مجله مطالعات و تحقیقات ادبی
سال دوازدهم شماره 4 (زمستان 1400)

Kelileh and Demneh has received special attention as a book of wisdom and politics throughout history. Nasrollah Monshi’s translation of the book into Persian in the sixth century turned it into one of the most important works of prose in Persian literature and a model for literary writers, and outdid other translations of the same book. The significance of this translation has made its numerous republications, edition, and correction inevitable. In Iranian academia, the edition and correction by Mojtaba Minovi has gained a popular foothold. Despite Minovi's significant contribution to improving the quality of the book, there are some phrases whose meaning is ambiguous and confuse readers. This study examines some of these phrases in the first step and subsequently offers corrections by drawing on textual parallels, the author's style, textual evidence from other parts of the book, and evidence from classical Persian texts. This study suggests that distortion, word shift, grammatical errors cause ambiguity in the selected phrases.

The present article aims at analyzing the role of paratopic elements of ‘translation’ and ‘religion’ in the emergence of comparable mystical-literary works through comparing two allegories: the outstanding English allegorical novel The Pilgrim’s Progress by Bunyan and the contemporary Persian novella From A’in to Ghaf by Afrouz. Parsa, the hero in the Persian novella, sets off his mystical journey at the age of forty. The main character in Bunyan’s work, Christian, abandons his town and begins his hazardous journey to the Celestial City. A plethora of allusions to the Holy Qur’an and the Bible were found in the Persian and English stories, respectively. Drawing on Attar’s Mantegh-al-Tair as a framework, this study attempts to compare different stages of mystical journeys in the two works. The major reason for the resemblance between the two works is their religious backgrounds. Moreover, as the author of the Persian novella was the translator of the English novel, a sort of unconscious influence could also be involved.

As a literary subgenre, epic poetry is characterized with specific features in terms of language which distinguishes it from other subgenres. The secondary layer of meaning is the other distinguishing factor. In study, in order to examine the secondary layer of meaning in epic, analyzes the story of "Rostam and Sohrab" in terms of the frequency and variety of secondary meanings and its relationship with the literary type of the epic. For this purpose, the syntactic structure of verbs at the beginning of the stanza and the secondary meanings related to this syntactic structure are examined. The most frequent aspects of the secondary layer of meaning are emphases on the verb, exaggeration and bowing, and emphatic intention. The discussion of secondary meaning of emphatic intention can be considered as the novelty of this article. The secondary meanings of emphatic intention, along with the emphasis on action and exaggeration and bowing in terms of number and type, indicate the unity and harmony of these secondary meanings.

The correspondence between philosophers’ and theorists’ views regarding literary text has been addressed by scholars. Chief among these views is the concept of “beauty” which has been theorized differently by numerous philosopher and theorists. Plotinus is among the philosophers who presented thought-provoking views on beauty and provided a bright horizon for philosophers and mystics, especially Mawlānā. In this study, the category of beauty, as the most frequent word in Mawlānā’s poems, is examined based on Plotinus’ school of thought. The study finds that both Plotinus and Mawlānā believed in sensory, intellectual, and intuitive beauty and considered the true source of beauty the infinitude of divinity, and the outward and worldly beauties as a shadow of that absolute beauty.  Plotinus and Mawlānā believed in the existence of two senses, two intellects and three souls; yet there are minor differences in their attitudes towards them which derives from Mawlānā’s incorporation of the intellectual views of Plotinus with principles of Islamic mysticism like revelation, aptitude, love, and greatness, etc., and gives a mystical feature to the category of beauty.

layered stylistics is a sub-branch of stylistics. In layered stylistics, considering the situational context as a macro-layer, researchers break down the text into strata and study the style by examining the text strata and identifying prominent or frequent features. This type of stylistics can be considered as the most complete and accurate methods in stylisitcs. Due to the large number of manuscripts obtained from Hossein Kharazmi’s Divan, the authors use layered stylistic to prove the accuracy of their attribution to this poet. In this research, in an analytical-descriptive approach developed by Mahmoud Fotouhi in his book, the lexical and ideological layers of Kharazmi’s Divan are analyzed. The words and combinations of verses as a unit of style analysis are also examined. It is suggested that the lexical layer is effective in discovering the ideology of the text and explaining the hidden power relations.

In the lexical layer, regarding the semiology of words, vocabularies are divided into structural and process codes, and indicators, vocabulary marking, and repetitive words are introduced as stylistic components. From a stylistic point of view (lexical and ideological), all the copies obtained from the court are consistent and prove their attribution to Hossein Kharazmi. Also, the table of indicators including announcements, titles, histories, material, dates, places, etc., further reinforce this argument. Other elements such as typography, personal stylistics, and period and external music, confirm this issue. The research finds that that among codes, religion has a high frequency. The codes of a process originate from the harmonious connection and function of religion and government on the one hand, and on the other hand, the domination and influence of religion and culture over government and documenting power over religion. These codes are very much in line with Kharazmi's thought. Also, the words related to the institution of love and mysticism have the highest frequency and repetition.

“Romance-Chivalry” as a literary genre, narrates in poetic terms the protagonist’s struggle to achieve the beloved. Ayyuqi’s Varqa and Golshāh, Saam Nameh, Khwaju Kermani’s Homay o Homayun, Nazl Abadi’s Masnavi-e Jamal and Jalal, and Humay Nameh and Badi al-Zaman Nameh (by an anonymous poet) are among the outstanding works in this genre from the fifth to tenth Hijri centuries. The characterization of the protagonist is among the most significant narrative characteristics of this genre. The shared characteristics between the protagonists can classified as a genre. The protagonists in this genre, who have multidimensional and mysterious personalities and are of noble and royal descendants, are portrayed as lovers, moralists, pacifists, theists, and chivalrous which render them popular among people. Also, based on context and narrative traditions, the protagonist can be characterized within an Iranian-Islamic axis where he is presented as prophet, saint, leader, and commoner. In Ayyuqi’s work, the protagonist is a leader. According to Northrop Frye, the protagonist is superior to ordinary people. The protagonist’s personality, to various degrees, follows the characterization tradition Shahname, Eskandar Nameh-e Naghalli, and Hamzeh Nameh. Gradually, The protagonist’s religiosity becomes prominent which accords with the dominant political and religious circumstances of the poet’s society, to the extent that in Badi al-Zaman Nameh we witness dogmatic protagonist.