Persian Language and Literature

A Study of the Reception of the Persian Translation of The Adventures of Hajji Baba of Ispahan Before and After the Islamic Revolution in Iran

Hossein Bahri

Abstract
The Persian translation of The Adventures of Hajji Baba of Ispahan by James Morier is undoubtedly one of the masterpieces of Persian literature. Mirza Habib Esfahani translated this work into Persian from the French translation of the book. The fact that a translated work, through an intermediary translation, can meet such a reception by the readers in the literature of a language is considered one of the rare and exceptional cases. Since the publication of this work, researchers of language and literature, translation, and other fields of humanities have studied its various aspects. However, so far, no research has studied the reception of this translation by Persian readers from a historical perspective. In this article, based on Jauss’s concept of “Horizon of Expectations” and using the descriptive-analytical method, the researcher has tried to investigate various aspects of the reception of this translation by the Persian readers before and after the Islamic Revolution through reviewing the works and examining the existing texts. To do so, from among the studies available on this work, which comprised about 50 Persian articles and books published since 1942, ten significant works (5 published before and 5 after the Islamic Revolution) were selected, and the expectations within them were examined and analyzed using the qualitative content analysis method. Next, the various themes of the Persian translation receptions discussed in these ten works were extracted and compared. The findings of the study indicated that during both periods, the Persian translation of The Adventures of Hajji Baba of Ispahan was of interest to the literary taste and in line with the expectations of the readers, including those of writers, critics, and researchers. It continues to be widely received by the readers, which has made this work enduring and popular.

A Comparative Study of Tree Images in Sohrab Sepehri’s Paintings and Poems from the Perspective of Panofsky’s Iconology

Gholâm Rezâ Pirouz

Poetry and painting are two different paths for creating works of art, and their close relationship has always been of interest to art history researchers and literary critics. Sohrab Sepehri is an artist who tested his taste in both poetry and painting. Therefore, using purposive sampling of Sepehri’s paintings of trees and his Hasht Ketab (Eight Books) poems, and based on Panofsky’s theory of iconology, the present research is a comparative study of these works. It focuses on the images of trees in his poetry and painting to analyze and explain various structural and semantic aspects of common icons to discover the characteristics and connections between his poetic world and his art of painting. The current research tries to answer the questions of why and how the tree image acts differently in the two linguistic and visual systems. Sepehri’s approach to the ‘tree image’ in both poetry and painting is contrasting in such concepts as dynamism and staticity, life and death, rootedness and rootlessness, fertility and infertility, openness and closure, and disconnection and connection, while it is sometimes approaching in themes such as strangeness and the sense of suspense. The results showed that Sepehri is under the influence of the paradigm of modern Iranian painting in drawing the image of the tree and its space, in which the space is mainly contracted, dark, and desperate. Hence, the trees in his works move in the direction of disconnection from the world and the essence of existence which can be an allegory of Sepehri’s objective world. However, the image of the tree in his poems is in line with the dominant common concepts - a symbol of growth, freshness, and vitality - which is far from the rhetorical signs and the uncommon domain of connotation in Persian literature. It is, in a way, an explanation of the ideal world of the poet.

A Comparative Study of Happiness Features from the Perspectives of Epicurus and Rumi

Mahin Panāhi

The concept of happiness has always been a subject of morality and mysticism. It has been studied in philosophy from two perspectives: Epicurean hedonism and Aristotelian bliss. Epicurus (341-270 BC), a philosopher of the Hellenistic period of ancient Greece, considered lasting pleasure as the ultimate good of man and presented a practical method that leads to happiness and is sustainable. For Rumi (1207-1273 AD), happiness is similarly sustainable and does not decline with external and internal factors. In this article, an attempt has been made to investigate whether there is a connection between Epicurean hedonism and Rumi’s hedonism through library study and data comparison and analysis. We compared several features from Epicurean and Rumi’s perspectives on happiness based on historical genealogy. The results showed that pleasure from Epicurus’s perspective is lasting and expressed in the end as eudaimonia or happiness (bliss). The goal of his philosophy is to achieve lasting happiness. In this way, man tries to achieve ataraxia by creating limits to his temporary and unstable pleasures. On the other hand, Epicurus’s practical philosophy expresses features that have commonalities with some of the views of Muslim mystics, including those of Rumi.

The Symbol of Mountain in Bidel’s Tūr-e-Marefat

Mahdi Nikmanesh

Rather than expressing his feelings in poetry, Bidel uses poetry to express his thoughts. This rapid flow of thought is evident in his views of natural phenomena and descriptions of the elements of nature. Since his mind is filled with mystical meanings and concepts, everything he looks at takes on the color and fragrance of mysticism and flows through his tongue. He considers art to include perfection and moral virtues and with its help, he has tried to express the capabilities of man and the nature around him. From a descriptive and analytical perspective, this research addresses the symbolism of mountain in Bidel’s masnavi of Tūr-e-Marefat (or Mountain of Knowledge) and investigates the images in which the natural element of the mountain is artistically connected with mystical concepts and meanings. First, the images were identified and classified, then the significance of the ‘mountain’ icon was highlighted and its mystical hidden meanings were explained. The findings showed that the concepts hidden in the symbols of water, fire, and earth, in a coherent set, have a mystical transcendental path from the lowest level to the highest position in Bidel’s perspective, and these elements have a conceptual relationship with the ‘mountain’.

Investigating the Role of The Berliners’ Journals in Language Engineering in Iran

Fâezeh Qorbâni Jouybâri

Language reform is one of the most controversial reforms in the process of modernization. Hence, language engineering is regarded as a risky social-political experimentation in any country. In Iran, The Berliners, an influential school of thought in Iranian intellectualism, were the pioneers of Persian reform. Through their activities including publishing treatises, journals, and holding conferences in Iran and Europe, they formed the most active intellectual group of Iranian immigrants in the contemporary era. Exploring their journals reveals they adopted a pathological approach to language-related problems in addition to proposing practical reform solutions. The Berliners’ Journals also adopted a moderate policy toward describing the challenges faced by the Persian language and criticized reforms through purging mechanisms. Considering the importance of The Berliners and their influential journals in the process of Persian reform, the present paper explores the role of these publications in language engineering in Iran.

The Image of Christ in the Poems of Sâeb Tabrizi

Yahyâ Kârdgar

Since the advent of Jesus Christ, Iranian culture and literature have paid special attention to him and Christianity. This feature became more prominent in the Safavid era for political, social, cultural, and ideological reasons. Saib Tabrizi, the greatest poet of that era, made a substantial contribution to reflecting this feature in his poems. Using a descriptive-analytical method, this article investigates the events of the life of Christ in the six volumes of Saib’s Divan. The findings showed that the religious characteristics of Saib’s era, his mystical and moral perspective, the attachment of the audience of Saib’s poetry to Christ and Christianity, and finally Saib’s tendency to thematize and elaborate his subtle imagination and his knowledge of the events of the lives of the heavenly prophets played a fundamental role in presenting a full image of Christ. By referring to the life of Christ and other divine messengers, he sought to bring religions and sects closer to one another; a goal that is needed by the global community today.

Iran as the Other: A Different Reading of Nizami’s Poem Khosrow and Shirin in Samad Vurgun’s Play Farhad and Shirin

Saeed Karimi Qarebaba

In his play, Farhad and Shirin, the Azerbaijani poet and writer, Samad Vurgun recounted the poem of Khosrow and Shirin contrary to Nizami Ganjavi’s intentions and tried to create a “Self vs. The Other” divide. Iranians were portrayed as a threatening enemy of the lands beyond Aras and an intractable enmity between the two sides was imagined. In agreement with the communist politicians, Vurgun sought to prepare an independent identity for the newly established Republic of Azerbaijan in a way that did not overlap with Iranian and Ottoman cultural commonalities. The current research, based on a descriptive-analytical method, tries to answer the question of how Vurgun described the self and the other and what strategies he employed to determine and embody the cultural identity of the Caucasus. The author of the play portrayed the Iranians as people with negative characteristics such as raping, kidnapping, parent-killing, lying, etc. and instead, attributed all the positive qualities to the people of Barda District. On the other hand, introducing Shirin and Farhad as lovers from Azerbaijan and creating a character named Azarbaba were part of Vurgun’s strategies to promote the new identity of the Caucasus.

A Comparison of Language Quality and Poetic Imagery of Nasir Khusraw and Attâr

Mostafâ Mirdâr Rezâyi

Nasir Khusraw’s poetry is full of intellectual arguments, religious topics, sermons, and wisdom, which has given his words a philosophical and somewhat complicated flavor. On the other hand, in his works, Attar of Nishapur has tried to present the heritage of Sufism of Khorasan and the poetry before him in a different style, through simple language, without glamor and impressive embellishments. The question of this research is whether the simplicity or complexity of language plays a role in the simplicity or complexity of the structure of poetic images. Adopting a quantitative and statistical method, the present research investigates the statistical and comparative analysis of the structure of the poetic images of Nasir Khusraw and Attar. The results of this study show that the simplicity or complexity of a poet’s language has little to do with the structure of his images. In other words, the geometry of the poet’s images cannot be considered simple or complex merely because of the simplicity or difficulty of his words. The language of Nasir Khusraw’s poetry is difficult and complex, but this feature has not had a significant effect on the geometry of his poem’s images, and most of his poetry’s images are simple and far from complex. On the other hand, the structure of Attar’s poetic images, despite the simplicity of the language and appearance, has a subtle and delicate complexity that cannot be understood except by analyzing the rhetorical materials used in the construction of the images. In other words, Attar’s language is simple but his images are complex.

Aspects of Muhammad Ali Foroughi’s Letters Influenced by Farahani’s Monsha’at: From imitation to innovation

Effat Neghâbi

Mohammad Ali Foroughi (also known as Zoka-ol-Molk) is regarded as one of the well-known contemporary Iranian men in politics, culture, and law. His political and cultural careers motivated him to correspond with many educated friends about these issues. Due to Foroughi’s familiarity with ancient literature and his attachment to Iranian culture, his letters have been influenced by the style of his predecessors in addition to the earlier literary works. By perusing these letters, one can visibly see the influence of Ghaem Magham Farahani’s Monsha’at (Letters). While imitating the style of Farahani, Foroughi had innovations in his letters. The present article aims to reveal the extent of Foroughi’s innovation and his being influenced by Ghaem Magham’s letters by considering Farahani’s letters as an example of the return style. In the current study 11 letters from Foroughi, collected in Zoka-ol-Molk’s policy book, and 11 letters from Ghaem Magham’s Monsha’at, fallen into friendship, politics, and social categories, were analyzed. It was found that although Foroughi was influenced by the letter styles, literary techniques, and linguistic features of Farahani’s letters, he made innovations in their contents and concepts. Zoka-ol-Molk’s innovations can be seen in combining the return style with modern socio-political concepts. In writing letters, Foroughi paid special attention to the temporal conditions and people’s understanding. Therefore, besides being influenced by the return style (especially that of Monsha’at), he overcame its weaknesses with some expressive tricks and subtleties. By using this way of writing, Foroughi has achieved the goals of attracting the attention of the audience to promoting Persian culture and literature and conveying modern concepts along with reporting on current social issues. In his political and social letters, we see him imitating demanding literary-historical texts; while his friendly letters are very tender and heartwarming due to imitating lyrical texts. Hence, reading these letters gives the reader more literary pleasure than social letters.

A Critique of Iranian Intellectualism: A Deconstructionist Reading of Jalal Âl-e-Ahmad’s Farewell

Mehdi Nourian

This article seeks to critique the elitism in the thoughts of Iranian intellectuals of the 1950s and 1960s. To do so, it carries out a deconstructionist reading of Jalal Al-e-Ahmad’s story titled Farewell from the collection Sitar (literally: Three String Musical Instrument). The book contains 13 stories of Al-e-Ahmad published in 1948. The current study was conducted from the perspective of the French philosopher Jacques Derrida and employed the eight-step strategy of David Boje as a postmodern critical analysis in dealing with the narrative. Boje’s method includes searching for duality, reinterpreting hierarchies, discovering rebel voices, revealing the other side of the narrative, negating the plot, finding exceptions, tracing between the lines, and resituating. The article follows each of these steps to bring about the deconstructionist reading of the story. After using the 8-step strategy of Boje, eight dualities were found: beauty vs. ugliness, core vs. periphery, naked vs. clothed, enlightenment vs. gluttony, rational vs. superstitious, quiet vs. garrulous, boy vs. girl, and activity vs. passivity. Each of these dualities has a hierarchical dominant/subordinate structure, and the narrator narrates the story in a way he is in the dominant position. Then the hierarchy in each duality was reinterpreted so the rebels found their voice and the other side of the story appeared. The romantic plot of the story was replaced with a tragic one, exceptions were found, and between the lines were read. Based on Boje’s strategy and adopting Jacques Derrida’s deconstructionist approach to read Farewell, a new narrative emerged that made possible the critique of the elitist views of Iranian intellectuals during the 1950s and 1960s. It is necessary to go beyond the person of Al-e-Ahmad and get closer to the subject of Al-e-Ahmad as an Iranian intellectual; a subject that has been made possible in a particular context and has produced works. According to the narrative that emerged from the deconstructionist reading of the story, it is concluded that the intellectual subject reproduces the hierarchical relationships, puts himself in a superior position, relies on modern reason, and without considering and understanding the existential relations of the subaltern, seeks to represent them and aims to accomplish what he calls an intellectual mission.

Considerations for Compiling the Middle Persian Numeral System and Its Reflection in Modern Persian

Ebrâhim Vâsheqâni Farâhâni

The numeral system is one of the most important and challenging components of the writing system, which has two dimensions and is not simply limited to the written form of numbers. The challenge of number writing, on the one hand, is due to the nature of numbers and the way they exist in each language, which itself is the result of the different attitude of each nation to existence, and the second dimension of the challenge is related to the way of writing numerical entities in each language. Therefore, even though number writing is a phenomenon of the writing system, it cannot be considered a purely inscriptive phenomenon, but to describe the numeral system, it is necessary to pay attention to the type of attitude and vision of peoples and nations towards existence and especially the mythological foundations of the attitudes of each nation. Middle Persian is no exception to this approach, and one of the neglected requirements for responding to the ambiguities of the Middle Persian numeral system is the attitude towards existence, particularly the mythological beliefs of Iranians. Following the valuable efforts made so far to compile and describe the Middle Persian numeral system, this article proposes other considerations while discussing the answers to some uncertainties still existing in the Middle Persian numeral system. Moreover, some of the traces and reflections of this system are tracked in the Modern Persian language and script, which on the one hand helps compile the Middle Persian numeral system and on the other hand, facilitates the understanding of Modern Persian words and texts. The findings of this study show that it is possible to describe the Middle Persian numeral system, and to do so, seeking help from the mythological foundations of Iranian thought is beneficial and crucial. The present article does not claim it has formulated the Middle Persian numeral system, although it presents considerations and suggestions for compiling it.

A Lacanian Analysis of Bidel Dehlavi’s Story of the Picture: A journey from self-identification to alienation and symbolic self-destruction

Mahnoosh Vahdati

The current study attempts to discuss one of the most mysterious and enchanting stories of Bidel Dehlavi, his autobiography, from a Lacanian psychoanalytical perspective. The primary goal is to scrutinize the psychoanalytical evolution of the story’s main character based on three significant Lacanian stages of the unconscious: the Mirror Stage, the Symbolic Order, and the Real Order. In addition, the psychoanalytical portrayal of the main character is reflected in the light of Lacanian concepts of Fantasy, the Other, Lack, Objet petit a, and Castration. The Lacanian subject in Bidel’s story encounters a huge void. To fill this gap, he strives to identify himself with the other or the picture that his friend, Anub, has painted. The shattered subject discovers himself in the harmonious and perfect image and strains to recover his lost identity in the flawless picture. The subject is unaware that by entering the Symbolic Order, he would suffer alienation and distortion. Hence, by clinging to Fantasy, he endeavors to keep the illusion of being perfect. However, by stepping into the Real Order and facing the trauma of this stage and the impossibility of symbolizing his pains, he commits symbolic suicide and breaks the chain of recurring signifiers. The findings of the current study indicate that the main character (Bidel) passes through the Mirror Stage with an imaginary identification of himself, then faces the alienation of the Symbolic Order, and in the Real Order, as a psychotic subject, he is baffled between Fantasy and Reality and commits a symbolic suicide.