A Comparative Study of the Concept and Examples of Love and the Relationship between the Lover and Beloved in Anvari and Sa’adi's Sonnets

In Persian literature, holiness has been formed around the word love. As a result, the concepts of lover, beloved, vesal (union) and hejran (separation) has been created, and they have been applied to all texts. This paper investigates the motifs and attributes of this issue. The aim is to clarify that, apparently, in the beginning, love was equivalent to a relationship based on sexual desire. But, over time, its concept has been transformed. To support this argument, the themes of the two poet’s sonnets in which the lover is a human being (regardless of the mystical or non-mystical connotations), have been compared in a descriptive way. The statistical population of the research is all of Anvari"s sonnets and some of Sa’adi"s sonnets, which were randomly selected.

The method of conducting this research is descriptive-analytical and the method of collecting library information.

The results of the research show that Anvari"s understanding of the concept of love is influenced by his life in a completely realistic way, based on sexual desire. In his opinion, love is the process of obtaining the desired satisfaction for physical enjoyment and the lover is a human being (slave or otherwise) who sometimes presents himself to another person in exchange for receiving a wage. Separation, in this regard, is equivalent to the impossibility of enjoyment (in the present time) and union is its opposite concept. In Sa’adi"s discourse, human love is often a relationship for spiritual pleasure and achieving perfection through attachment to a person (beloved) who is the manifestation of beauty. Union here is more equivalent to the sight of beauty and separation is just a stimulus for more enthusiasm. Things like praise, description, and complaint are subject to the poets" view of the category of love.

Intention is the determinant of the concepts of love, lover, beloved, vesal and hejran in the poetry of two poets and the distinguishing feature of Sa’adi from Anvari. Love, in Anvari"s poetry is close to the original perception (that is, the process of sexual intercourse). In Sa’adi"s ghazal, love has moved away from the previous lustful meaning, affected by the process of symbolic and conceptual evolution, as well as Sa’adi"s special mystical perspective. This change of attitude is caused by: the reports of ozri"s love, the transformation of the meaning of love in the Holy Quran, the mystical view of the story of Yusuf (PBUH), symbolic interpretations of stories like Mahmoud and Ayaz, and the design of the mystical love based on beauty. However, the sacred concept of love is often extended to Khorasani style erotic relationships.