فصلنامه پژوهش زبان و ادبیات فارسی
سال ششم شماره 2 (پیاپی 11، پاییز و زمستان 1387)

The poetic work entitled as the couplet poetry of “Seir-ol-Ebad Elal-Ma’ad” is an interesting work in the field of Islamic mysticism and a story on spirit’s journey to a supernatural world. Although this poetic work is affected by Prophet Mohammad’s Ascent and the previous ascents, it manifests the most pure spiritual and mental maturity of the poet in an elegant and lofty manner. Seir-ol-Ebad Elal-Ma’ad is a journey within self, and the mysterious human spirit; enjoying a high number of symbolic images originated in the general and great treasury of mankind’s knowledge and passion since the creation of universe. Seir-ol-Ebad Elal-Ma’ad is the story of spirit’s journey, the ascent, resurrection and birth in the creation, all in a comprehensive spiritual atmosphere. This article presents an analysis of this work from mystical, mythical and psychological points of view in the following four sections:1.Desire to return to the beginning (analysis through mythology and mysticism)2.Individuality and the evolution of mental characteristic (analysis of Seir-ol-Ebad within the domain of psychology)3.The rite of heroic path or the opening ceremony (analysis of the work in the domain of rites and mythological ceremonies) 4.Resurrection and progression cycle (analysis of the last part of Sanayi’s journey in giving meaning to the materialistic life

The Iranian myths are explained in the form of creation of Twelve Thousand Zoroastrian or Nine Thousand Zarwani. The main characteristic of these myths is the dualism and limitation of the universe. The Pishdadi Dynasty and Kiyani Dynasty cover a part of this Creation Period. The foundation of thought and belief in the existence of demons and fairies on the one hand and the appearance of tyrannical men such as Zahak and Afrasiyab on the other hand takes place in these two fictional periods. The magnificence and glory of Iran and the significance of kingdom also count as the main characteristics of this mythical period. The promotion of mankind (kings, heroes) and taking the place of gods are the other considerable features observed in these myths. Furthermore, one should not forget that the Iranian myths were affected by the myths and cultures and civilizations of neighboring regions (Mesopotamia, Greece, regional area of Indus).

one of the important elements related to imagery in the close analysis of any poet’s stylistic levels, is color; which associates his thoughts and passions on one hand, and subject and theme of the poetic work on the other hand. Therefore the analysis and survey of the manner in which color is utilized within stylistic poets’ works- who do not copy others’ works- is a path for recognizing their inner world; while it is also a critical approach on their artistic and literary potentialities in using a variety of imagery elements. For this purpose, the present article surveys the process used for utilizing color in Ferdowsi’s imagery and the poet’s concern about proportion and the consistency of colors along with the narrative core within Shah-Nameh stories. It is revealed that color lacks any originality in Ferdowsi’s imagery; yet there is a meaningful relation between the function of color with the content, events and the incidents taking place through the story. That is why the color of the heroes’ horses coordinates in many instances with the story’s core narrative and the etymology of their owner; while the bradawl of each hero appears with a specific and certain color and role. What is more, the color of the tent of each individual famous figure differs with the other ones. These issues have the potential for a symbolic paraphrase in some cases and show Ferdowsi’s ability in using all and every literary potentiality. In this essay through showing the used frequency of each color in Shah-Nameh, the accurate comparison of colors has become possible; showing that 53.69% of the atmosphere of the used colors in Shah-Nameh, belongs to cold and dark colors due to war, and epical atmosphere and the black colors, as a group, possesses 33.29% as the most used color.

“Positive theology and negative theology” are common mystical expressions literature, interpretation. These two expressions are categorized as “collocations” in the semiotics of mystical expressions. After Ibn-Arabi, these two terms became more common. Once he offered his theory, belief in “Positive theology and negative theology” found a new path; and later on several mystics and scholars were influenced by his theory and thought. This essay intends to survey the historical record of the function of these two expressions in the Persian poetry, literature and other texts. Stating the value and significance of these two expressions as a controversial topic in different eras, survey of the conceptual transformation and functional domain of these two words are the other goals pursued through this article.

Archetypal criticism is one of the modern theories in literary criticism and based on psychological criticism; mainly founded on the theories of the famous Swedish psychologist; Carl Gustav Yung. This type of criticism surveys and studies the archetypes used in a work, showing how the poet or writer’s mind has absorbed these archetypes, which are actually the outcome of mankind’s repetitive experiences and left behind in the collective unconsciousness of humankind, finally showing them symbolically.The purpose of this essay is to survey one of Rumi’s sonnets through archetypal criticism. The writer makes an attempt to explain this criticism in brief first, then show how Rumi’s conscious spirit has succeeded to ponder and penetrate deeply into the truths of universe and understand the imagery instances; using them unconsciously in his own sonnets. The archetypal content dominant in the atmosphere of this sonnet, starting with:Morde Bodam Zende shodam, Gerye Bodam, Khande shodamDolat e Eshgh Amad o man, dolat e Payande shodamis the archetype of death and rebirth. When the theory of death and rebirth is discussed, there are allusions to Bible and the Holy Quran. According to Yung, rebirth is one of the most fundamental beliefs derived from coordination between mankind and the nature’s cycle. In this sonnet, in addition to the theory of rebirth, the archetypes of wise old, hero, and other archetypal instances such as yearning and divine journey are also seen.

Unlike many of Persian poets, especially the most well-known poets, the recognition of thought and world view of Hafez relies on his poetry to a large extent; mainly consisting of sonnets.An Interpretation of some of Hafez’ couplets has been done since a long time ago. During recent years, this issue has however led to a large number of writings. Such articles focus on the interpretative explanation or the paraphrase of the whole couplet, or in other cases opinions have been offered about some of the words; making some points elaborately clear. Following this, the appropriateness and the origin of the recorded form of some of these verses and their combinations are questioned; tending furthermore towards explanation paraphrase. One of the most ‘controversial’ verses which has enjoyed the most interpretations and comments so far is; Aboos e Zohd be Vajhe Khomar Nanshinad Morid e Khergheye Dordikeshan e KhoshkhoyamThe major part of these interpretations and explanations on this couplet were written after Khanlari published his version of Hafez’ poetry book (known as Divan). Unlike all the other existing copies of Hafez’ Poetry book, he has preferred the verb “sit” instead of “refused to sit”; which has led to serious discussions within the explanation of this couplet. This article surveys, analyzes and compares these opinions and views through referring to the views and insights of the writers and experts who have interpreted this couplet line. Regarding the survey and analysis of these opinions, it can be concluded that in this couplet Hafez has compared the “sulkiness” drawn from piousness (which is apparent in the face of the pious person), with the tenseness and sulkiness drawn from drunkenness and the languor of the beloved one (Dordkeshan); while he prefers the later one and for emphasizing it, he calls himself the disciple of the friendly mannered beloved (khergheye- Dordikeshan- khoshkho).

The symbols have the potential to change through time and history and revolve in concept and meaning. Symbolic tendency in the domain of contemporary literature is a result of the tyrannical situation and the dictator governments, added to the cautiousness and fear of media censorship, and stylistic transformations. All this can be furthermore combined with the delicate attempts taken for artistic enrichment; known as ‘ambiguity’, while it also intends to make the reader participate in the reading process and literary creativity in order to gain further enjoyment.Poets who are capable of independent thinking and are innovatively creative, protect the symbols; and save them from daily obscenity and even gradual death and decadence. Nima and the followers of his literary theory emphasized two words; that is “balance” and “naturalness” in using the symbols. They made an effort to utilize the repetitive, old and obsolete symbols within new concepts in order to enrich poems; in addition to enriching their own stylistic theory. Some of the symbols enjoy a particular entity and internal value, due to their history or flexibility in conveying multiple meanings and also being more influential in different artistic levels; therefore we can regard them as super-symbols. For gaining a proper semantic concept of a literary work demands an appropriate interpretation and understanding of such super-symbols. “Water”, “wind”, “night”, “wall”, “mirror” etc are some of such symbols; frequently used in contemporary poetry. The transformation of these super-symbols is the main question of the present article.

In the symbolic paraphrase of Nima Youshij’s poetries, we already face this pre-assumption; that some of these poems have a social-political theme which the poet either could not or has chose not to express directly and clearly, therefore in order to convey these themes, he has resorted to poetic symbols. The author of this essay tries to approach the poet’s actual and intended concept and meaning as he created them through using the paraphrase methods of Schlamaikher (Shumaker) and his other fellow thinkers. For this purpose, by a constant and close study of the poet’s life, thoughts, works and the social-political situation related to Nima’s time, in addition to using the text as a guide, the researcher has reached this goal to a fair extent.In the present essay, two poems-“The Moth Close to the Beach” and “Siolishes” in which both enjoy a close atmosphere- and both mention someone tapping on the window of the poet’s room, are paraphrased. Also due to the manner in which the poet speaks in both cases, it is concluded that the symbols in “The Moth Close to the Beach” and “Siolishe”, both point to a similar situation or even the same case; where a person with communistic views hopes to creep in Nima’s house and so taps on the window of his house.This approach towards Nima’s symbolic works does not in any respect deny the reader-response approach towards literary texts, as the author of this essay finds it quite possible that even symbolic poems bear social and political motifs and therefore resemble various paraphrases within different approaches.

Narratology is a modern and structural approach in the study of fictional literature which seeks to discover the grammar of the story, language of narration, dominant system of different narrations and their structure. Vladimir Propp, the formalistic Russian anthropologist, became the pioneer of modern narratology when he studied the Russian fairytales in 1928 through morphology. He drew out the dominant pattern in these stories and revealed how the fairytales, despite their variety and seeming high number, enjoy cohesion and unity regarding the types of heroes, their actions and roles; in other words a number of functions are limited, their sequences are similar and they all possess one specific structure. This article has surveyed and analyzed ten stories in the fables of Kalileh Va Damneh’s - as instances- in order to evaluate the function and the potential of Propp’s pattern in morphological analysis of these stories. The results coordinate with Propp’s achievements; as they reveal that in the studied fables taken from Kalileh Va Damneh, despite the appearing variety and high number of heroes, their roles and actions, a number of heroes and their functions are limited and they possess a similar sequence. These fables all have one structure and although Propp’s pattern has some deficiencies, it still has the potential for a morphological analysis.

Hadiss are considered as major principles in the recognition of Islam and the acquisition of epistemology. The present essay discusses the literary and artistic methods, and techniques used in Hadiss. Utilizing an artistic and literary language is among the special characteristics in the forming the structure of Hadiss. In the artistic and literary manifestations of Hadiss numerous dimensions are mentioned; among which music, image and structure are known as the tools and elements used. The existence of such elements in Hadiss has led to the formation of both artistic and literary aspects within these words; mainly Prophet Mohammad’s words of advice; while one can point to the harmony and coordination, pun, cohesion, coherence, arithmetic conjunction, and phonetic system in Hadiss; as these factors form the overall structure and music of these words. Another major element in the formation of the artistic and literary form of Hadiss, is using image for enriching the mentioned concepts in their text. The present paper points to the above tools and elements in theoretical literature, following it a number of Hadiss are surveyed as examples.

Death is the greatest incident in any person’s life and has constantly occupies man’s mind. In the written literary texts of Iran- both religious and non-religious; before and after Islam- most of the investigations and explorations and the concern of writers, poets and scholars was on finding a way for escaping death or overcoming the terror derived from it. The first literary prose and poetic works seriously concerned about this topic are from the mid third century after Islam; where we can notice and see such historical concern. That is of course if we chose to dismiss the ancient Iranian literature and the initial myths and epics belonging to that period. With a brief overlook, the attempts of the Iranian Post-Islam poets and writers for overcoming death or reducing its concern and obsessions can be limited to three major ideas; first, those who have admired it and welcomed it warmly. Rumi is the greatest representative of this group. Second, those who have regarded death with hatred and for overcoming it have sought to overcome it by ‘having fun in the moment’ (Carpe Diem) intending to reduce the terror and fright of death. Khayam is the pioneer and complete representative of this group. The third group is composed of those who have had a realistic attitude towards death; they have viewed life and death as two sides of a coin, tried to utilize the blessings of this world and pay service to mankind; while at the same time have provided their required supply for this life and afterlife. These have neither sacrificed life for death nor have sacrificed death for life. Sa’adi is the greatest representative of this group.

“Kalidar” is one of the most prominent contemporary novels which has failed to be analyzed and surveyed through a variety of aspects by critics. One of these dimensions is the study of the fields and aspects associated with the elements leading to nativity and the Iranian-Islamic identity; as discovering its supporting fields would lead to the recognition of the mental and psychological background of the story characters. In this case, nativity means elements dealing with the national and religious identity which makes a distinction among the Iranian and Islamic culture with the other cultures and subcultures. The writer of this essay has surveyed “Kalidar”, a novel by Mahmoud Dolat-Abadi, through this approach and attitude; categorizing and then analyzing the most significant native elements in two sections; elements related to the Iranian culture (national) and the Islamic culture. In the national elements there is emphasize on the rituals, rites and beliefs, in common beliefs the rites and rituals are of notice, while historical rituals and myths and stories are also alluded too. The most important religious and native elements, regarding the issue of rituals and traditions in this work, is inspired by the great event of Ashura in the fate of Gol-Mohammad; where the writer shows the similarity between those two in fifteen lines. This essay intends to reveal to what extent this novel has been influenced by native elements (national and religious) through a close survey.