نشریه کاوش نامه زبان و ادبیات فارسی
پیاپی 50 (پاییز 1400)

The purpose of this article is to study the transformation and evolution of contemporary Persian romantic poetry under the influence of modernity. This study is a documentary one conducted through a qualitative content analysis to answer a fundamental research question. First, the social effects of modernity on love and romantic relationships are explored from the viewpoints of thinkers and sociologists such as Bowman, Giddens, Thompson, and Berman. Then, the romantic transformations of the Persian poetry under the influence of this thinking are studied and explained in the form of ten ideas. The research question is ‘how can the popular genre of love in the realm of the Persian literature be transformed in concordance with social phenomena and evolutions?’ The findings show that ideas such as relativism, assertive self-presence, two-way dialogue, equality and freedom, scientism, and empiricism proposed by modernity have profoundly transformed the lyrical and romantic genre in the contemporary Persian poetry and have presented a different mode of thinking by offering courtship and pure love. The society has affected the realm of love in the Persian literature with its ongoing potentials and changed men’s attitudes, which has, in turn, changed the nature of their personalities. This has ultimately altered the position of love as a legendary and internal sensation into a real and sometimes social state.

Language rhythm is one of the diverse aesthetic components employed in Farsi Morsal prose, which has significantly enhanced its artistic value. The research question is ‘what has been the provenance of such a rhythm garnishing that prose type?’ To find a convincing answer, a descriptive-analytical method has been employed in this article and works of Morsal prose have been investigated, utilizing semantics and structural linguistics. The results indicate that the aesthetic rhythm of Morsal prose is formed on the interior of the language. While being influenced primarily by the rhythmic recitation of the Holy Quran and then by the old Farsi poetry, Morsal prose owes its rhythmic elegance to its special syntactic arrangement, syntactic equilibrium and flexibility in starting and ending the sentences. Another factor accounting for the rhythmic elegance of Morsal prose is the use of syllabic rhythm and the melodic texts of ancient languages. This study proves that syllabic poetry did not vanish with the arrival of prosodic rhythm; rather, due to inconsistency with prosodic poetry and lack of knowledge among the rhetoricians of the Islamic period, it was considered and categorized as a kind of prose. Then, the other literary aspects of ancient languages gave a rise to the rhythmicity of Morsal prose. Furthermore, the inherent characteristics of the Farsi language and the socio-cultural components of the Samanid period led to the liberation and flexibility of the language and exerted a salient impact on the rhythm of prose.

Khāqāni Sharvāni is a poet who has a specific poetic style. With certain innovations, his poems are among the most difficult works of Persian poetry. The poet's unique view of the sciences of his time, his proficiency in various poetic techniques, and his precise knowledge of the subtleties of language, along with his special techniques in the artistic display of images, are the important features that add to the complexity of his poetry. These factors have also created difficulties in correcting Khāqāni's anthology; so many distortions have taken place, and, despite numerous corrections, there are still doubts about the correct recording of many verses. It is obvious that the correction and interpretation of such an anthology, in addition to scientific and literary knowledge, requires a complete acquaintance with the mental atmosphere and the style of the poet and his literary technical tricks. Accordingly, in this research, with regard to the recording of manuscripts and various other factors, especially Khāqāni's unique method of using imaginary correspondence and literary techniques, some verses in his book have been corrected and described. Also, with a review and a careful study of his poems and a critical look at previous interpretations, the verses are analyzed and new points are presented about the way of reading and the semantic use of words and combinations there.

Riddle or enigma is a specific genre that has attracted the attention of many Persian composers since old times. The present research deals with the content and structure as well as the formulation of this element in the poems of Majd Hamgar (607-686 A.H) as one of the eminent poets of Yazd during the 7th century. At first, we discussed the function of riddle and enigma and their background in the Persian poetry. Then, based on library research through a descriptive-analytic method, the use of this literary genre is explored in Majd Hamgar’s poetry, and the ways of creating riddles are detected. The results of the research show that the poet has some outstanding samples of riddles and enigmas composed through different poetic forms and meters. Majd Hamgar has displayed so much innovation that it makes him a pioneer of riddle writing and a model for the later poets. Among these innovations, one can point to riddles incorporated with enigma. In his chronographs, however, no riddle can be seen, indicating the rare cases of making this kind of chronographs.

Since Obayd Zakani has written comedies in various formats, his anthology is one of the richest collections in the history of the Iranian culture. So far, many works in various genres have been attributed to him. Clearly, these works have affected research on Obayd’s biography, thought and works and, consequently, influenced the emergence and transformation of some genres during the eighth century. Thus, the most important task in correcting Obayd's anthology is to separate the original works from the works that have been mistakenly attributed to him. Although examining the works attributed to Obayd Zakani has attracted researchers for a long time, there are still many ambiguous points that should be addressed. From the many works attributed to Obayd, five are selected here including "Maktub-e Qalandarān", "Taʿrifāt-e Mollā Dopiyāza", both of which can be seen in most editions of Obayd’s anthology, Fāl-nāmas, which were first published in the last edition of the anthology, "Sharh al-Caqmini", and "maqāmāt". These have been attributed to Obayd in some studies. They are in different genres but are not equally known; each has its own characteristics. Considering these differences, this paper seeks to investigate the attribution of these works to Obayd Zakani by examining the existing manuscripts, stylistics evidence and historical backgrounds. It is concluded that Fāl-nāmas is correctly attributed to Obayd, while the others are mistakenly considered to be his works.

The artistic expression of the combined contrasts, in the sense of the artistic combination of contrasting paradigms, is one of the foundations of aesthetics in poetry. This issue is rooted in the language of the Qur'an, prayers and vocalizations of ancient Sufi elders and is one of the general features of the mystical language that has made its way from Sufi prose to Sufi poetry. Among the mystic poets, Hafez is one of those who have made use of this method. Examination of Hafez's lyrics shows that the frequency of this point in his poetry is relatively high because in most cases he has tried to present an artistic image by placing things that are often contradictory. This issue, with all its importance, has not been studied specifically in Hafez's lyrical poems. Therefore, this study seeks to examine it through a content analysis with a descriptive-analytical method. In this study, it has been determined that the artistic images in combined contrasts are one of the linguistic features of Hafez's poetry. He has used this feature in 48 verses to express religious concepts, in 45 verses to express mystical topics, in 24 verses for romantic concepts and in 15 verses for rhetorical issues. In most cases, paradoxical images are expressed as propositions (sentences). Regarding the reasons for Hafez's use of this method of expression, it can be said that the artistic expression of contrasts in the world is one of the characteristics of mystical language and Hafez, as a mystic poet, considers this world and its beauties next to the world of contrasts. Moreover, at his time, due to religious prejudices and hypocrisy, a strange contrast arose between the heart and the behavior of the government and the people.

Kharazmi and Jami are great poets and mystics of the ninth century AH. They are also among the early commentators of Rumi's Masnavi. The interpretive allusions and mystical considerations of these two commentaries have been considered by many post-Rumi scholars. There are works about the states, works and life of these commentators, but there is no research yet on their methods to describe the Ney-nameh (eighteen verses at the beginning of Masnavi). This issue is undertaken in this research through the analytical recognition of the differences and commonalities and the methods of explaining the Ney-name from the perspective of Kharazmi and Jami. Both commentators are found to have made hermeneutic interpretation, and sometimes an eclectic method instead of discovering the theory of the author of Masnavi. They seek to discover, extract, and explain the mysticism of the epistle, which the text has the capacity for, but they have no reason for their explanations. Thus, they have made it difficult for the general audience of Masnavi to understand the concepts and meanings of the letter.

The Qur'an is a fundamental source used by scholars to compile mystical books. The authors of the Sufi works have used the words, expressions and verses of the Qur'an or the stories of this valuable source directly or indirectly in accordance with their subject matter and in order to clarify some issues for the audience. Mostamali Bukhari, in his commentary on the book Al-Ta'rof for the Sufi religion, has used the story of the Prophet Moses and the corresponding Qur'anic verses to explain mystical, religious and sometimes theological issues. The aim of this research is to realize the complementary approach to the story of the Prophet Moses to express the topics of the book Sharh al-Tarif. The findings indicate a two-pronged approach to this story. In the first one, when God is manifested on the mountain, the Prophet Moses is a symbol of a seeker who has reached the perishing of attributes and conducts. He is as a seeker who is drunk and lost in ecstasy. Dominance, segregation and division have passed for him. This approach presents the entanglement of the story of Moses in the explanation of mystical issues. In the second approach, the story of Moses becomes an example to explain issues related to the law. In this continuous approach, the author introduces Moses as a prophet who is in a lower rank than the Prophet Mohammad in matters such as miracles, ummah, words with God, and closeness.