"Ghazal 1"

The Ghazal is very similar, in some ways, to the Persian version of the English or Italian sonnet: it began as “a thematic genre on love and later developed into a fixed form” (“Ghazal”). Like the English, Persian poets writing wrote ghazals originally as love poems in the high chivalric fashion, to “[reflect] two major schools or ideals of love…the Hijazi lover is deferential to his lady in the ghazal…By contrast, the Udhri poets love chastely” (“Ghazal”). In fact, some translators even call a collection of ghazals by the major Persian poet Hafiz “Sonnets of Khajeh Hafez Shirazi” (Clarke, qtd in Holcombe). Just as the sonnet was increasingly codified as its popularity increased, but was allowed to stray from traditional love themes in later eras. “Once established as a fixed form, the ghazal was no longer bound thematically to love” (“Ghazal”). One of the new themes a ghazal could have was the “panegyric”, a poem written in formal and elaborate praise of someone or something. In fact, “An important innovation credited to Ḥāfeẓ was the use of the ghazal instead of the qasida (ode) in panegyrics” (“Hafiz”). Persian court poets frequently wrote panegyric poems about their patrons, and so this ghazal’s thematic connection in praise of the Sultan is a perfect fit, historically. These thematic ideals inspired the central theme of my ghazal – the type of love due to a particular Sultan, despite the knowledge that one poet would likely outlive the reign of the individual. This concept also dovetailed neatly with the transient and existential philosophical considerations of many Sufic poets during this time period.

Structurally, the ghazal is fairly simple, but the symbolism and themes are complex. Ghazals are described by the 1998 Encyclopedia Britannica as being “6 to 15 couplets linked by unity of subject and symbolism rather than by a logical sequence of ideas” (qtd in Holcombe). These couplets are monorhyming (aa, ba, ca, etc.). Finally, by the time the ghazal had a fixed form it included a few characteristic elements, like the “takhallus” or self-naming device, in which the poet names themselves in the poem in order to gain rhetorical distance from the work (Holcombe, “Ghazal”). The real difficulty in writing this ghazal was maintaining the right amount of transcendental, imagist feel of the original Persian, while still being clear for a modern English reader. We can see the difficulty when comparing three translations of the same verse: Hafiz’ (c. 1380) first ghazal (Figure 1).

One other element lost in translation is the “vowel and consonant patterning” which will be reproduced in the English through consonance and assonance. See the phonetic transliteration below for an idea of how this sounds.

The ultimate stylistic elements I needed to include were:

• 6-15 couplets.

• Monorhyming (aa, ba, ca, etc.).

• A takhallus in the last or next-to-last line.

• Assonance and consonance to imitate Persian sound patterning.

• Connected by themes, ideas, and symbols rather than strict logical progression.

• A panegyric court poem in praise of the poet’s patron (the Sultan)

• An attempt at imagist writing using Persian images, with enough explicit simile to make meaning clear to the reader.

O beautiful wine-bearer, bring forth the cup and put it to my lips

Path of love seemed easy at first, what came was many hardships.

With its perfume, the morning breeze unlocks those beautiful locks

The curl of those dark ringlets, many hearts to shreds strips.

In the house of my Beloved, how can I enjoy the feast 5

Since the church bells call the call that for pilgrimage equips.

With wine color your robe, one of the old Magi’s best tips

Trust in this traveler’s tips, who knows of many paths and trips.

The dark midnight, fearful waves, and the tempestuous whirlpool

How can he know of our state, while ports house his unladen ships. 10

I followed my own path of love, and now I am in bad repute

How can a secret remain veiled, if from every tongue it drips?

If His presence you seek, Hafiz, then why yourself eclipse?

Stick to the One you know, let go of imaginary trips.

Notice in Hafiz’ poem the emphasis on images which only tangentially connect to a central theme. The first two lines establish the image of a cup-bearer passing around wine, but quickly shift in the next couplet to describing the “perfume” of the “morning breeze” and the “locks” of a missing lover (2). The connection seems to be that the speaker in the poem is reminiscing about the love that is now having “difficulties” (1), but the poem jumps between these images. The original Persian uses the word “Saba” to describe the morning breeze, which is actually an “east wind traditionally blowing from the women’s quarter” (Holcombe); this allusion is completely lost in translation, but provides more crucial connective tissue to the logic of the poem.

The second half of the poem drifts further from this initial image, using ship and travel metaphors to suggest an inward reflection, including the takhallus in the line “If His presence you seek, Hafiz, then why yourself eclipse?” (13). This loose, stream-of-consciousness connectivity between couplets will be the major challenge of my original ghazal. The allusions are clear in the original Persian to particular locations, weather, and cultural ephemera of the Persian world; I will attempt to situate my poem in this same worldview.