The Singers of Coming Death: 5 Persian Poets You Are Ashamed Not to Know

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

Even in an era when the world was fragmented (at least, it was impossible to board a plane and download a book on the Internet - too), an educated person knew the literature not only of his country, but also of his neighbors, and even distant countries. And in our time it is all the more worth knowing the most important names. For example, five iconic Persian poets who have influenced both Eastern and Western culture.

Rudaki

This poet of the tenth century is called "The Adam of Persian Poetry" - from her began six centuries of her glory. According to legend, he folded 180 thousand stanzas - but only about a thousand are known for certain. The origin of Rudaki is dark, only one of his autobiographical poems makes it clear that he came from a poor family and suffered a need in his youth. Nevertheless, which is more typical of educated families, by the age of eight the future poet knew the Koran by heart in a foreign language to him (Rudaki himself lived in present-day Tajikistan).

The cult Soviet anthropologist Gerasimov, examining the remains of the poet, discovered a strange thing: in maturity or old age, someone blinded him, pressing a red-hot iron to his eyes. According to Iranian scholars, Rudaki blinded the ruler because he was an Ismaili (and at the same time confiscated his property acquired by poetic fame) - but then, repenting, ordered to send the poet precious gifts as an apology. Rudaki refused gifts and left for the village.

The qasids of Rudaki "Mother of Wine" and "Complaints about Old Age" have survived to our time, but more often they remember his rubai, for example, like this:

Once, in passing, time gave me excellent advice (After all, time, if you think about it, is smarter than the entire learned world) "O Rudaki," it said, "don't bury yourself on someone else's happiness. Your fate is not an enviable one, but many do not have that."

Suppress a blind whim, and you will be noble! Cripples, do not offend the blind, and you will be noble! Not noble who steps on the fallen one’s chest. No! Raise the fallen ones - and you will be noble!

We are all perishable, child, such is the course of the universe. We are like a sparrow, but death, like a hawk, awaits. And sooner or later, any flower will fade, - With its grater the death of all creatures will grind.

Jami

If classical Persian poetry begins with Rudaki, then it ends with Jami. His biography seems to be the opposite of Rudaki: Jami was born near Nishapur (Iran) into a wealthy family, his father was an influential clergyman. He received his education in Herat, one of the centers of Persian culture (now a city in Afghanistan), and Samarkand (Uzbekistan).

Later, Jami, like Rudaki, made a luxurious court career, but became carried away by the Sufi teachings and abandoned everything worldly to join the Sufi order. Being a mystic by nature, Jami was a constant opponent of Avicenna himself, a man, as is often the case with doctors, down to earth. He is also known for his cycle of poems, one of which is dedicated to the legendary love of Leyli and Majnun. In addition to poetry, he also wrote prose. Most of his stanzas are devoted, of course, to reflections on the finitude of the earthly path and the futility of the worldly, for example:

No matter how the echo of loud deeds rumbles, The echo and the glory have a limit.

Omar Khayyam

In Soviet times, many were fond of the rubyi of a mathematician and a doctor from Iranian Nishapur. His biography also corresponded to Soviet ideas about the good: he was born into a family of a craftsman, suffered the collapse of his native civilization - the invasion of the Seljuk Turkmens, during which the flower of Iranian science perished, at the age of sixteen, having become an orphan, he went to seek a better life in Samarkand - and conquered it.

Omar Khayyam was undoubtedly an outstanding mathematician of his time and a good poet, but the truth is that most of his famous rubai is actually … Written by others - in more difficult times, when one could be severely punished for impudent poetry. So everyone who wanted to write a few lines about wine (and not necessarily in the Sufi symbolic meaning) or the frailty of the rulers, presented their poems as the lines of a long-dead scientist: you cannot punish the dead! So Omar Khayyam in poetry is a collective of authors.

To live your life wisely, you need to know a lot, Two important rules to remember for a start: You better starve than just eat anything, And it is better to be alone than with just anyone.

Mehseti Ganjavi

The female version of Khayyam was the legendary Mehseti Ganjavi - not in the sense that a doctor and mathematician, but in the fact that when a woman wanted to write a poem about love and not disgrace herself, she hid her authorship behind the name of the legendary poetess. For a long time, because of this, Ganjavi was generally considered a mythical person, but now it has been found out that she really lived in Ganja (like the famous Nizami Ganjavi), in present-day Azerbaijan, and from an early age showed poetic talent, entering into a competition with adult poets - men (however, while maintaining all the necessary decency).

She probably also traveled to several centers of Persian-speaking culture in adulthood, but spent the rest of her life in her homeland. According to assumptions, just because of the fame of the poetess (and perhaps out of pride), she never married.

My hat is smart and sharp-eyed, He sews satin hats a lot. Out of a hundred, only one is worthy of praise, And I praised each one a hundred times.

Ferdowsi

Many have heard about the epic poem "Shahnama", but not everyone will remember the authorship - and it was written by the great Ferdowsi from Iran. In the Soviet Union, they tried not to consider his childhood too much - after all, Ferdowsi was the son of a landowner. However, his family can hardly be called rich, especially since in Ferdowsi's time war followed war.

Ferdowsi wrote the poem while in the service of Sultan Mahmud, but he refused to pay and was generally offended - it seemed to him that the poem came out with a fig in his pocket against the rulers of foreign origin. Then Ferdowsi wrote another poem in which he directly called the Sultan the son of a slave and set off on the run.

Ferdowsi died in his hometown, but his misadventures did not end there - the clergy forbade him to be buried in the cemetery, and the poet was buried in his own garden. However, to the discontent of the clergy, after that the grave became an object of pilgrimage for a long time. Not a single short poem by Ferdowsi is known.

Eastern poetry is a bottomless treasure. The Amazon, Singer of Sorrows Who Conquered the Shah: Muslim Poetesses Who Made Legends.