Some Humble Suggestions to Those Who Want To Read Early Persian Poets and Their Poetry

By Sumit Paul, New Age Islam

29 May 2023

I'm happy that the scholarly reader and a regular contributor Mr Arshad Alam has evinced interest in reading the early Persian poetry of Rudaki, Daqiqi, Fazin, Azari Tusi, Baba Tahir Oryan, Badriddin Hilali, Imrani, among others.

But before that I'd like to discuss the attribution errors Persian literature is rife with. More or less this issue of fallacious attributions/ghost writing has plagued literature of all languages. Mr Ghulam Mohiyuddin will fall in with me that even the Bard of Avon couldn't come out of that as his entire oeuvre is said to have been either written by Sir Francis Bacon (The Baconian Theory of Shakespeare Authorship is still debated) or Christopher Marlowe, that Geoffrey Chaucer's ' Canterbury Tales ' was partly written by his unnamed secret paramour who was 21 years his senior and the wife of a baron. Correct me if I'm wrong. But the maximum instances of this phenomenon are found in the history of Persian literature. For example, Arshad Sahab has quoted Baba Farid's:

کاگا کرنگ ڈھڈولیا سگلا کھائیا ماس

ایہہ دو نینا مت چھوہیو پر دیکھن کی آس 

Kaaga Karang Dhadoliya Saglaa Khaaiyo Mass/ Aey Do Nainaan Mat Chhuchho Pir Dekhan Ki Aas

(O crow! come and peck all this flesh over this skeletal frame of mine, Leave these two eyes untouched for they are in wait of that Grand beloved of mine )

And, Kabir's:

کاگا سب تن کھائیو چن چن کھائیو ماس

دو نیناں مت کھائیو پیا ملن کی آس

कागा सब तन खाइयो चुन चुन खाइयो मांस

दो नैना मत खाइयो (मोहे) पिया मिलन की आस

(Kaaga Sab Tan Khaiyo Chun-Chun Khaiyo Maas/Do Naina Mat Khaiyo (Mohe) Piya Milan Ki Aas)

Now the interesting thing is, I came across Professor Habibul Alam's article, "Mool Persian Kobi Aar Paroborti Kobi " (Original Persian Poets and later poets/ Desh, Jan 1, 1973). The erudite professor taught Bangla Lit. at Rajshahi University, Bangladesh, and had a workable knowledge of Urdu. He argued that neither Kabir nor Farid did (originally) write or create it. A Muslim poet, Suhur, who wrote in early Bangla, said it circa 920 CE:

Kaak Irut Mari Daa, Sab Daa Maar/Du Chaakh Sariya, Peeti Aar

Kaak: Crow in Bangla (still prevalent), Mari Da (Mrit Deh: Dead body), Irut: eating (esp. flesh), Chaakh (old Bangla for Chokh: Eyes), Sariya: Barring, Peeti aar (Awaiting beloved)

But even before that, one unnamed poet wrote in Avesta nearly 3,500 years ago: Tanam Saz Idinam Shighal Siddim/ Shee Az Naan Ridhim (here he used shighal/shigaal, fox, in place of a crow). It's worthwhile to mention that the Sanskrit word Shrigaal for a fox is still Shighaal/Shigaal (with Ghain or Gaaf, alternative orthography is common in Middle Persian) in Persian.

By the way, Avesta is not a functional language any longer and is used only for the liturgical purpose in Zoroastrianism. It was a precursor of Pahlavi and Pahlavi gave birth to Persian. So, who wrote or said it first still remains a puzzle. But at the same time, one finds Persian's long and meandering history of linguistic assimilation quite interesting. Arshad Sahab will agree with me that the Avesta couplet that I quoted is closer to Sanskrit than to any form or derivative of Persian, Middle/ Medieval/ Modern Persian. Nearly 4 thousand years ago, Sanskrit and Avesta were sister languages. That's why, you find 14, 000 common words in both the languages. ‘Asp’ in Persian is 'Ashva' (horse) in Sanskrit. 'Abhra' (Cloud in Sanskrit) is 'Abra' in Persian. The list is interminable.

Though early poets of Farsi like Rudaki and Daqiqi wrote in 'modern' Persian, at times it's extremely difficult to understand their expressions which were taken from Avesta as both came from Zoroastrianism.

For example, I couldn't understand the words ' Vaqtam' (Waw/Qaaf/Toye/Meem) and ' Danpan ' Daal/ Noon/Pe/Noon) until I learnt Sanskrit! Vaqtam is Vyakti (individual) in ancient Persian and Danpan is a distortion of Devanam Priye (euphemism for a 'fool' in Sanskrit). Till the 11th century, all early Persian poets were using these two mutilations of Sanskrit in the context of an individual and Bewaqoof.

The biggest challenge a researcher of Persian language faces is its extreme derivative diversity. All Persian poets and mystics were polyglots writing in almost nine Central Asian tongues simultaneously. For example, the 4th Masnavi of Rumi had Persio-Turkish verses as he was at home with Turkish and passed away there. He was entombed in Konya in Turkey. Attar and Rumi were writing in Tajik and Uzbeki as alternatives to Persian! In fact, both are separate from Persian. It's like Vidyapati, Senapati and Jaydev writing in Maithili and calling it early Hindi. Maithili is closer to Bangla than it's to Hindi.

One faces this structural hurdle while studying Persian chronologically. I shall suggest Mr Arshad that he approach Raza Library, Rampur, Khuda Bakhsh Library, Patna, National Library Calcutta and The School of Oriental and African Studies, London for the early Persian works of Daqiqi and Rudaki along with annotations. I'm told, one can get photocopies of the original works. By the way, one doesn't face this issue of linguistic intrusions while studying Arabic language and literature because if you know Arabic, you can understand the language of the Seven Odes of Pre-Islamic Arabia, Quranic Arabic, Post-Quranic Arabic, Medieval Arabic and the Modern form of it. Mr GGS will concur with me. But this is not the case with Persian. It needs annotations to understand its early forms and poetry written in them. A smattering of Sanskrit does help in this regard. One need not go into the details of Panini's Ashtadhyayi and Bhattoji Dikshit's Siddhant kaumudi. Just a superficial knowledge of Sanskrit Semantics will suffice.

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A regular columnist for New Age Islam, Sumit Paul is a researcher in comparative religions, with special reference to Islam. He has contributed articles to the world's premier publications in several languages including Persian.

 

URL:   https://newageislam.com/spiritual-meditations/suggestions-early-persian-poets-poetry/d/129872

 

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