Rudaki is called “the father of Persian poetry” and is credited with making enormous contributions to modern Persian language.
The Shahnameh or “The Epic of Kings” is one of the definite classics of the world and poem about the heroes of Ancient Persia.
(PERSIAN POETRY)
In the period from the tenth to the fourteenth century most of Iran’s great poets flourished which is known as golden age for Persian Poetry. Persian poetry is fresh, original, melodious and full of fire.
Perisan Poetry Styles
Rubai
Rubai is a poetry style which is used to describe a Persian quatrain. The plural form of the word, rubaiyat is used to describe a collection of such quatrains. In classical Persian poetry, the ruba’i is written as a four-line (or two-couplet) poem, with a rhyme-scheme AABA or AAAA.
Masnavi
Masnavi or Mathnawi is normally poetry written in rhyming couplets. It is believed it emerged from an Iranian form around the 4th – 10th century.
Ghazal
The Persian Ghazal is a kind of verse in which the first two lines rhyme, and then this rhyme repeats itself only in the second line of each succeeding couplet. Each line of the poem must be of the same length, though meter is not imposed in English.
Notable Persian Poets
Rudaki
Abu Abdollah Jafar ibn Mohammad Rudaki known as Rudaki was a Persian poet in the Samanid court which ruled much of Khorasan (northeastern Persia. Rudaki is called the father of Persian poetry and is credited with making enormous contributions to modern Persian language. He was also an accomplished singer and musician!
Of the 1,300,000 verses attributed to him, only 52 qasidas, ghazals, and rubais survived. Much of Rudaki’s poetry is devoted to moral exhortation and is loaded with references to Zoroastrian culture and ancient Iranian themes.
Some examples of Rudaki Poems:
When you find me dead, my lips apart,
A shell empty of life, worn out by want,
Sit by my bedside and say, with charm:
“It is I who killed you, I regret it now.”
Another one:
You killed many, broke the enemy’s courage.
You gave so much, there isn’t one beggar left.
Many have lamb and sweets on their table,
Others, not enough bread to ease their hunger.
Take action. Don’t sit idle for too long,
Even though your sacks of gold reach the moon.
This one is regarding destiny:
All is as it is supposed to be:
There is happiness now, be happy.
Why are you sad? Why do you worry?
Destiny does what it must for you.
The viziers’ ways won’t work for you,
Fate will decide what is best for you.
Life’s wheel won’t create another like you.
Your mother won’t bear another like you.
God will never close a door on you,
Before opening a hundred better doors.
Rudaki
Ferdowsi
Hakim Abul Qasem Ferdowsi Tusi known as Ferdowsi was a great Persian poet. Ferdowsi wrote Shahnameh in 35 years period.
The Shahnameh or The Epic of Kings is one of the definite classics of the world and poem about the heroes of Ancient Persia.
Ferdowsi, with a single great book, preserved the Persian language, history and mythology from being erased. That’s why Ferdowsi is seen as a national Iranian hero who re-ignited pride in Iranian culture and literature. Shahnameh is the world’s longest epic poem written by a single poet. It consists of the mythical and some historical past of 50 Persian Kings from the creation of the world until the Arab invasion of Iran in the 7th century.
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The Shahnameh contains 62 stories, told in 990 chapters with 50,000 rhyming couplets. It is divided into three parts—the mythical, heroic, and historical ages.
An example of Ferdowsi’s poems:
I’ve reached the end of this great history
And all the land will fill with talk of me
I shall not die, these seeds I’ve sown will save
My name and reputation from the grave
And men of sense and wisdom will proclaim
When I have gone, my praises and my fame.
Ferdowsi
Rumi
Rumi (Molana, Molavi) also known as Jalal ad-Din Muhammad Balkhi was a 13th century Persian poet and was one of the most passionate and profound poets in history. He is regarded as one of the greatest spiritual masters and poetical intellects.
Masnavi by Rumi is widely recognized as the greatest Sufi poem ever written, and has been called “the Quran in Persian”.
The Masnavi is a collection of over 25,000 verses filled with tales, moral discourses and analogies which explore the relationship between the self and God.
“Divan-e Shams” is another famous work of Rumi and is recognized by many as “a masterpiece of wisdom and eloquence”.
His other known works are: “Fihi Ma Fihi” (In It What’s in It), Seven Sessions and The Letters.
His poems have been widely translated into many of the world’s languages and transposed into various formats.
Rumi has been described as the “most popular poet” and the “best selling poet” –in the United States.
Example of Rumi’s Poems:
You think you are alive
because you breathe air?
Shame on you,
that you are alive in such a limited way.
Don’t be without Love,
so you won’t feel dead.
Die in Love
and stay alive forever.
Rumi
Hafez
Hafez also known as Khajeh Shams-ud-Din Muḥammad Ḥafeẓ-e Shirazi was a 13th century Persian poet.
He is one of the most celebrated of the Persian poets, and his influence can be felt to this day. Hafez has inspired generations of new poets both in Iran and in the wider world, including Goethe, who wrote his poetry collection the West-östlicher Diwan as a tribute to Hafez and his style.
His influence in the lives of Persian speakers can be found in “Hafez readings” and the frequent use of his poems in Persian traditional music, visual art, and Persian calligraphy.
Example of Hafez’ Poems:
The only wise course for me now
Is to depart bag and baggage for the tavern
And sit there happily.
I must grasp the wine-cup
And avoid the society of the hypocrites;
I must wash my heart clean
Of all contact with worldlings.
Let me have no friends or companions
But a wine-flask and a book,
That I may avoid all association
With the deceitful denizens of the world.
If I lift my skirt above the dust of the world
I shall tower above all in total independence,
Like a lofty cypress.
When I see the face of the cup-bearer
And the glowing wine
I feel ashamed that I once boasted of piety
And the soiled habit of a monk.
My narrow frame is not equal to the weight
Of the burden of grief at his absence;
My poor heart cannot support such a load.
Take me for a reveller in the wine-house
Or an ascetic of the city —
I am only the wares you see, or worse.
I am the servant of the Asaf of the age;
Do not vex my heart,
For if I breathe a word of complaint
He will call down the vengeance of heaven.
The dust of maltreatment
Lies upon my heart;
God forbid that it should contaminate
This mirror brimming with love
Hafez
Saadi
Saadi Shirazi also known as Abu-Muhammad Muslih al-Din bin Abdallah Shirazi was one of the great Persian poets of 13th century.
He is one of the three greatest ghazal-writers of Persian poetry.
His best known works are the Bustan (The Orchard) and the Golestan (The Rose Garden).
The Boustan is entirely in verse and consists of stories illustrating the standard virtues such as justice, liberality, modesty and contentment.
An example of Saadi’s poem:
To the ignorant man nothing is better than silence,
And were he aware of this he would no longer be ignorant.
When you are not possessed of perfection or excellence,
It is better that you keep your tongue within your mouth.
The tongue bringeth disgrace upon men.
The nut without a kernel is light in weight.
The beast will not learn of thee how to speak;
Learn thou of the beast how to be silent.
Whoever reflecteth not before he answereth,
Will probably utter inappropriate words.
Either adorn thy speech with the intelligence of a man,
Or sit in silence like a dumb animal.
Saadi
Parvin Etesami
Parvin Etesami was a Persian poet in 20th century in Iran.
She is one of Iran’s most prominent female poets who began writing poetry from a young age; her first published works appeared in the Iranian magazine Bahar in the early 1920s, when she was just a teenager.
Parvin’s poems have social, humanity, learning and mystic concepts. Her anthology is full of divine and spiritual truth, lofty concepts, advice to reason, and disdain for arrogance and unfairness, lamentation about poverty, discrimination and class distinction, and sympathy for the poor and the oppressed.
Example of Parvin’s Poem:
From every street and roof rose joyous shouts;
The king that day was passing through the town
An orphan boy amidst this speaks his doubts,
What is that sparkle that’s atop his crown?
Someone replied: that’s not for us to know,
But it’s a priceless thing, that’s clear!
A crone approached, her twisted back bent low,
She said: that’s your heart’s blood and my eye’s tear!
We were deceived by shepherd’s staff and robe
He is a wolf; for many years he’s known the flock.
The saint who craves control is but a rogue
A beggar is the king who robs his flock.
Upon the orphan’s tears keep fixed your gaze.
‘Til you see from where comes the jewel’s glow.
How can straight talk help those of crooked ways?
And frank words will to most folk deal a blow.
Parvin Etesami
Khayyam
Omar Khayyam was a Persian mathematician, astronomer, and poet. In the year 1072 AD, Omar Khayyam documented the most accurate year length ever calculated – a figure still accurate enough for most purposes in the modern world.
Khayyam is mostly known for his great works as a poet. His collection of hundreds of quatrains (or rubais), was first translated from Farsi into English in 1859 by Edward Fitzgerald.
Example of Khayyam’s poems:
Wake! For the Sun, who scattered into flight
The Stars before him from the Field of Night,
Drives Night along with them from Heav’n and strikes
The Sultán’s Turret with a Shaft of Light
Before the phantom of false morning died,
Methought a Voice within the Tavern cried,
“When all the Temple is prepared within,
Why nods the drowsy Worshiper outside?”
And, as the co*ck crew, those who stood before
The Tavern shouted–“Open, then, the Door!
You know how little while we have to stay,
And, once departed, may return no more.”
Khayyam
Sohrab Sepheri
Sohrab Sepehri was an Iranian poet and a painter. He is one of Iran’s most influential poets of recent times.
Sohrab Sepheri revolutionised Iranian poetry with what became termed as ‘New Poetry’ – a form of modernist writing which ignored the metre, rhyme and structure of classical verse in favour of new, unconstrained forms.
His poetry has been translated into many languages including English, French, Spanish, German, Italian, Swedish, Arabic, Turkish and Russian.
Some example of Sepehri’s most famous poems:
Shall build a boat
I shall cast it in the water
I shall sail away from this strange earth
Where no one awaken the heroes in the wood of love
A boat empty of net
And longing heart for pearls
I shall continue sailing
Neither I shall loose my heart for the blues
Nor for t he mermaids who emerge from the water
To spread their charm from their locks
On the shining solitude of fishermen
I shall continue sailing
I shall continue singing
“One should sail away, sail away.”
The man in that town had no myth
The woman in that town was not as brimful as a cluster of grapes
No hall mirror repeated joys
Not even puddles reflected a torch
One should sail away, sail away
Night has sung its song
Now it is the turn of windows
I shall continue sailing
I shall continue singing
Beyond the seas there is a town
In which windows open to manifestation
There rooftops quarter pigeons that looks at the jets of human intelligence
In the hand of each 10-year-old child a branch of knowledge lies
The townsfolk took at hedges
As if they look at a flame, a tender dream
Earth hears the music of your feeling
And the fluttering sound of mythological birds are heard in the wind
Beyond the seas there is a town
Where the sun is as wide as the eyes of early-risers
Poets inherit water, wisdom and light
Beyond the seas there is a town!
One must build a boat
Sohrab Sepheri
