roses.
He died at the age of 64 (1390) and was buried in the Musalla garden in Shiraz.
Mausoleum of Hafiz is one of the main sights of Shiraz, many pilgrims come there.
The mausoleum itself is located in the park, where the poems of Hafiz are constantly recited to the music. Also, fortune-telling on the "Sofa" of Hafiz is common.
After his death, "Sofa" appears - a collection of 600 of his poems.
Here are some translated verses from the Divan:
Do not only harm others, but otherwise ...
Live as you know, and fate will help you.
There is no other sin. Good will you multiply
Himself, as in a mirror, luminous goodness ...
*********
It's time to regenerate people and grow your garden,
And create your world again - otherwise it's hell ...
* * *******
Among all that the Creator of the worlds created from nothing
There is a moment! What is the essence of it? Remained a mystery of shackles .. .
**********
Life is not as short as I thought in sadness...
Looking for the end, you find the beginning.
************
For those who truly love
Immortality will destroy mortality...
************
Seek peace in love - these are your delusions.
**********
Close the petals of sleeping roses with hyacinths,
That is, turn your face, brush the world away with your hand!
And drop dewdrops of sweat on the flower garden, as from a bowl of eyes,
Drunk with living water The world hidden from us.
And at least somehow open the daffodils of sleepy eyes,
And close the jealous eyelashes of marvelous flowers!
If you do not know how to kill the eyes of lovers,
Drink with others, but reproach us, won't you regret it?
Like a veil of wine on your eyes,
Life is blind, according to the laws - worse than sour batch.
When the days - rose petals - crumble, we drink
Rose wine in the Sufi circle, in the rose of life where we live!
Here violets aroma, cute curls scattered,
And a tulip bouquet. Drink to warm your souls!
Here Hafiz prays for a meeting: - My God, do not push away
You are the prayer of the souls of the sufferers, let them into your mouth. ***
*********
The body came out of the dust of the ground...
The spirit is from the ether, from the heavenly breath.
Why are you afraid of death, my baby?
Dust to ashes, and the spirit to the other world!
*********
Echo
We are not afraid of death, Father,
And the fact that the abode of hearts
Will accept our spirit not so perfect,
So that he becomes eternally blessed .. .
********
My heart asked
what she owns:
It wanted to see the whole world in a magic bowl...
Pearl, the creations of pearls - the all-seeing Heart
The blind man asked for alms - and received his sight!
Your doubts in harabat
I brought the elder of the magicians:
Husbands, wishing to see the light, there were many sitting there.
The gray-haired sage, drunk, stared into the bowl:
In it, everything that was on earth was full of color and seething.
Asked:
“How long have you not taken your eyes off the wine?”
“Since this firmament was erected skillfully!”
The insight of the heart is a miracle sent down to us from above.
All the tricks of the mind before him are an empty thing.
The one who said "God is me!" according to the wisest
Executed for lifting the veil too boldly.
And the one who hid in his heart what was revealed from above,
The memory of the moment of Truth in the soul is intact.
And if heaven will help him,
He will perform a miracle, like Isa, who breathed the soul into the body.
Always and everywhere God is with you, but the cowardly Sufi
He did not know about it and called on Allah every now and then.
Hafiz asked:
"Why is love as heavy as chains?" —
“So that the heart, having lost its mind, sang from sweet pain!”
— 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. Interesting books were found and good teachers met. 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 an English translation by 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?
– Indo-European studies have long been underway to reconstruct 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.
