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An Introduction To Persian Poetry I. Rubaiyyat of Baba Taher "Oryan"
An Introduction To Persian Poetry I. Rubaiyyat of Baba Taher "Oryan"
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Since 1859, when the first Persian Rubaiyyat of Omar Khayyam was translated into
English, by Edward Fitzgerald (1809-1883 A.D.), the world of Poetry has never been so
delighted to see another Rubaiyyat translation into English language, but this time even
sweeter, softer and touchier, i.e. the Rubaiyyat of Baba Taher Oryan, the Persian Sufipoet (990 A.D).
While the great Omar Khayyams Rubaiyyat appear to be somewhat hedonistic,
Epicurian and worldly (Eat, drink and be merry, for tomorrow you will die, and thats
probably because the poet himself was a philosopher, mathematician and an astronomer,
in other words, a scientist, and thus he was more physical and he was looking at the
world from the point of view of a scientist,) the great Baba Taher was a Sufi, a spiritual
lover, and an Oryan (Naked! from all the worldly possessions) and his poems flow
like a spirit, and they are ethereal, like the air itself, or the "morning breeze," if you
please.
Look at this Rubaiyyat of him, for example. While talking to the Beloved, he says:
My eye-socket, O my love, is your own very home!
My forehead, O my life, is your entry gate!
My eyelids, O my darling, could hurt your lovely feet,
Be careful, coming in, honey, before its just too late!
Even though, like Omar Khayyam, Baba Taher also talks about the Love, about the lover,
about wine, about roses and nightingales, etc. as almost all the Persian poets do, yet,
while Khayyam is denying the future, (and he is seeking the now and the here,) Baba
Taher is longing for, and actually looking for It! In other words, he has just one purpose
and only one love, and that is the love that surpasses all other loves, - the Beloved
Himself.
Thats why he says, and I quote:
Some folks love happiness, some prefer the pain!1
Some join the lover, some run in disdain!
I, just prefer the whims of my lover,
Whatever it is - - sunshine or the rain!
Another interesting thing about the Baba is that, while his poems talk about the loftiness
of the spiritual world, yet they are so down to earth that even the humble shepherds of
Persia could understand them, and they have been singing those Rubaiyyat on the hills, in
the valleys and the fields, for almost a thousand years.
(As did the Chinese sailors with the Persian poems of Sadi, some 600 years ago, while
discovering America, almost 70 years ahead of Columbus (1451-1506 A.D.) under the
leadership of a Chinese Muslim Admiral from Central Asia, by the name of Zhang Ha
a.k.a.. Ma Ha (1330 1450 A.D.). See the Discovery Channel February 20, 2005 also
The Persian Letters, Tehran, 2002, p. 20, and The International Herald Tribune, July
21, 2005).
Going back to the Rubaiyyat of Baba Taher, while they are almost a thousand years old,
yet they are still being sung by the pop singers of Persia, today, as if they were composed
in the Tin Pan Alleys of Tehran, just yesterday! (The most interesting version of the
Baba Taher songs that I have heard so far, is the one sung by the well-known Iranian lady
singer --- Seema Beena).
Technicaly speaking, The Rubbaiyat of Baba Taher Oryan are the best examples of a
type of poetry in the Post-Islamic Persia, which are known as Fahlaviyyaat (of Pahlavi
language) see http://www.tebyan.net/literary_criticism/2009/3/5/86926/.html.
Like the Iranian lady poetess Forugh Farrokh-Zaad, who during the 60's used to praise the "pain" and
suffering, until she died in a car accident almost like James Dean, and became well known, for the "live
fast, die young" form of life and poetry.
Since my early childhood, I had heard the poems of Baba Taher, used as moral advices,
by the parents, teachers and preachers. I had also seen his Divan (Persian book of Poetry)
on sale everywhere, in the bookstores, or even on the sidewalks or in any library. I had
even visited his beautiful Blue-domed shrine, on the outskirts of my city of childhood.
But, it took me some 30 years of living abroad, to fully recognize, and to appreciate those
beautiful songs of Baba Taher (sung by Ms. Beena) and to suddenly realize, what a sweet
language, and what an imaginative Sufi style, existed in Baba Tahers Rubaiyyat.
From then on, I started repeating his Rubaiyyat, as a song in my mind, and I would
imagine my Admirable townmate from a far away country, the Philippines. Until one
day, when I was caught up in the traffic jam of Manila, suddenly I got a rhyme of Baba
Tahers Persian poems, but this time, it was in English version, running through my mind.
I found it quite interesting! So, I jotted it down, right there and then, among hundreds of
noisy cars (while Baba Taher used to compose the originals on top of the hills and
mountains with all that serenity and peace).
From that day on, started my new daily routine --- i.e. the translation of Babas poems
in the traffic jam! Then, I knew what a blessing those pestering traffic jams could be!
You could turn them into poetry! While many people curse the traffic, I have learned to
appreciate its good side, too. Someone once said, Its better to light a candle than to
curse the darkness. Or as Dale Carnegie rightfully advised: "When the nature gives you
a lemon, turn it into a lemonade!"
In fact, Baba Taher himself also looks at the bright side of the darkest moments in his
life:
Worry is my worry, and a part of my heart!
Partner in my life, with no plans to depart!
Worrying over you, wont just go away,
Wonderful this worry, from the very start!
Persian Poetry
Persian is probably the richest language of poetry in the world, not only for its unequalled number of great poets like Omar Khayyam, Hafiz, Sa'di, Firdausi, Rumi, Attar,
Nizami, Baba Taher, Jaami, etc. (whom, unfortunately, some foreighners mistook as
Arabs just because they were Muslims and had "Arab" sounding names, as all Muslims
do), but also for its un-matched volumes of Divans, as well. For example, the
Shahnamah of Firdausi (930 1020 A.D.) is three times larger than Homer's Iliad and
Odyssey, combined, and more spectacular in its presentations; while Rumi's "Mathnavi of
Sufism" (1207 1273 A.D.) is still the best seller in the U.S.A. today, some 700 years
after his death; and it is also the "All-time best seller" book of poetry in history!
(Note: Paul Coehlo of Brazil's best selling book "The Alchemist" was inspired by Rumi's
poems. Ref. BBC, Hardtalk, Extra. August 20, 2005)
On the other hand, the Rose Gardens (Golestan and Boostan) of Sheikh Sa'di (1213
1292 A.D.) have never been matched in their beauty and elegance, in any other language;
and Hafiz's (1325 1390 A.D.) Divan is a "Holy Book" to G. W. Goethe and many other
scholars of the world. Meanwhile, the Romanticism and the drama in the poems of
Nizami (1141 1217 A.D.) like the "Shirin and Farhad" are much more spectacular than
say, the "Romeo and Juliet" by Shakespeare (1564 1616 A.D.) and those are considered
as the pioneering works in the fields of Romanticism and poetry.
That's why, Sir Seyyed Ahmad Khan, a towering figure and a reformist scholar and
educator, during the British Colonial Rule in India, very clearly stated, that:
"The Greatest Greek and Latin Poets are no match for the Master Poets of Persia" (see
"The Persian Letters," Sum. 2002, p. 129). (By the way, this great Indian scholar was of
Persian origin, too. So were the great Pakistani poets Iqbal and scholar Abul A'la
Maududi. So, they knew well what they were talking about! Their Persian ancestry).
And Professor Akhtar Mahdi of the Jawaher La'l Nehru University in India, seconded the
motion, by saying: "Persian language possesses the richest literary heritage in the world
today." (Ibid).
It's also very interesting to note that, two of the greatest "Persian Prophets" i.e. Zoroaster
(551 628 B.C.) and Maani ( of the Manicheans --- 300 A.D.) both were great poets, too.
(Maani was a miniaturist painting artist as well who even invented a new alphabet).
Zoroaster composed the Gathas or the religious hymns, while Maani came up with
"Artang" or "Arzhang" and "Shapur-gaan." (See Persian Letters, Summer 2002, pp. 8085).
Persian Rhymes
As far as the art of rhyming is concerned (which is the most distinguished characteristic
of poetry, that separates it from a mere good prose) no other Eastern language, much less
any western tongue, comes even close to that of the Persian poetry, with its more than
500 different rhythmic styles! (While in English and other western languages, there are
no more than a dozen poetic styles, only). Ref. to G. Mateen, Prof. of Social Sciences,
University of Bishkik, Republic of Qirqizistan. Also "The Persian Letters," Tehran, Iran,
1995, p. 152.
Not even Arabic, with its eloquent poetry, has such a rich repertory of Divans, as Persian.
Besides, when it comes to rhyming perfection, still Persian is much ahead of Arabic;
Because in Arabic, while the sound in the ending may be the same in every line, yet the
spelling and the writing is not always so. (That's why, Obeid Zakani, the most famous
Persian Satirist poet, in his "Dictionary of Satires" under the word "Rhymeless/Rimeless"
puts: The "Arabic Poem!") But in the Persian style of poetry, sometimes the last two,
three or even four syllables at the end are exactly matched, not only in their sounds, but
even to the last letter of their spelling. (And that's what a good poem is all about. For
more details, I would like to refer you to the "Formalism" school of poetry, which started
in the early 19th century Russia).
Probably, the closest rival of the Persian poetry in the East is Urdu (Hindi) language in
India, Pakistan, etc. But then, even the Urdu poetry is not "as sweet and as rich" as the
Persian.
In fact, the Father of the Urdu Poetry, Ghaleb of Delhi (1797 1869 A.D.) used to
compose a big part of his own poems in Persian, and once he even said, and I quote:
"Look at Persian, to see all that glamour and beauty,
Forget the Urdu, which is a colorless collection of mine!"
(Note: Ghaleb and his outstanding student Mr. Hali, both great Indian poets, had their
own masterpieces composed in Persian language).
Indeed, Ghaleb or "Mr. Urdu" himself was so fascinated with the Persian poetry that, not
only he composed his own masterpieces in Persian language, but he went so far as to
declare himself "a Persian" (like a true Sufi who becomes one with his own beloved).
Once, this blessed Ghaleb of Delhi announced:
"Ghaleb was indeed,
A lovely nightingale,
Of Persian Rose-Gardens;
I, mistakenly,
Called him, parrakeet,
Of the Indian soil!"
(Note: Ghaleb's ancestors were also migrants from Central Asia - ancient Persia).
Not only Ghaleb and many other earlier Indian poets were so in love with Persia and
anything Persian, especially with its poetry and romance, but even the contemporary
Indian poets are very much fascinated with it, too. For example, the late Dr. Mohammad
Iqbal, the greatest poet-philosopher of the 20th century Indian subcontinent, and later on
the National Poet of Pakistan, whose major part of poems (70%) are composed in
Persian, rather than in his own mother tongue (Urdu or Hindi), once said:
"Although Hindi is as sweet as the sugar,
Yet, the Persian language is even sweeter!"
M. Iqbal, "Persian Letters" p. 203
And one day, when somebody asked Dr. Iqbal, why his poems were mostly in Persian,
rather than in his own native language, he replied: "I don't know, I just receive these
inspirations in Persian!" (see "The Persian Letters" Sum. 2003/p.133) Then, Dr. Iqbal
added: "Actually, my soul is Persian!" (Ibid).
On another occasion, Dr. Iqbal, writing a letter to an Iranian scholar, confessed: "My
highest self expressions, and my greatest satisfaction in life, come from my Persian
poetry." (Ibid).
Another great foreign scholar, but this time, a Roman, the well-known Italian Orientalist,
Juan Bautista Reymondi, says:
"Persian is the sweetest language in the world, and it has a magical power in
poetry!" (Ibid).
Such a confession, coming from a Roman (our rivals for thousands of years) who is so
used to the "La Dolce Vita" and all those great Italian poetry, songs and literature, says a
lot about the Persian language, and especially about its poetry.
No wonder the great Rumi (another Roman? No, not really. He was a Persian Sufi living
in the Eastern part of the ancient Rome today's Turkey) once said (and his poem is also
in Persian, I might add!):
"Oh, how sweet it is,
To hear those praises,
From our own "rivals"
About our beloved!"
("Khosh bo-vad gar vas-fe haa-le Del-baran")
("Gofteh aa-yad dar hadi-se digaraan!")
Another European scholar, once said: "Persian is the French of Asia (in sweetness)" (Ibid)
According to the British researcher and Iranologist Prof. P. W. Avery: British scholars
have been fascinated by the beauty of Persian language and Poetry, the art of Persian
miniaturists (see: Persia:History and Heritage. p.10)
Now, going back again to the Urdu (Hindi) language, as probably the only formidable
rival of the Persian language, in poetry, one should not forget the fact that Urdu language
is actually a "second generation Persian," with almost 60% of its words coming either
directly from Persian, or from the "Arabic, which has filtered through the Persian
Channel." (In fact, the Urdu alphabet is derived from Persian, which is a modified from
of the Arabic letters). The rest of the Urdu (around 30% to 40%) is Sanskrit (with a few
Turkish and Mongul words, like the word "Urdu" itself, which in Turkish means "soldier"
because Urdu started as the language of the soldiers in the Moghul Army, who were
mostly Turkish, Persians, Arabs, etc.). But, then again, if you look at the Sanskrit itself
very closely, you will find out that Sanskrit was the original language of the
Aryans/Caucasians of Iran, some 10,000 years ago, before it was transferred to the Indian
subcontinent.
So, it is not very difficult to see why the Urdu (Hindi) language is so good in poetry, that
it could even rival the "champion of poetry in the world" i.e. the Persian language. You
may even call Urdu a hybrid Persian.
That's why, the good Indian professor Dr. Mahmood Shirani also confirms this view by
saying: "Urdu is the beautiful daughter of the Persian language." (see "The Persian
Letters" Summer 2000 p. 199)
Therefore, like mother, like daughter. In the same manner that the Taj Mahal, one of the
seven wonders of the world was a Persian creation (designed by the Master Architect,
Ustad Eisa Shirazi) and just as the Queen Mumtaz Mahal, the Persian Beauty, who
conquered the Indian Hearts, and now she is resting in peace in the Taj Mahal, the Persian
poetry and art also have influenced the art and culture and even the language of the
Indian subcontinent, immensely, and they will live forever, in the Indian subcontinent
(including Pakistan, Bangladesh and also Afghanistan, the countries of the Central Asia
up to China on the one hand, and Turkey, Armenia up to Albania, Bosnia-Herzegovina,
Macedonia of the former Yugoslavia in the Balkans, on the other) as a rich cultural
heritage.
Knowing this well, the first Prime Minister of India, Jawaher La'l Nehru (whose first
name is also Persian) a well-read author, and an intellectual-statesman, once quoted the
French scholar Mr. Greuze, as saying:
"Taj Mahal is the soul of Persia, in the soil of India" (see "The Persian Letters"
Summer 2002, p. 198.)
Just to realize how much influence the Persian arts, language and particularly its poetry
have had in the Indian subcontinent, (especially on the Urdu and Hindi Poetry) it's
enough to note that within the 1,000 years of the presence of the Persian Poetry in India,
more than 10,000 (ten thousand) Indian (Pakistanis and Bangladeshis, included) poets
and writers, have composed their poems, and they have created great Divans or other
forms of literature in Persian (rather than in Indian) or together with their works in their
own native tongues.
Almost every Indian (Pakistani, Bengali) poet, past or present, could somehow read or
write in Persian, or would recite many Persian poems from memory. Many of them even
have great compositions of their own, in Persian, until today.
In fact, as we have seen before, the greatest poet of the 20th century India, who later on
(after the partition of India and Pakistan in 1947) was declared as the national poet of
Pakistan, and "the Poet of the East" is Dr. Mohammad Iqbal, who has composed more
poems in Persian, than in his own mother tongue (i.e. Urdu / Hindi) because, as he put it:
"Farsi Shakar Ast!" or "Persian is Poetry" (or Persian is sugar) Ref. "Divan of Iqbal"
Tehran, Iran, 1990, p. 12.
And that brings us to another interesting, and very unique phenomenon in the world
literature--- that more Persian poems (in quantity, though may not always be in quality)
have been composed outside Persia, by the "foreigners" than in Persia, by the Persians
themselves!
(Indeed, for several centuries, the official documents in the Ottoman Empire, were
recorded in Persian, many of whom are still on display in various Turkish libraries and
museums).
And today, in Konya (Iconium) Turkey, lies the remains of the greatest Sufi-poet of all
time, the magnificent Master, Rumi (1207 1273) whose "Mathnavi" is still called the
"Holy Qur'an of the Persian Version" among Muslims of the Central Asia, Afghanistan,
Iran, Pakistan, India, the Kashmir, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, China, Turkey, Albania, etc.
and as we mentioned before, it is still on the bestseller category in the United States, and
some other English speaking countries. (Rumi, is the "All time best-selling Poet," in the
world history).
And yet, this Grand Master was not even Turkish (even though the CNN reporter says
so!), but a Persian Jewel from Balkh, a town in Central Asia (now part of Uzbekistan).
Goethe, himself was a great admirer of the Persian Sufi-poet, Hafiz of Shiraz), and many
other countries also have their own national poets, as well
Yet, Iran, "the Land of a Thousand Poets," doesn't have any official national poet, (though
some say it is Firdausi). The reason is that there are so many of them, who are so great,
that they are actually the "Poets of the World" and therefore, they could not be limited to
any single nationality, race, religion, culture, creed or color.
And there are virtually thousand of masterpieces of poetry in Persian language, called
"Divans," (a big number of which are composed by the Persian speaking poets, outside
the boundaries of Iran, like in Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Afghanistan, etc. Besides, there are
also a lot of Divans, created by the non-Persian speaking poets or the "foreigners" in
other countries, like in India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Turkey, Armenia, Albania, BosniaHerzegovina, etc.).
The latest studies show that there are at least 1,000 (a thousand) well known Persian
Divans (Books of Poetry) from around the world, stretching as far as India, Pakistan,
Bangladesh, Afghanistan, Iran, Central Asian Republics, Turkey up to BosniaHerzegovina (the former Yugoslavia) Macedonia and Albania in Eastern Europe. In fact,
Mr. Naim Frasheri (1846-1905) the national poet of Albania, and his brother (ShamsudDin Saami) and many other Albanian poets have composed a big part of their own poems
in a foreign language, i.e. Persian. According to a Bosnian scholar by the name of
Mohammad Khanjich, from the 15th century up to the 18th, there were many well-known
Balkan poets and authors, who composed their poems in Persian, and they wrote their
books in that "foreign" language. (see "The Persian Letters" Summer 2002, p. 6)
Some of the greatest poets/writers in the Balkan region, who have composed their own
poems in Persian, are as follows: 1) Fauzi Mostari, 2) Nasib Tahir Baba, 3) Kazim Baba,
4) Shahedi, 5) Shamsud Din Saami, 6) Na-im Farasheri, 7) Mahmood Pasha, 8) Darvish
Pasha, 9) Ajiz Baba, 10) Darvish Solaiman Mazaki, 11) Haji Baba, 12) Soodi Bosnavi,
13) Talib Ahmad, 14) Rashid Mohammad, 15) Ali Zaki, 16) Ahmad Roshdi, 17) Haji
Mostafa, 18) Ahmad Yosri, 19)Ledoni, 20) Khosro Pasha, 21) Ahmad Sabahi, 22)
Tawakkoli Dada, 23) Ahmad Afandi, 24) Mohammad Pasha, 25) Ahmad Khatam, 27)
Bayazid Aagich, 28) Mohammad Bushinich, 29) Mohammad Ameen, and many other
less known, yet great poets and writers of Balkan, who created some masterpieces in
Persian language.
As far as the Indian Subcontinent is concerned, there are virtually thousands (both
Muslims and Hindus) who have also composed their poems in the Persian language,
rather than in their own native Hindi or Urdu, or together with their own native tongues.
One can easily say that the Indian Subcontinent (which includes Pakistan, Kashmir and
Bangladesh) has been the greatest "home" of Persian poetry, outside Persia. Some of the
best-known Indian (Pakistani, Kashmiri, Bangladeshi) poets who are considered as the
masters of the Persian poetry are as follows: 1) Nizamul Mulk Aasif, 2) Imam Bakh'sh
Sahbayi, 3) Dara Shokooh, 4) Maulana Fasihi, 5) Mohammad Mo'min Khan, 6) Nawab
Mustafa Khan, 7) Sadrud Din Dehlavi, 8) Hamid Lahori, 9) Morshid Boroojerdi, 10)
10
Jamshid Kashani, 11) Sa'ib Tabrizi, 12) Zohoori Naishaboori, 13) Bidel, 14) Ghaleb of
Delhi, 15) Hali, 16) Mas-ud Saad Salman, 17) Amir Khosro Dehlavi, 18) Moghul
Emperor Babor, 19) Hasan Dehlavi, 20) Faizi, 21) Hasrati, 22) Shebli Nomani, 23)
Khosh-goo, 24) Toghrayi, 25) Dr. Mohammad Iqbal, 26) Qazi Nazarul Islam, 27)
Mohammad Baqer Tabatabai, 28) Mo-in Nezami, 29) Ovais Kashmiri, 30) Mahdi
Kashmiri, 31) Saalem Kashmiri, 32) Ghani Khashmiri, 33) Sah'ba Dehlavi, 34) Shiri
Lahori, 35) Mohib Belgrami, 36) Mira Maani, 37) Weqaari, 38) Handal, 39) Yaadegar
Halati, 40) Obeidi Sahrevardi, 41) Abdul Razzaq Isfahani and virtually hundreds of other
lesser known, yet equally great masters of the Persian poetry, in the Indian subcontinent.
11
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1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Anfu Goh
Lee Yuan Lee-an
Shee Shu Win
Lee She-wan, and his sister
Miss Lee See Yun (885 930 A.D.) who is the most popular amongst this
group. (See Prof. Jang Huevy, the well known Chinese Iranologist. "Sokhan
Eshq" Magazine, Tehran, Iran, Summer 2007, p. 175)
The father of the last two brother and sister poets of "China" was an Iranian
pharmacist/herbalist, by the name of "Lee Su Sha."
No wonder the International Herald Tribune's Souren Melikian says: "China's Iranian
connection is only beginning to unravel!" see IHT, p. 11, Art Section, April 9-10, 2005.
26. Abu Nuwas or "Nawaz" (Hasan Bin Hani) the greatest poet of love and romance
in Arabic language (756-814 A.D.) He was a half Persian from the city of Ahwaz,
Iran. (Note: Nuwas is probably the Arabic pronunciation of "Nawaz" which in
Persian means "singing," "chanting," etc.) The Iranians so cleverly mastered
Arabic, that soon they were adding luster to the Arabic poetry of Abbasid
Baghdad (Avery P.W. Persia: History and Heritage p.66).
27. Ali Zaryab (D. 852 A.D.), the greatest musician of Andalusia in Spain, during the
Dark Ages of Europe. He started what we know today as the "Latin music" from
the Iberian Peninsula (Spain and Portugal) up to Latin America- Brazil, Cuba,
Mexico, etc., etc. Although Ali Zaryab is known more for his music, fashion
designing and etiquette of fine dining and fine arts in Europe, during the Age of
Ignorance, yet his poetry is also one of his greatest contributions to humanity and
arts. Most of his poetry works were in Arabic (the lingua franca of the time)
therefore, many people mistook him as an "Arab" and even changed his name to
"Ali Zarib" to sound more Arabic (see "The History Channel's" Amani Zain
report, August 14, 2009). But the truth is that Ali Zaryab and his master teacher
Abu Ishaq Museli were both Persian artists (musician-poets). In fact, anyone who
knows a little Persian, will also know that his surname "Zar-yab" means "Goldminer" or "Gold-smith." (How many more times we have to correct this kind of
"errors" in history? Even Omar Khayyam was called an "Arab" poet, and Rumi
as a Turkish poet, (CNN, 2007) while the entire Divans of these two gentlemen is
in Persian, for the whole world to see! And none of them has a single line of
poetry in Turkish or Arabic; although Rumi has a few lines in Arabic, interwoven
with Persian, too. The same goes for the so-called "Arabian horse" which is
actually Persian in origin, as well as the 1,001 Persian Stories called "Arabian
Nights" while its main character "Shaharazad" is Persian, the list goes on and on.
Sometimes you wonder how does a desert breed horses? And how could those
magic palaces exist within the Bedouin tents?).
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The characteristics of a good poetry are two very important and fundamental elements:
1. What is being said
2. How is it being said
In other words, poetry, just like the prose (or even more than the prose) consists of two
very essential parts, i.e.:
1) The subject matter of the composition, and 2) How elegantly and imaginatively it
has been expressed, or actually, vice versa, because how well it is being said, in
poetry, is even more important than what is being said. (Take note that in every
country or culture, you can find some beautiful pieces of poetry or words of wisdom.
What makes some poetry more superior to the others is not much about what they say,
but rather more about "How well they say" it).
In that regard, Persian language, with 537 different styles in its repertory, has an "inborn" advantage over other languages and an ability, more than any other language on
earth, to express itself in many forms of excellent poetry, compared, say, with English,
which is limited to less than a dozen styles, only.
Sometimes when I read the English or other European poems (Spanish, French, Russian,
Japanese, etc.) I really wonder whether to categorize them as a poem or a prose or none
of them at all. (In other words, "neither rhyme, nor reason").
Dont' tell me that there could be a poem without any proper rhyme! Even the so-called
free verse has a certain rhyme, otherwise it's just a prose. Those who tell us that without
a proper rhythmic ending, they could still have a "poem," might as well claim that "They
have seen a fish in the Sahara that was flying!" Remember that the magic of poetry lies
in its rhyme, thus no rhyme, no poetry!
I think these guys just don't get it! Or they don't have the talent of making good poems,
and they use the argument to justify their own inabilities! Otherwise, if you were a true
poet then the rhymes would come naturally, and easily.
(Just like the Great Grand Master, the Sheikh Sa'di of Shiraz, who was described by his
biographer and admirer, Mr. Mohammad Ali Forooghi, the late Iranian Scholar, as such:
"Sa'di was truly a Master, both of the Poetry and the Prose! His poems flow so easily and
so naturally, that they sound like a Prose! And his prose is so sweet and so melodious,
that they sound like a poem!). See "Persian Letters" Sum. 2003, p. 28.
Once, in my early youth, I used the same argument with an Iranian poet. He said: "Well,
to rhyme or not to rhyme, that's the question! And that is exactly the difference between
a poet and a non-poet!" Here, a Persian poem explains everything:
"If you heard a song,
That you didn't understand,
14
15
Qahestani, 73) Amir Hosaini Harawi, 74) Sohrab Sepehri, 75) Tawalloli, 76) Ahmad
Shamloo, 77) Maj'd Khawfi, 78) Aref Qazwini, 79) Kompani, 80) Nasim Shemal, 81)
Aahi Shirazi, 82) Deh-Khoda, 83) Ghani Zadah, 84) Isma-il Isfahani, 85) Mas-oud Sa'ad
Salman, and a host of other lesser known, yet great poets, each one more than qualified to
be a national poet. Probably, the only way to describe them appropriately is to call them
"the poets of the world." (In the city of Tabriz, Iran, there is a Persian Poets' Cemetery,
with over 400 poets, buried there. Once, a poet from the Republic of Tajikistan, who had
visited the "Shrine of Poets in Tabriz," said: "In Tabriz City, even the trees sing songs!")
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We were more interested in the poetic form of the Rubaiyyat rather than in their literal
translation, but we have also done our best not to deviate from the spirit of the poems and
the noble intentions of the Great Baba Taher.
We hope and pray that we have succeeded in this endeavor. Now, it's up to our well
qualified readers and the critiques (who will always be "critiquing" anyway!) to judge for
themselves, whether we have done a good job or not.
It is indeed a great honor to present, very humbly, our little services, to one of those great
masters of the world poetry, who expressed his thoughts in the Persian language, with this
new translation of the Rubaiyyat of Baba Taher. His themes and his language are
universal, and they transcend any nationality, culture or creed.
Also it is very interesting to note that while Baba Taher was from the ancient Persian
capital of Ecbatana (Hagmataneh) or present-day Hamadan, and his poems are a mixture
of Kurdish and Hamadani dialects, yet throughout the Persian speaking world (Iran,
Afghanistan, the Central Asian Republics, parts of China and even Kashmir, which is
called "The Little Iran") every ethnic group sings his poems in their own peculiar accents
Mazandarani, Gilaki, Lori, Tehrani, Dari, etc. Truly he was something to everyone!
With this new translation into English and Filipino, we hope that his great wisdom,
spirituality and sweet style of poetry, will be appreciated by all those who love poetry and
the art of human expressions, in any language.
References:
1. "Persian Letters" (Nameh Parsi) Tehran, Iran. Series from 2000 2008
2. Dr. Mohammad Iqbal, "The Divan" Tehran, Iran. 1990
3. The International Herald Tribune Series of Issues, 2003 2008
4. BBC TV and Radio Series of Reports/Documentaries (from 2000 upward)
5. CNN World Report 2000 up to present
6. Aljazeera Documentaries
7. History Channel
8. Discovery Channel, etc.
9. "Danesh" Persian Quarterly, Pakistan/ 2003
10. "Parsi Names" by Maneka Gandhi and Prof. Ozair Hosain, India, 1994
11. "Rubaiyyat of Baba Taher," by Elizabeth Cortis-Breton, Farrhang Sara Book Co.,
Tehran, 1995.
12. "Baba Taher" by Edward Heron-Allen (Venice, 1901 A.D.) Reprinted by Padideh
Publications, Tehran, Iran 2002.
13. P. W. Avery of Kings College / Cambridge / U.K. Persia: History and Heritage
Henry Melland, London, 1978.
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