My Interest In Learning Persian Literature
Growing up, after a family dinner my father would sit on the couch and take out Persian poems and read them. My father explained the deeper meanings that the poet was trying to express, concepts like immortality and death. I remember my mother tuning into our local Persian radio station 670 to listen to the daily Hafez poem. Listening to these poems I realized how distinct Persian literature is to English literature and that is what made me curious enough to take this class. My goal is to be able to relate to the highly expressive literary pieces my parents find so meaningful.
First we must define the term literature, this definition is taken from “Classical Persian Literature” by Encyclopaedia Iranica. Literature is “used to refer to the written word skillfully and imaginatively crafted”, because of this definition a plethora of articles are excluded. In class we expanded on the characterization of a poem and said that poetry is the art where a poet can arrange imaginary propositions. A poet has many powers, one of them being able to manipulate a person’s imagination and modify reality through their speech. This shows me how in Persian literature a poem is a tool that can be used as a service to mankind.
In this weeks reading, there was a big emphasis on court poetry and how poetry flourished even though there were so many restrictions. Julie Scott Meisami really expanded on this idea in her book, Medieval Persian Court Poetry, where Meisami speaks about how court patronage still granted for poets to be creative. Kings and nobleman were accompanied by a poet, who would write eloquently about the greatness of their patron. The poet was a secular spiritual leader who would try to persuade and influence the patron in a positive way, to make the right decision. One complication of a poet being restricted to court poetry is that they were only allowed to speak kind words about the King. If they spoke about their patron in a negative manner not only would they be fired no one would heed their words. In order to avoid this many poets wrote with satire or with parallelism. Obviously, the poetry of love is a dominant idea in Persian court poetry. Many poets drew parallels between love and courtliness because of how they are both elegant, refined. Love has the concept of loyalty and unswerving devotion to a partner, meanwhile a poet and is patron both have to be devoted to one another in the same manner. This suggests that any poems on the surface seem to be about love but are actually about courtliness. The main link between courtliness and love is loyalty.
One idea that truly resonated with me was how poet’s words last forever. The reason Kings used poetry to spread their greatness throughout the country was because of this concept, meanwhile visual arts can be destroyed. If a patron was willing to pay such great money, it goes to show us how important it was for them to have a poet who would boost their reputation. This weeks reading helped me understand not only how vital Persian poetry was in the caste system, but also how powerful poetry is in general. That through their eloquent writing a poet has the tools to speak to manipulate a person either for the good or for the bad. Comprehending this capability of poets made me realize why my parents always enjoyed and loved to recite Persian poetry, especially Hafez and his love poems. How love poems have a deeper meaning of loyalty, fidelity, and devotion.
