نامه فرهنگستان
سال هفدهم شماره 1 (پاییز 1397)

Categorization of Persian poetic meters is one of the most important problems of prosody and one of the most fundamental preoccupations of modern Persian prosodists. After explaining and evaluating the effectiveness of Khalil bin Ahmad’s method of classifying Arabic poetic meters, a “table of Persian poetic meters” has been proposed to complement the efforts of such prosodists as Laurence Paul Elwell-Sutton and Abolhassan Najafi. The proposed table contains 11 families of meters. Of these, the first nine rows are muttafiq al- ’arkân or single-foot-type meters (i.e., each consisting of a repeated foot) while rows 10 and 11 are mutanâwib al-’arkân or alternate-foot meters (i.e., each consisting of two types of feet alternately repeated) as presented in Najafi’s circle, which contains 52 families of meters. In addition to presenting a formula for identifying meters in the table, this article suggests a new method of naming them, a subject that has been completely ignored by contemporary prosodists.

The study of literature has lost its traditional form over the past decades, leaving more room for interdisciplinary studies to flourish. One of such interdisciplinary fields is Translation Studies, which is closely interwoven with literature. Convergence of Translation Studies and Literary Studies best manifests itself in the field of Comparative Literature, where acculturation of literary traditions among different nations are investigated through translation. It is from this perspective that the present authors are attempting to study Sa’di’s Golestân and Bustân, to reveal the fact that how translation, in its both literal and metaphorical broad sense, may play a role in creation of even those literary works which seem to be the result of the author’s own thoughts and imaginations. Such a wide perspective on the creation of literary works arguably contributes to literary historiography as well as to the genealogy of the notion of translation in a culture.

Looking at sociopolitical atmosphere governing old Iran, some reasons could be found to interpret the death of Demna, the antagonist in the first chapters of Bahramshahi’s Kalila and Demna, which include desire of power, vilification skills, deceiving the king and punishment and omission of political competitors and competent secretaries. The aim in this research, backed by historical documents and mythological and political analysis, is to look at Demna’s death in a new perspective and as an inevitable subject. To clarify this concept, political views of ancient Iranians and one of its remarkable bases, Galactic Moral Order or Asha has come to our assistance to show that due to recalcitrance of Demna to honor the requirement of functioning in accordance to fulfillment of End-time ideology which prophesizes the complete victory of good over evil, and therefor, being categorized as a member of the fiend (or Ahreman) army which could result in jeopardizing Asha and its earthly manifestations i.e. ideal king, utopia and class organization of the society, this can be concluded that death of Demna was inevitable and had happened to compensate for the damages incurred by him upon the eternal virtue of nature.

Throughout Persian literature history, from the start until the invasion of Tatar Turks, there was a ritual among the people in which poets would permit their poems to a canorous singer at king’s conventions to be recited along with music; this way, the word effect of the poet would be increased. Nizâmi Aruzi in a chapter on Clerking in his book Châhâr Maghâleh (Four Discourses), tells a story about Ferdowsi in which, some men from Tous city are mentioned. One of these men is introduced as Ferdowsi’s, attendant: another as his copyist and the third one is his reciter. In this article, I am trying to identify these three people through historical and literal resources, and then, based on our knowledge on narrative rituals of Persian poems, fact-check the story that Aruzi has written. Furthermore, through codicological analysis, we would try to provide the correct registration of the verse by Ferdowsi that Aruzi has based his story on.

Vis and Râmin is one of the oldest narrative poems in the Persian language that is rooted in pre-Islamic era. Although there are several publications available for this book and many researches has been performed on it, there is still some room for more researches on this subject. Among interesting elements in this book are some of its words that could be the corrected form of some other word or words, and one of such words is the subject matter of this research. At the end of one of the verses in this poem, there is word that all the proofreaders have thought it to be “nasrin” (نسرین). However, concerning the context that it is used in, it should be a place-name, which suggests that “nasrin” may not be a correct registration of this word. I have shown that the correct form of this word should be “shantarin” (شنترین), and the poet may have inevitably eliminated the letter “n” (نون) or “t” (تاء) to fit it in the correct poetic tone and has written it like “shatrin” (شترین) or “shanrin” (شنری ن). However, in time, the proofreaders have failed to understand the word and have substituted it with “nasrin”.

At the time of Ghuzz Turk invasion and captivity of Seljuk Sultan Sanjar (reigning 511-552 a. h.) in their hands, Anvari, Iranian famous odist in sixth century (a. h.), after becoming aware of the unsettlments in Khorasan, wrote a long ode referring to Sultan Rukn ad-Din Kilij Tamghach Khan, ruler of Samarkand, asking him to send an army to Khorasan and relieve them from the Ghuzz tyranny. Based on the evidence provided in this article, this ode, which is so different from Anvari’s other eulogist odes, which makes it one of his most famous odes, is written based on the pattern or pretext of prose relief request letters (Faryâdnâmeh) and it is written in the form of a versified letter.

Zahir-al-Din Fâryâbi is one of the most celebrated Persian language poets in sixth century (a. h.). The fact that so many biographers have written his memoire and many men of letter and writers have referred to his verses reveals the remarkability of his position and reputation in the realm of poetry. Most part of his poetical works consist odes, and at the second level come the strophes, which shows Zahir’s affection towards the old styles in poetry, specially ode and more specifically eulogy. Zahir has also written an ode in Arabic and two macaronic poems, which shows his mastery over Arabic language. Complete poetical works of Zahir has been published many times in both inside and outside Iran, and the most important of them is the volume that has been corrected, researched and interpreted by the esteemed professor Amirhosein Yazdgerdi in 2002. This article is aiming to solve some of lexical, conceptual and prosodic problems that are remained in the Complete works of Zahir.