A Study and Analysis of Ab-e- Hayat Allegory (with a view on Hafez poems)

Allegory is defined as a text with different concepts differing literally. "Ab-e-Hayat" or life water is one of the famous and common allegories in Persian literature and culture which has manifested in various implications in the mind and language of pioneers in poetry and literature. The current study aims at investigating the origin and basis of this allegory and extracting its different concepts. To this aim Hafez Divan was selected as the main source to explain the diversity of concepts for such allegory in Hafez Sonnets. In order to intensify the meanings and organize the speech, the results of the study revealed that Hafez has used "Ab-e-Hayat" and its implications 25 times in his poems. In so doing by using imaginary arguments he has implied the concepts like "wine", "beloved lips", "poetic rhetoric", "mystic feelings and inspirations", "sweetheart", and "zeal for the beloved".