Persian Poetry: The Love
by, Roshani Chokashi
Persian poetry spans an impressive two and a half millenia where it functioned as both a means of religious expression as well as the translation from romantic emotion to aesthetically profound literature. The majority of surviving Persian literature follows an epoch of Islamic conquest circa 650 CE. After the Abbasids came to power, many Persians became the scribes and acquired positions in the nascent bureaucracy as both writers and poets.
While Persian poetry still holds its own in great literary circles, the impact that those words had on both society and the interpretation of emotions is one that only increases with time. Of the major poets, their faith in Islam played an integral role in the syntax of their work as well as the imagery they verbally layered. 
Among the cornerstones of Persian poetry was Rumi, whose works concerned themselves with the concept of Tawhid, a pillar within Islam’s strict monotheism. Rumi encouraged music, poetry and dance as a venue for reaching God. Narrowing their whole being on the divine was so intensely manifested that the gap between one’s spiritual aloofness from God diminished; therefore, restoring the natural soul to God. Rumi was also instrumental in elucidating the dark beauty of grief while simultaneously tying it to spirituality. Following the death of his dervish friend, Shams-e Tabrizi, he wrote the poem “Divan-e Shams-e Tabrizi,” where he recounts searching for his friend. His writing transforms into a literary epiphany as he writes: “Why should I seek?/ I am the same as/ He. His essence speaks through me./ I have been looking for myself!” This line illuminates a central feeling not only in grief, but also in religious reverence. One remembers the dead by internally remembering their impact and therefore prolonging their memory. One also finds the fluidity of God because it’s transformed from love of a higher being to the same love one has for a lost friend.
These words are inscribed on the entrance of the United Nations building in New York: “Human beings are members of a whole/ In creation of one essence and soul/ If one member is afflicted with pain/ Other members uneasy will remain/ If you have no sympathy for human pain/ The name of human you cannot retain.” These simple, yet harmonic, phrases were composed by Sa’adi, whose major works include Bostan, meaning the fruit orchard. His works are immediately reminiscent of illustrated metaphors that refer to a vast collection of his personal experiences. He generally composed in the straightforward mathnawi style, which involved rhyming couplets. Yet, he constantly drew on the collective human experience as fodder for encouraged camaraderie and the desire to link the race through metaphors, or even religion, as quoted by Barack Obama: “The children of Adam are limbs to each other, having been created of one essence.”
Hafez was known for his ecstatic love poetry as well as his heavily layered mystic poetry. His words, though mystical, also addressed an inherent primal sense of being within humans. One of his famous lines states, “Love sometimes gets tired of speaking sweetly/ And wants to rip to shreds/ All your erroneous notions of truth.” Many Sufi mystic schools sought to illuminate truth through double meanings and layered metaphors in order to address the multiple ways and epiphanies one can experience and visualize in order to see truth. Hafez emphasizes the ephemeral nature of mortal existence. He codes humanly existence as “veeraane,” or ruins, which literally renders materialism obsolete. He also portrays the duality of his own identity, both in a spiritual and material setting, and constantly evaluates his well-being through rhetorical questions. For example, he questions, “Am I a sinner or a saint/ Which one shall it be?/ Hafez holds the secret of his own mystery…”
Nazami Ganjavi fuzed the immortal romantic story of Layla and Majnun into one long poem. What’s fascinating about the distinct Islamic shadowed love in this dramatic tale is the emphasis on platonic love. Compared to Western tales, such as “Tristan and Isolde,” or Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet,” there is no consummation of the relationship. It consistently remains admiration at a distance and a bitingly abstinent relationship that eventually removes all traces of libido from their love. Similar to the concept of tawhid, which dictates extreme monotheism and the indivisible status of God, Majnun’s love for the girl Layla represents an infinite cycle of God’s handiwork by representing his love of her as an extension of his love for God. For tribal reasons, Layla and Majnun are not allowed to be married. Majnun is cast out of society, but his love for Layla sustains him. Because his love is unadulterated by human desires, “The wild beasts had no enmity toward him/ For there was no mixture of animality within him” (314). In this romance, it is Layla who represents normalcy, or at least an inherent reality in her approach to the relationship.
Even though she is married to another man, she reserves the part of her soul and her love for him. This internalization that she is, in spirit, with her lover, preserves her sanity. However, Majnun’s separation from her breeds a dichotomy within his soul of the wild and ravaged versus the spiritual calm his pure love has procured. Layla acts within the bounds of reality, influencing what she can, but never losing herself. After Layla’s husband dies, they are reconciled, but Majnun’s silence overwhelms her. She rebukes him, and says, “You are the bulbul in the garden of this world/ I am attuned to you like the rose/ And today, which is the day of union/ you have put a clasp on the casket of your tongue” (317). These lines are heavily laced in sexual metaphor and reveal an unmistakable restlessness in her dialogue. But Majnun, who has placed her on a pedestal of perfection, cannot interact with her on a human level because she is only real to him in his prayers and endless fascination of her.
Persian poetry is distinct; not only in its religious overtones, but also in its concentration of spiritual awareness in relation to the material world. These ancient poets and philosophers encouraged individuals to attune themselves to their mental needs as opposed to the stresses and problems of their external environments.
