International Society for Iranian Studies

Five Mystical Ghazals

Author(s): Ruhollah Khomeini, Ayatollah Khomeini, William Hanaway
Source: Iranian Studies, Vol. 30, No. 3/4, Selections from the Literature of Iran, 1977-1997
(Summer - Autumn, 1997), pp. 273-276
Published by: Taylor & Francis, Ltd. on behalf of International Society for Iranian Studies
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/4311068
Accessed: 12/02/2009 02:56

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 Iranian Studies, volume 30, numbers3-4, Summer/Fall 1997

RuhollahKhomeini

Five MysticalGhazalsby the AyatollahKhomeini

Translator's Note
THE FOLLOWING GHAZALSBY AYATOllAH RUHOlUAHKHOMEINIWERE
WRITTEN between 1365/1986 and 1367/1988. They are taken from his Bada-ye
ceshq: Ashcar-e 'arefana-ye Hazrat-e Emam Khomeini (Wine of Love: Mys-
tical Poems by His Eminence Imam Khomeini).' The collection includes
twenty-threemystical ghazals, a numberof quatrains,and some other material.
When one approacheslate twentieth-centuryPersian ghazals, the intellectual
climate in which we live today compels one to ask a numberof questions. Has
the contemporarypoet masteredand applied the formal requirementsthat govern
the pre-modernstyle? Are the poems confined to the traditionaltopics of wine,
spring, and unrequitedlove in all its aspects or do they explore new areas of
broadersocial relevance? Is the contemporarypoet following or reactingto ear-
lier poets? Finally, what is the relationshipof the poetry to the life of the poet?
RegardingAyatollah Khomeini'smystical ghazals one can answer the first
questions readily:they are writtenin a competent, even confident, classical style
characteristicof the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, with a few direct
borrowingsfrom Hafez, the 14th Century Persian poet whose ghazals are often
emulated by later poets. The late classical style shows some traces of the sabk-e
hendi (Indianor Safavid style) although these traces are not very prominent in
this poetry. The ghazals at hand follow classical models in their diction and
rhetoricof praise,erotic longing, and power, and they display a cast of characters
and variety of settings familiarfrom half a millennium of mystical poetry. The
Ayatollah's mystical ghazals present a paradoxthat illustrates clearly the con-
ventional natureof this rhetoric. Here is the poetry of an individual of grat
spiritualaccomplishmentand authority,an authoritymanifestednot only in his
teaching, preaching,and writing but in his public life itself as it became increas-
ingly political. Human fallibility aside, it is difficult to imagine Ayatollah
Khomeini actually doing all the things that he seems to long to do in his
ghazals (see especially the ghazal from p. 55). The source of this paradoxis
not simply the creation of a "persona"to speak the poems. In additionto the
conventionaldistancingof the pre-modernpoet from the reportingof direct expe-
rience, these ghazals invoke a whole rhetoricaltraditionof casting mystical po-
etry in the diction of the courtly class, the very class of society that the mystical
poet, a fortiori Ayatollah Khomeini, shuns and condemns. The poet adheres
closely to the pre-modernliterarynormsfor mystical poetry, and the strong em-
phasis on form that this implies reinforcesthe claim that strict formal require-

1. Bada-ye ceshq: Ash'ar-e 'arefana-ye Hazrat-e Emam Khomeini (Tehran: Mo&assasa-

ye Tauzim va Nashr-e Asar-e Emam Khomeini, 1368/1989), 25, 29, 31, 59, 71 and
55
274 Khomeini
ments are a liberatingopportunityratherthan a restricting straightjacketfor a
poet. It is possible that one committedto the formal (as well as the inner) as-
pects of Islam,as was the Ayatollah,would fmd classical-style mystical poetry a
convenient vehicle through which to express his mystical feelings, which by
natureare often antinomian.
Ayatollah Khomeini joins Shah Ismacil, Naser al-Din Shah and numerous
other rulersof Persiawho have writtenpoetry. His poems embody multiple ties
to a traditionthat links the presentto the past. His verse affirms the strengthof
the tradition,and it is not surprisingthat it seems to ignore a century of mod-
ernizationand poetic change in Persia.

My life has reachedits end and still my beloved has not come
My tale has ended but an end to this heartachehas not come.

I have in handdeath'scup but have never seen a cup of wine

Years have passed but a favor from my darlinghas not come.

The bird that is my soul no longer fluttersin this cage, and

The one who would breakits bars has not come.

Those enamoredof the beloved'sface areall nameless

Intothe heads of the famous such a desire has not come.

Lovers of her face are, caravan-like,lined up waiting

Whom can I tell that, alas, my soul-nourishingbeloved has not come?

That lover gives life to the dead and takes the souls of lovers
Even to paganssuch a belief in murderinglovers has not come.

(July, 1987)

Good news, 0 meadow bird:springhas come again

The season of drinkingand kissing and hugging has come again.

The termof witheredfadingand sadnesshas ended

The days of dallying with the beloved have come again.

Death and destructionhave gone by

Life with a myriadbrilliantdesigns has come again.

Winter'spallorhas packedits bag and left the meadow'sface

From the sun's warmththe bloom of the rose has come again.
 Five Mystical Ghazals 275
To celebratea beauty'scurly tresses
Wine bearers,wineshops, singers, and dancinghave come again.

Should you pass the schoolhouse door, tell the sheikh that
A tulip-cheekedbeautyto teach him has come again.

Close up the shop of abstinencefor this happy season

For my heart'sear hears that the song of the lute has come again.

(April, 1987)

Your languideye, 0 wine drinker,has enamoredme

The ringlets of your hair,0 beloved, have entangledme.

You cypress in beauty'sgrove, rose in the gardenof elegance

Withouteven a glance you have turnedme againstotherbeauties.

All the wine drinkershave let slip their sobriety

A cup from your life-giving handhas soberedme.

Bewitched,seared,grief-stricken:whatcan I do?
By a hint, your lovely lips have enchantedme.

Love for my heart-stealerhas made me, like Hallaj,

Exiled from my land, and condemnedto the gallows.

Love for you drove me from school and cloister, and

In the wine house has enslaved me.

Wine from your overflowing cup has given me eternallife

Kissing the dust of your doorstephas opened all secrets to me.

(January,1987)

The monthof Ramazanhas passed, and wine and wineshops have come back
Love and delight and wine now take up our sleeping time.

The masterof the wineshop offered wine to breakmy fast

I replied "Yourfast is with petals and fruit."

Make your ablutions with wine, for in the Sufis' faith

Your act will be fruitfulbefore God.
276 Khomeini
What roadcan one take otherthanto the beloved?
Whatcan one say otherthanpraiseof her?
Every word of praisethat you utteris praiseof her.
Awake, friend!How long can you sleep?

Awake, friend,fromthis deep sleep!

See the beloved's face clearly in every mote.
As long as you sleep you are hiddenwithin yourself [and]
The world's sun is hiddenfrom your eye.

(1984)

OSaqi, open the door of the wineshop for me;

Make me heedless of lessons, discussions, asceticism, and hypocrisy.
Lay a strandof your curly hair in my way;
Free me from learning,the mosque, teaching,and prayers.
Singing like David, bring me a jug of wine;
Make me heedless of worryover statusand its ups and downs.
Raise the veil from the beautifulface and hairof my beloved;
Make me a foreignerto the Kacbaand the land of the Hejaz.
Fill my cup with that pure wine;
Turn my heartfrom purityto that predatoryidol.
I have become helpless from grief over the absenceof my beloved'sface;
Invite me to a cup of wine that will relieve my longing.

Tr. William Hanaway