DOCSLIB.ORG

Structure and Meaning in Medieval Arabic and Persian Poetry

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Structure and Meaning in Medieval Arabic and Persian Poetry Facebook : La culture ne s'hérite pas elle se conquiert STRUCTURE AND MEANING IN MEDIEVAL ARABIC AND PERSIAN POETRY This is the first comprehensive and comparative study of compositional and stylistic techniques in medieval Arabic and Persian lyric poetry. Ranging over some seven centuries, it deals with works by over thirty poets in the Islamic world from Spain to present-day Afghanistan, and examines how this rich poetic tradition exhibits both continuity and development in the use of a wide range of compositional strategies. Julie Scott Meisami discusses a wide range of key topics including the use of rhetorical figures, metaphors and images, and the principles of structural organization within lyric poetry. She provides detailed analyses of a large number of poetic texts, to reveal how structural and semantic features interact to bring meaning to the individual poem. The book also examines works by the indigenous critics of poetry in both Arabic and Persian, and demonstrates the critics’ awareness of, and interest in, the techniques which poets employed to construct these eloquent poems. The book will be of interest to students and scholars of pre-modern poetry and poetics, and Middle Eastern literature. Julie Scott Meisami, until recently Lecturer in Persian at the Oriental Institute, Oxford University, has published extensively on Arabic and Persian poetry and is the editor of Edebiyat: The Journal for Middle Eastern Literatures. Facebook : La culture ne s'hérite pas elle se conquiert CULTURE AND CIVILIZATION INTHEMIDDLEEAST Series editor: Ian R. Netton University of Leeds This series studies the Middle East through the twin foci of its diverse cultures and civilizations. Comprising original monographs as well as scholarly surveys, it covers topics in the fields of Middle Eastern literature, archaeology, law, history, philosophy, science, folklore, art, architecture and language. While there is a plurality of views, the series presents serious scholarship in a lucid and stimulating fashion. Facebook : La culture ne s'hérite pas elle se conquiert STRUCTURE AND MEANINGINMEDIEVAL ARABIC AND PERSIAN POETRY ORIENT PEARLS Julie Scott Meisami Facebook : La culture ne s'hérite pas elle se conquiert First published in 2003 by RoutledgeCurzon 11 New Fetter Lane, London EC4P 4EE Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada by RoutledgeCurzon 29 West 35th Street, New York, NY 10001 This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2006. “To purchase your own copy of this or any of Taylor & Francis or Routledge’s collection of thousands of eBooks please go to www.eBookstore.tandf.co.uk.” RoutledgeCurzon is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group # 2003 Julie Scott Meisami All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilized in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record of this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data A catalog record for this book has been requested ISBN 0-203-22055-2 Master e-book ISBN ISBN 0-203-27545-4 (Adobee-ReaderFormat) ISBN 0–7007–1575–4 (Print Edition) Facebook : La culture ne s'hérite pas elle se conquiert This book is dedicated to the memories of two great teachers and dear friends – Elroy J. (Roy) Bundy and Tawfiq Sayigh – who taught me poetry, and who never grudged either their time or their talk Facebook : La culture ne s'hérite pas elle se conquiert Facebook : La culture ne s'hérite pas elle se conquiert CONTENTS Preface ix 1 Introduction 1 Brief encounters 1 Grounds for comparison 5 Medieval literary theory 9 The search for unity 13 Poetry as craft 15 Theories of composition 19 2 Invention 23 Concepts of invention 23 Invention, imitation, and genre 26 Invention and genre in early Abbasid poetry 30 Invention and genre in the Persian ghazal 45 3 Disposition: The parts of the poem 55 Concepts of disposition 55 Beginnings 60 Transitions 75 Endings 90 4 Disposition: Larger structures 111 Segmentation: Proportion and balance 111 Amplification, abbreviation, and digression 130 The shape of the poem 138 vii Facebook : La culture ne s'hérite pas elle se conquiert CONTENTS 5 Disposition: The Qas¯daı and its adaptations 144 ˙ Functions of the Nası¯b 144 ) Nası¯b and Hija¯ 155 Variations on the Qas¯ıda Form 162 ˙ 6 Disposition: Varieties of structure 190 Spatial and numerical composition 190 Other strategies: Letters, dialogues, narratives, debates 207 7 Ornamentation 244 Concepts of ornament 244 ( Ornament and structure: The five figures of badı¯ 246 Ornament and structure: The maha¯sin al-kala¯m 269 ˙ Ornament and structure: Other figures 282 8 Ornament: Metaphor and imagery 319 Problems of metaphor 319 Imagery and poetic unity 323 Image as argument 341 The poet and the natural world 347 Earthly Paradises? 355 Esoteric imagery 388 9 Conclusion: The coherence of the poem 404 Word and image: A privileging of styles? 404 Concluding Remarks 427 Notes 431 Bibliography 478 Index 502 viii Facebook : La culture ne s'hérite pas elle se conquiert PREFACE This book has been a long time in the making. It was begun many years ago, in the context of a discourse about Arabic and Persian poetry which has since moved on to ask other questions, and to question the original questions. Having been begun as research into problems of poetic structure, it has – in the course of major upheavals, a transatlantic move, and various other pressing projects – often been relegated to the back burner, where it finally reached a point when simple rewarming would not do. Consider this, then, a rehashing; some new ingredients have been added (notably the chapters on rhetorical figures, metaphor and imagery), but many of the old ones have been retained, because I remain convinced that there is still much worth saying about them. For there is still considerable resistance to the notion that Arabic and Persian poems are not merely “coherent” in a general sense, but carefully structured. Has enough work been published to provide evidence of the principles of structural organization? Many more studies exist now than when I first began the research that would ultimately lead to this book; but they are still sparse. But surely (runs another argument) there are more interesting things we could be doing, more important questions we could be asking? Indeed there are; but until we have more than a handful of critical studies of individual poets, or of individual poems, we will not have a critical mass to work with. This is why this particular study is intended to be a broad one; but although it may not provide every detail about every poet, or every poem considered (as well as about many other poets and poems that have not been discussed here), it should furnish starting points for further investigation – investigation which would both apply and test the conclusions arrived at here. No single person can read every single poem by every single poet in both Arabic and Persian – not only what is available in print, but what remains in manuscript, the study of which would require several collective lifetimes; but someone might, on reading this book, find a particular poet interesting, and go on from there. I hope so. But why study structure at all? Can’t we just assume that poems are structured, and get on with it? There are two answers to this. One, is that not everyone, even now, assumes that this is the case; the extant studies, in general, seem to waffle, assuming that there is this kind of poem, or that kind of poem, ix Facebook : La culture ne s'hérite pas elle se conquiert PREFACE but no general principles are involved of which poets, critics and audiences are (in varying degrees) aware. The other is perhaps less self-evident (though it should be): structure does not just keep the poem from falling apart, or the audience from losing track; it is, rather, a means by which the poet conveys meaning.( Debates over the relative merits of wording (lafz) and “meaning” (ma na¯) ought not to confuse us; they are means to the same˙ end. The river is never the same river, and the poem is never the same poem: every change in wording, order, structure, changes the meaning, and that meaning is unparaphrasable, unreduceable to “content”, “idea”, “message”. The medium – the words used, their arrangement, rhetorical embellishment – is the message. One way to study structure is through the close analysis of texts. The study of medieval Arabic and Persian poetry has been complicated by the fact that, traditionally, this close analysis has largely been in the hands of philologists, and to a lesser extent of historians, who have viewed the poetic tradition as a collection of autonomous texts to be mined primarily for philological and/or historical, rather than literary, data, and as located within a generalized “world- view” (or expressive of a specific “mentality”) which accounts for the peculiarities (or shortcomings) perceived in the texts themselves. Those who have begun with the views of medieval critics of poetry, and have extrapolated these onto poetic practice, have often taken the critics’ statements at face value, or have argued that they failed to see what was happening in the poems. Composing poetry and criticizing it (as many of the medieval critics have remarked) are quite different activities, with quite different goals. Others, in reaction to the philologists (but, in some senses, their heirs), have focussed on texts from a synchronic standpoint, divorcing poetry from its historical and literary contexts in order to determine, “objectively”, how poems are formed – as if poems were formed in a vacuum.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Cholland Masters Thesis Final Draft
    Copyright By Christopher Paul Holland 2010 The Thesis committee for Christopher Paul Holland Certifies that this is the approved version of the following thesis: Rethinking Qawwali: Perspectives of Sufism, Music, and Devotion in North India APPROVED BY SUPERVISING COMMITTEE: Supervisor: __________________________________ Syed Akbar Hyder ___________________________________ Gail Minault Rethinking Qawwali: Perspectives of Sufism, Music, and Devotion in North India by Christopher Paul Holland B.A. Thesis Presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School of the University of Texas at Austin in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts The University of Texas at Austin May 2010 Rethinking Qawwali: Perspectives of Sufism, Music, and Devotion in North India by Christopher Paul Holland, M.A. The University of Texas at Austin, 2010 SUPERVISOR: Syed Akbar Hyder Scholarship has tended to focus exclusively on connections of Qawwali, a north Indian devotional practice and musical genre, to religious practice. A focus on the religious degree of the occasion inadequately represents the participant’s active experience and has hindered the discussion of Qawwali in modern practice. Through the examples of Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan’s music and an insightful BBC radio article on gender inequality this thesis explores the fluid musical exchanges of information with other styles of Qawwali performances, and the unchanging nature of an oral tradition that maintains sociopolitical hierarchies and gender relations in Sufi shrine culture. Perceptions of history within shrine culture blend together with social and theological developments, long-standing interactions with society outside of the shrine environment, and an exclusion of the female body in rituals.
    [Show full text]
  • AMER-MASTERSREPORT-2018.Pdf (303.8Kb)
    Copyright by Sundas Amer 2018 The Report Committee for Sundas Amer Certifies that this is the approved version of the following Report: Recovering an Archive of Women’s Voices: Durga Prasad Nadir’s “Tażkirāt ul-Nissāy-e Nādrī” APPROVED BY SUPERVISING COMMITTEE: Syed Akbar Hyder, Supervisor Martha Ann Selby Recovering an Archive of Women’s Voices: Durga Prasad Nadir’s “Tażkirāt ul-Nissāy-e Nādrī” by Sundas Amer Report Presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School of The University of Texas at Austin in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts The University of Texas at Austin May 2018 Acknowledgements My thanks to Professor Akbar Hyder for his encouragement, critical feedback, and counsel throughout the writing process. I am grateful to him for taking me on as a student and helping me traverse so fully the worlds of Urdu, Persian, and Arabic literatures. I hope to learn from his brilliant mind and empathetic nature for years to come. Thanks also to Professor Martha Selby for reading through this report so attentively and painstakingly. I am grateful for her translation class, which inspired me to engage seriously with Nadir’s tażkirah. Finally, thank you to my family for supporting my educational pursuits through thick and thin. iv Abstract Recovering an Archive of Women’s Voices: Durga Prasad Nadir’s “Tażkirāt ul-Nissāy-e Nādrī” Sundas Amer The University of Texas at Austin, 2018 Supervisor: Syed Akbar Hyder Durga Prasad Nadir’s “Tażkirāt ul-Nissāy-e Nādrī” is the second Urdu tażkirah (biographical compendium) to engage with women authors of Urdu and Persian poetry over the ages.
    [Show full text]
  • Syria, the Desert & the Sown : with A
    =i-n -m SYRIA SYRIA: The Desert & the Sown " Manchester Guardian. The possessor of Miss Bell's volume is to be envied. Her knowledge of her subject is at once thorough and sympathetic, and no better book of its kind has been written for many a long day." Morning Post. ' ' Of the book as a whole, one can only say that it is peculiarly rich in its expression of the visible and moral features oi Syria and in the comment of an original observer." " Spectator. An enchanting example of travel literature." Daily Telegraph. "The homely life of those rarely visited is well set out in these pages, and as we read, the very servants of Miss Bell challenge our personal interest, and vary- ing experiences seem the vicissitudes of a friend." Price 73. 6d. net. CONDON: Wn,I,IAM HEESTEMAKN 21 BEDFORD STREET, W.C. SYR IA THE DESERT if THE SOWN BY GERTRUDE LOWTHIAN BELL ^,-7^ NEW AND CHEAPER EDITION LONDON: WILLIAM HEINEMANN First printed, January 7907 Second Impression, March 1907 New and Cheaper Edition, October 1908 Second Impression, February if)ig Copyright, London 1907, by William Heinemann The occupation of Palestine and Syria by the Entente armies has caused a new call for this book. It is reissued in the hope that a work conceived in the interests of peace and civili- sation will be of service to those who have fought for the freedom of the peoples here described To A. C. L. WHO KNOWS THE HEART OF THE EAST cx> x x xo He deems the Wild the sweetest of friends, and travels on where travels above him the Mother of all the clustered stars.
    [Show full text]
  • Identification of Urdu Ghazal Poets Using SVM
    Mehran University Research Journal of Engineering & Technology Vol. 38, No. 4, 935-944 October 2019 p-ISSN: 0254-7821, e-ISSN: 2413-7219 DOI: 10.22581/muet1982.1904.07 Identification of Urdu Ghazal Poets using SVM NIDA TARIQ*, IQRA EJAZ*, MUHAMMAD KAMRAN MALIK*, ZUBAIR NAWAZ*, AND FAISAL BUKHARI* RECEIVED ON 08.06.2018 ACCEPTED ON 30.10.2018 ABSTRACT Urdu literature has a rich tradition of poetry, with many forms, one of which is Ghazal. Urdu poetry structures are mainly of Arabic origin. It has complex and different sentence structure compared to our daily language which makes it hard to classify. Our research is focused on the identification of poets if given with ghazals as input. Previously, no one has done this type of work. Two main factors which help categorize and classify a given text are the contents and writing style. Urdu poets like Mirza Ghalib, Mir Taqi Mir, Iqbal and many others have a different writing style and the topic of interest. Our model caters these two factors, classify ghazals using different classification models such as SVM (Support Vector Machines), Decision Tree, Random forest, Naïve Bayes and KNN (K-Nearest Neighbors). Furthermore, we have also applied feature selection techniques like chi square model and L1 based feature selection. For experimentation, we have prepared a dataset of about 4000 Ghazals. We have also compared the accuracy of different classifiers and concluded the best results for the collected dataset of Ghazals. Key Words: Text classification, Support Vector Machines, Urdu poetry, Naïve Bayes, Decision Tree, Feature Selection, Chi Square, k-Nearest Neighbors, Ghazal, L1, Random Forest.
    [Show full text]
  • Feiten of Framing? Een Vergelijkende Berichtanalyse Naar De Manier Waarop (Conflict)Frames Binnen Berichtgeving Over De Koerdische Kwestie Aanwezig Zijn
    Feiten of framing? Een vergelijkende berichtanalyse naar de manier waarop (conflict)frames binnen berichtgeving over de Koerdische Kwestie aanwezig zijn Megan S. van den Ende (5636078) Bacheloreindwerkstuk Nederlandse Taal en Cultuur NE3VD11017 Afdeling: Taalbeheersing Begeleider: Dhr. Dr. W. M. Mak Tweede beoordelaar: Dhr. Dr. I. O. de Vries Faculteit Geesteswetenschappen Universiteit Utrecht blok 4 19 juli 2018 Bacheloreindwerkstuk – Megan S. van den Ende (2018) Samenvatting De manier waarop een gebeurtenis of situatie in het nieuws wordt gepresenteerd door middel van framing kan een grote invloed hebben op de manier waarop de lezer tegen de besproken situatie aankijkt. De specifieke framing van een gebeurtenis binnen een nieuwsbericht heeft hiermee invloed op de publieke opinie. De Koerdische kwestie is een ingewikkelde conflictkwestie die al jaren speelt en waarin verschillende sociale actoren actief zijn, waarvan de Turkse en Koerdische partij de belangrijkste zijn. Van dit conflict is goed voor te stellen dat er geframed wordt binnen berichtgeving over gebeurtenissen die onderdeel zijn van deze kwestie. Dimitrova en Strömbäck (2005) kwamen tot de conclusie dat er een tekort is aan onderzoek dat vergelijkt hoe media van verschillende landen een oorlog bespreken. Dit onderzoek heeft daarom als doel te analyseren op welke manier er sprake is van framing binnen berichtgeving omtrent een conflict. Dit wordt gedaan aan de hand van een casus, namelijk berichtgeving over de Koerdische kwestie in de volgende nieuwsbronnen: het Nederlandse de Volkskrant, het Koerdische Rudaw en het Turkse Hürriyet. Om het onderzoek verder af te bakenen is ervoor gekozen berichtgeving omtrent Operatie Olijftak, de situatie in Noord-Syrië, nader te bestuderen.
    [Show full text]
  • The Beloved and the Lover – Love in Classical Urdu Ghazal
    Cracow Indological Studies vol. XII (2010) Agnieszka Kuczkiewicz-Fraś (Jagiellonian University, Krakow) The beloved and the lover – love in classical Urdu ghazal cišq par zor nahīÓ hai yah vah ātiš sālib ki lagāye na lage aur bujhāye na bane Ghalib! love is a fire that lights itself and dies out of itself, beyond our wills.1 The theme of love (cišq2) and the poetic genre of ghazal (sazal) have been inseparably tied to each other since the times when pre-Islamic 1 Ghazal XXXIV, transl. by Adrienne Rich in Ghazals of Ghalib, ed. by Aijaz Ahmad, Delhi: Oxford University Press 1994, p. 155. There is a brilliant wordplay in this line, as the word sālib, which is the poet’s taxalluÆ or ‘nom de plume’, often conventionally inserted in the closing couplet of the ghazal, might be understood also in its literal meaning (‘overpowering, triumphant’), so the verse can be read verbatim: “Love is triumphant fire and no one has any power over it”. 2 The most popular noun used by the authors of ghazals to connote love, is cišq ‘love, excessive love, passion’, but there are also many other words that mean ‘love’ or other similar feelings and emotions, which can be found in this type of poetry, like e.g.: ulfat (P ≤≤≤ A) ‘familiarity, intimacy; attachment, affection, friendship’; šauq (P ≤≤≤ A) ‘desire, yearning, deep longing (…), inclination, affection, love (…)’; taáap ‘(…) feverish dis- quietude (of body or mind); (…) anxious eagerness or desire (…)’; lagāva (H) ‘(…) intimacy, intimate connexion; a liaison; sexual intercourse’; 200 AGNIESZKA KUCZKEWICZ-FRAŚ Bedouin poets started expressing their overwhelming feelings of passion and loneliness in this intricate form3.
    [Show full text]
  • Full Report 2019
    Annual Report 2019 Copyright © 2020 Syrian Forum All rights reserved [email protected] www.SyrianForum.org Content Syrian Forum 04 A Message from the Chairman of the Board 04 A Message from the Chief Executive Offcer 05 About the Syrian Forum 06 Departments 07 Where We Work 08 Syrian Forum’s Programs 09 Syrian Forum’s Impact 10 Partners 13 Relief and Development 14 Accomplishments 15 How We Work 16 Support by Sector 18 Partnerships 25 Economic Empowerment 26 Accomplishments 27 Employment Statistics 28 Vocational Training Programs 30 Cooperation and Partnerships 33 Training and Innovation 34 Accomplishments 35 Why Bousla 36 2019 Programs 37 Partnerships 39 Public Policy and Research Center 40 Accomplishments 41 Why Omran 42 Omran’s Impact 43 Highlights 44 Collaboration 53 Media Track 54 Accomplishments 55 Why AlSouria.net 56 Our Reach 57 Njoom AlGhad Academy 60 Accomplishments 61 Program Summary 62 4 Syrian Forum Mustafa Sabbagh Chairman of the Board As the Syrian crisis continues, the tragedy Throughout the past years, we have of millions of displaced Syrians and refugees strategically widened our partnerships seeking a safe shelter increases, and with to include regional and international this horrific catastrophe, our core mission at organizations, we have overcome numerous Syrian Forum is to support the Syrians in their challenges and celebrated new successes aspiration to have a free and dignified life. but were always focused to serve Syrians intellectually, physically and holistically. We Since its establishment, Syrian Forum has
    [Show full text]
  • Breaking Free: Reflections on Stereotypes in South Asian History
    BREAKING FREE Reflections on Stereotypes in South Asian History By Edith B. Lubeck or many students, regardless of age or educational background, the . while curried aromas study of South Asian history seems a daunting task given the com- and vivid textiles enrich F plex and often unfamiliar nature of the subjects under investigation. the learning environment, Of course, exotic and stereotypic images of snake charmers and mystics abound. It is often tempting to rely on mnemonically convenient formulae images of wandering (caste defined and held as a constant, a given, over millennia) as the basis mystics, snake charmers, for instruction to reduce this material to manageable proportions. Although fatalistic villagers, timeless cultural “sound bites” may be easier for the secondary school student to digest when time constraints are great and the area of study is so disconcert- and immutable caste ingly new, the risks far outweigh the benefits. The best intentions of the his- structures and religious tory classroom are undone as historical time is compressed and dynamic modes of human interaction are reduced to a flat, two-dimensional plane. hatreds leave little Threats against Muslims and Muslim-owned property in the aftermath of the room for contextualized attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon have made crystal clear investigation in the study the importance of teaching the dangers of cultural stereotyping. In the article that follows I scrutinize those paradigms that continue to of South Asian history. hold a place of privilege in many textbooks despite fresh new research from numerous scholars working within the field of South Asian history over the past two decades.
    [Show full text]
  • Translation and Gender in the Urdu Ghazal by Nuzhat Abbas University of Wisconsin–Madison
    Conversing to/with Shame: Translation and Gender in the Urdu Ghazal by Nuzhat Abbas University of Wisconsin–Madison Shattered Mirrors, Broken Bits Ghazal Ye n≥zuk sµ mir® andar kµ la∞kµ ‘Ajab jaÿb® ‘ajab t®var kµ la∞kµ Yuhµ zakhmµ nahµ hai h≥t^ m®r® Tar≥shµ mai n® ik patt^ar kµ la∞kµ K^a∞µ hai fikr k® ¥ÿar-kad® m® Burµda-dast p^ir ¥ÿar kµ la∞kµ An≥ k^å’µ tå ku∞^ kar mar ga’µ Ba∞µ √ass≥s t^µ andar kµ la∞kµ Saz≥var-e hunar muj^ kå na ª^har≥ Ye fan m®r≥ na mai ¥ÿar kµ la∞kµ Bik^ar kar shµsha shµsha r®za r®za Simaª kar p^∑l s® paikar kµ la∞kµ ƒav®lµ k® makµ tå ±≥ht® t^® Keh g^ar hµ m® rah® ye g^ar kµ la∞kµ This fragile girl inside of me Of strange aspect, girl of strange countenance. • T A U S Not for nothing are my hands wounded I carved a girl of stone. She stands in the idolater’s house of thought With wounded hands, again, Aazar’s girl.1 Losing her self, she died of grief2 So sensitive was she, the girl inside.3 Do not make me liable for the excellence of this art This art is not mine, nor am I Aazar’s girl. Scattering into shattered mirrors, broken bits Gathering into the face of a flower, this girl. The masters of the haveli wanted simply this4 She stay within the house, this household’s girl.
    [Show full text]
  • A Reverence for Words: Understanding Muslim Cultures Through Poetry & Song: Tentative Schedule with Activities
    A REVERENCE FOR WORDS: UNDERSTANDING MUSLIM CULTURES THROUGH POETRY & SONG: TENTATIVE SCHEDULE WITH ACTIVITIES Sunday, July 13, 2014 at New York University Morning & Afternoon Arrival and check-in at Hotel Deauville Evening Excursion: Welcome reception at the Hagop Kevorkian Center with performances by special guest artists and a tour of The Richard Ettinghausen Library at New York University Monday, July 14, 2014 at New York University (morning); Islamic Cultural Center (afternoon) Morning Introductory session with an overview of the institute with City Lore and Poets House staff Lecture: “Introduction to Islam and the Language of the Qur’an” by Dr. Bruce Lawrence, Duke University with Q& A Afternoon Excursion: A Tour of the Islamic Cultural Center on Manhattan’s Upper East Side with Dr. Lawrence and staff Classroom Connections discussion Tuesday, July 15, 2014 at Poets House Morning Lecture: “Classical Arabic Literature Beyond The Thousand and One Nights” with Q& A Afternoon Arabic “Poetry Inside Out”—Teachers & Writers Collaborative on Mahmoud Darwish (1941-2008, Palestine) Classroom Connections discussion with special guest Tahani Salah, a Palestinian- American poetry slam champion Wednesday, July 16, 2014 at Poets House Morning Lecture: “The Persian Lyric Tradition: Rumi and Hafez” with Dr. Jawid Mojadeddi, Rutgers University with Q&A Afternoon Iranian “Poetry Inside Out”—Teachers & Writers Collaborative on Forugh Farrokhzad (1935-1967, Iran) Classroom Connections discussion Thursday, July 17, 2014 at Poets House Morning Lecture: “Masters of Urdu Poetry: Ghalib and Mir” with Q&A Afternoon Pakistani “Poetry Inside Out”—Teachers & Writers Collaborative on Faiz Ahmed Faiz (1911-1984, Pakistan) Classroom Connections discussion with special guest Pakistani-American poet Bushra Rehman Friday, July 18, 2014 at Poets House Morning Lecture: “Two Parallel Traditions: the Ottoman Lyric and the Turkish Folk Song” by Dr.
    [Show full text]
  • Re-Translating Asian Poetry
    Comparative Critical Studies 17.2 (2020): 183–203 Edinburgh University Press DOI: 10.3366/ccs.2020.0358 C Francesca Orsini. The online version of this article is published as Open Access under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial Licence (http://www.creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/) which permits non-commercial use, distribution and reproduction provided the original work is cited. For commercial re-use, please refer to our website at: www.euppublishing.com/customer-services/authors/permissions. www.euppublishing.com/ccs From Eastern Love to Eastern Song: Re-translating Asian Poetry FRANCESCA ORSINI Abstract: This essay explores the loop of translations and re-translations of ‘Eastern poetry’ from Asia into Europe and back into (South) Asia at the hands of ‘Oriental translators’, translators of poetry who typically used existing translations as their original texts for their ambitious and voluminous enterprises. If ‘Eastern’ stood in all cases for a kind of exotic (in the etymological sense of ‘from the outside’) poetic exploration, for Adolphe Thalasso in French and E. Powys Mathers in English, Eastern love poetry could shade into prurient ethno-eroticism. For the Urdu poet and translator Miraji, instead, what counted in Eastern poetry was oral, rhythmic and visual richness – song. Keywords: Orientalism, poetry, translation, lyric In the century and a half between William Jones’ Poems Consisting Chiefly of Translations from the Asiatick Languages in 1772 and Ezra Pound’s 1915 ‘removal’ of ‘the crust of dead English’ from his ‘translation’ of Chinese poetry in Cathay, Oriental or Eastern poetry translations, particularly of classical poetry, became a mainstay of European print culture at all levels, as the contributions to this special issue show (particularly Burney, Italia, and Bubb).1 In Britain, the culture of translation was profoundly changed by this expansion of translation beyond the tradition of English or European literature.
    [Show full text]
  • Afrin District, Aleppo, Syria September 2018
    Multi-Sector Needs Assessment Findings In Afrin District, Aleppo, Syria September 2018 http://www.hihfad.org HandinHandforAidandDevelopment Handinhandforsyr hands4syr Executive Summary Situation Overview During seven years of crisis in Syria, many areas have been damaged and people are living in a situation that lacks the minimum humanitarian standards to save their dignity and meet the daily basic needs. Afrin district is one of areas that has many changes in the dominant forces during the last seven years and is now marked as stable and secure. It has been a resort for several displacement waves from many areas like rural of Damascus and Dara. Afrin area is in urgent need for humanitarian intervention and provision basic services to maintain human dignity and reduce the impact of the crisis on them. Methodology Data collected through face-to-face interviews with key informants within the visited villages, and notes were collected by field team through direct observations. We tried to cover both sexes in a balanced manner as well as IDPs and residents. A questionnaire was filled in each community with population more than (500) and eventually we received 129 questionnaires by conducting about 1,290 interviews with more than (565) key informants from different specialized fields i.e. local council members, medical actors, educational actors, etc. In small communities with population less than 500 persons, the team took quick tours within the community accompanied with community leader and noted down direct observations. The total number of visited communities is (146) from overall (220) community in Afrin District. During the analysis process, data aggregation formula was used to calculate the numbers in sector-based manner.
    [Show full text]