N. Kanani
— Persian Heritage – #107, Winter 2022 —
“Hafiz is most assuredly a poet worthy to sup with gods.”
— Sir William Jones
With regard to Lord Byron’s parody, Anna Camilleri, who has authored a number of books on him, remarked:
“The most fascinating element of Byron’s parody is his use of formal mirroring. For example, in the rhyme scheme of the first stanza, Byron exactly replicates Jones.”18
To explain the principal rules of the Persian grammar and the subtleties of the language itself, Jones selected many illustrative examples from Hafez’s poems and included them together with their English translations in his “Grammar.” All his examples are reproduced below respecting his order:
ساقی بیار باده که آمد زمان گل
تا بشکنیمتوبهدگردرمیانگل
حافظ وصال گل می طلبی همچو بلبلان
جان کنفدایخاکرهباغبانگل
Boy, bring the wine, for the season of the rose approaches;
let us again break our vows of repentance in the midst of the roses.
O Hafiz, thou desirest, like the nightingales, the presence of the rose:
let thy very soul be a ransom for the earth where the keeper of the rose-garden walks!
رفتم به باغ صبحدمی تا چنم گلی
آمد بهگوشناگهمآوازبلبلی
One morning I went into the garden to gather a rose,
when on a sudden the voice of a nightingale struck my ear.
شب تاریک و بیم موج و گردابی چنین هایل
کجا دانندحالماسبکبارانساحل‌ها
The night is dark; the fear of the waves oppresses us, and the whirlpool is dreadful!
How should those, who bear light burdens on the shores, know the misery of our situation?
خوشا شیراز و وضع بی مثالش
خداوندا نگهداراززوالش
Joy be to Shiraz and ist charming borders!
O heaven, preserve it from decay!
به‌می سجاده رنگین کن گرت پیر مغان گوید
که سالکبی‌خبرنبودزراهورسممنزل‌ها
Tinge the sacred carpet with wine, if the master of the feast orders thee;
for he that travels is not ignorant of the ways and manners of the banquet-houses.
یا رب آن شاهوش ماه رخ زهره جبین
دُرّ یکتایکهوگوهریکدانهکیست
O heaven! whose precious pearl, and whose inestimable jewel is that royal maid,
with a cheek like the moon, and a forehead like Venus?
میخواره و سرگشته و رندیم و نظرباز
وانکس کهچنیننیستدراینشهرکدام‌ست
We are fond of wine, wanton, dissolute, and with rolling eyes;
who is there in this city that has not the same vices?
راهی‌ست راهِ عشق که هیچش کناره نیست
آنجا جزآنکهجانبسپارند،چارهنیست
The path of love is a path to which there is no end,
in which there is no remedy for lovers, but to give up their soul.
آن طرّه که هر جعدش صد نافۀ چین ارزد
خوش بودیاگربودیبوییشزخوشخویی
Those locks, each curl of which is worth a hundred musk-bags of China,
would be sweet indeed if their scent proceeded from sweetness of temper.
هم جان بدان دو نرگس جادو سپرده‌‌ایم
هم دلبداندوسنبلهندونهاده‌‌ایم
We have given up all our souls to those two enchanting narcissus’s (eyes),
we have placed all our hearts on those two black hyacinths (locks of hair).
فروغ جام و قدح نور ماه پوشیده
عذار مغبچگانراهآفتابزده
The brightness of the cup and the goblet obscures the light of the moon;
the cheek of the young cup-bearers steal the splendour of the sun.
نفس باد صبا مشک فشان خواهد شد
عالم پیردگربارهجوانخواهدشد
The breath of the western gale will soon shed musk around;
the old world will again be young.
به سعی خود نتوان برد گوهر مقصود
خیال توستکهاینکاربیحوالهبرآید
It is impossible to attain the jewel of thy wishes by thy own endeavours;
it is a vain imagination to think that it will come to thee without assistance.
درد عشقی کشیده‌ام که مپرس
زهر هجریچشیده امکهمپرس
I have felt the pain of love; ask not of whom:
I have tasted the poison of absence; ask not from whom.
گو شمع میارید در این جمع که امشب
در مجلسماماهِرخِدوستتمام‌ست
در مجلسِ ما عطر میامیز که جان را
هر دوزسرزلفتوخوشبویمشام‌ست
Say, bring no tapers into our assembly, fort his night
the moon of my beloved’s cheek is at its full in our banquet;
Sprinkle no perfume in our apartment, for to our minds
the fragrance the constantly proceeds from thy locks is sufficiently pleasing.
چو آفتاب می از مشرق پیاله برآید
ز باغعارضساقیهزارلالهبرآید
When the sun of the wine shall rise from the east of the cup,
a thousand tulips will spring from the garden of the cup-bearer’s cheek.
زین خوش رقم که بر گل رخسار می‌کشی
خط برصحیفهگلوگلزارمی‌کشی
With that sweet hue which thou bearest on the rose of thy cheek,
thou drawest a line over the face of the garden-rose.
ندانم از چه سبب رنگ آشنایی نیست
سَهی قدانِسیَه چشمِماه سیمارا
I know not why the damsels tall as cypress, with black eyes bright as the moon,
Have not the colour of love.
رونق عهد شبابست دگر بُستان را
می‌رسدمژدهٔگلبلبلخوشالحانرا
The brightness of youth again returns to the bowers;
the rose finds joyful tidings to the nightingale with sweet notes.
صبح‌ست ساقیا قدحی پرشراب کن
دور فلکدرنگنداردشتابکن
خورشید می ز مشرق ساغر طلوع کرد
گر برگعیشمیطلبیترکخوابکن
It is morning; boy, fill the cup with wine:
the rolling heaven makes no delay; therefore hasten.
The sun of the wine rises from the east of the cup:
if thou seekest the delights of mirth, leave thy sleep.
صبا به‌لطف بگو آن غزال رعنا را
که سربه‌کوهوبیابانتوداده‌‌ایمارا
O western breeze, say thus to yon tender faun, thou
hast confined us to the hills and deserts.
یا رب آن آهوی مشکین بختن بازرسان
وان سهیسروخرامانبچمنبازرسان
O heaven! bring that musky fawn back to Khoten;
bring back that tall waving cypress to its native garden.
نسیم زلفت اگر بگذرد بتربت حافظ
ز خاککالبدشصدهزارلالهبرآید
If the gale shall waft the fragrance of thy locks over the tomb of Hafiz,
a hundred thousend flowers will spring from the earth that hides his cores.
ببویِ نافه ای کآخر صبا زان طُرّه بگشاید
ز جَعدِزلفمشکینشچهتابافتاددردل‌ها
When the zephyr disperses the fragrance of those musky locks,
what ardent desire inflames the hearts of thy admirers.
تا غنچۀ خندانت دولت به که خواهد داد
ای شاخگلرعناازبهرکهمی‌رویی
Ah! to whom will the smiling rose-bud of thy lips give delight?
O sweet branch of a tender plant! for whose use dost thou grow?
گوشم همه بر قولِ نی و نغمه چنگست
چشمم همهبرلعلِلبوگردشجامست
My ear is continually intent upon the melody of the pipe, and the soft notes of the lute:
my eye is continually fixed upon thy rubied lip, and the circling cup.
صبا به تهنیت پیر میفروش آمد
که موسمطربوعیشونازونوشآمد
The zephyr comes to congratulate the old keeper of the banquet-house,
that the season of mirth, joy, wantonness, and wine is coming.
می خواه و گل افشان کن از دهر چه می‌جویی
این گفتسحرگهگلبلبلتوچهمی‌گویی
Call for wine, and scatter flowers around; what favour canst thou expect from fortune?
so spake the rose this morning; O nightingale! what sayst thou to her maxim?
The next ghazal fully translated by Jones into English and included to his Persian grammar was the following:
گل بی رخِ یار خوش نباشد
بی باده بهار خوش نباشد
طَرفِ چمن و طوافِ بستان
بی صوتِهَزارخوشنباشد
رقصیدن سرو و حالتِ گُل
بی لالهعذارخوشنباشد
با یارِ شکرلبِ گل اندام
بی بوسوکنارخوشنباشد
باغ گل و مُلّ خوشست امّا
بی صحبتیارخوشنباشد
هر نقش که دستِ عقل بندد
بی نقشِنگارخوشنباشد
جان نقدِ مُحَقَّر است حافظ
از بهرِنثارخوشنباشد
The rose is not sweet without the cheek of my beloved;
the spring is not sweet without wine.
The borders of the bower, and the walks of the garden
are not pleasant without the notes of the nightingale.
The motion of the dancing cypress and of the waving
flowers is not agreeable without a mistress whose cheeks are like tulips.
The presence of a damsel with sweet lips and a rosy
complexion is not delightful without kisses and dalliance.
The rose-garden and the wine are sweet, but they are not
really charming without the company of my beloved.
All the pictures that the hand of art can devise are not
agreeable without the brighter hues of a beautiful girl.
Thy life, O Hafiz, is a trifling piece of money, it is not valuable enough to be thrown away19 at our feast.20
Poems consisting chiefly of translations from the Asiatick Languages
Another early work by William Jones dealing with topics as diverse as linguistics, literature, history, archaeology, natural history and the law was “Poems consisting chiefly of translations from the Asiatick Languages” published 1772 in Oxford).
As one can see, the volume contained also two essays, one titled On the Poetry of the Eastern nations and the other On the Arts, commonly called Imitative. In his first essay Jones mentioned a manuscript at Oxford that contained the lives of one hundred and thirty-five of the finest Persian poets and added, “…most of whom left very ample collections of their poems behind them: but the versifiers, and moderate poets are without number in Persia.”
He then continued: “This delicacy of their lives and sentiments has insensibly affected their language, and rendered it the softest, as it is one of the richest, in the world: it is not possible to convince the reader of this truth, by quoting a passage from a Persian poet in European characters; since the sweetness of sound cannot be determined by the sight, and many words, which are soft and musical in the mouth of a Persian, may appear very harsh to our eyes, with a number of consonants and gutturals: it may not, however, be absurd to set down in this place, an Ode of the poet Hafiz, which, if it be not sufficient to prove the delicacy of his language, will at least show the liveliness of his poetry.”
At this point Jones provided the transliteration of an Ode of Hafiz (a poem that in fact has been ascribed to the poet!). The Persian original of this ‛ode’ is rendered below:
ای باد نسیم یار داری
زان نفخه مشک بار داری
زنهار مکن دراز دستی
با طرۀاوچهکارداری
ای گل تو کجا و روی زیباش
او تازهوتوخاربارداری
نرگس تو کجا و چشم مستش
او سرخوشتوخمارداری
ای سرو تو با قد بلندش
در باغچهاعتبارداری
ای عقل تو با وجود عشقش
در دستچهاختیارداری
ریحان تو کجا و خط سبزش
او مشگوتوغبارداری
روزی برسی به وصل حافظ
گر طاقتانتظارداری
The English translation, word for word as Jones put it, reads as follows:
O sweet gale, thou bearst the fragrant scent of my beloved; thence it is that thou hast this musky odour.
Beware! do not steal; what hast thou to do with her tresses?
O rose, what art thou, to be compared with her bright face? She is fresh, and thou art rough with thorns.
O narcissus, what art thou in comparison of her languishing eye? Her eye is only sleepy, but thou art sick and faint.
O pine, compared with her graceful stature, what honour has thou in the garden?
O wisdom, what would thou choose, if to choose were in thy power, in preference to her love?
O sweet basil, what art thou to be compared with her fresh cheeks? They are perfect musk, but thou art soon withered.
Come, my beloved, and charm Hafiz with thy presence, if thou canst but stay with him for a single day.21
At this point Jones added: “This little song is not unlike a sonnet, ascribed to Shakespear22 which deserves to be cited here, as a proof that the Eastern imagery is not so different from the European as we are apt to imagine.
The forward violet thus did I chide:
“Sweet thief! whence didst thou steal thy sweet that smells,
“If not from my love’s breath? The purple pride,
“Which on thy soft cheek for complexion dwells,
“In my love’s veins thou hast too grossly dyed.”
The lily I condemned for thy hand,
And buds of marjoram had stol’n thy hair:
The roses fearfully on thorns did stand;
One blushing shame, another white despair;
A third, nor red nor white, had stol’n of both
And to his robb’ry had annex’d thy breath;
But, for his theft, in pride of all his growth
A vengeful canker eat him up to death.
More flow’rs I noted, yet I none could see
But sweet or colour it had stol’n from thee.”
Sir William Jones’s Legacy
In 1783 Jones was knighted and in the same year he sailed as Sir William Jones for Calcutta as judge of the Supreme Court. A year later he founded and became the president of the Asiatic Society of Bengal to encourage oriental studies. On April 20, 1794 he died at the age of 47 of inflammation of the liver, a common disease in Bengal. The British oriental scholar and historian Thomas Maurice (1754-1824) published a lengthy poem in 1795, titled An Elegiac Poem, sacred to the memory and virtues of the honourable Sir William Jones.
Sir William Jones’s literary legacy was immense although he was granted only a short life. As David L. Richardson (1801-1865), an English scholar at Hindu College, rightly put it, considering the shortness of his life the extent of his attainment was perfectly amazing.23
The British orientalist Sir William Ouseley (1767-1842) praised Jones’s literary genius by saying: “The universality of his genius is acknowledged by many writers, and so great was his stock of acquired knowledge, that the name of Sir William Jones, is sufficient to express the highest degree of intellectual excellence a human being could attain.”24
William R. Alger (1822-1905), an American theologian and author, expressed his acknowledgement of Sir William Jones’s accomplishments and achievements as follows: “Sir William Jones was the Vasco de Gama25 who first piloted the thought of Europe to the Oriental shores.”26
Sir William Jones was among others very much interested in Persian literature and poetry. His extensive translations from Persian and his well-founded essays on Persian literature testify that.
1769: Jones included in his “Un Traité sur la poësie orientale” the French versions in prose and verse of ten ghazals by Hafez.
1770: He published an accomplished French metrical translation of thirteen odes of Hafez.27
1771: He wrote his “A Grammar of the Persian Language,” which became soon an authoritative source in the field.
1772: He published a small collection of poems, consisting chiefly of translations from the Asiatic languages
1773: He wrote ‘The History of the Persian Language.”
1774: He wrote a treatise titled “Poeseos Asiaticce commentatorium libri sex” and quoted in it several verses from Hafez together with their Latin translations.
1780: He translated An Ode of Jami and A Song from the Persian.
1785: He wrote The Persian quatrain ‘On Parent Knees and translated “Tales and Fables by Nizami”.
1786: He planned “A Tragedy on the Story of Sohrab.”
1788: He translated Lailí Majnún, a Persian Poem of Hátifí.
1790: He wrote “The Sixth Discourse on the Persians.”
1792: He wrote “On the Mystical Poetry of the Persians and Hindus.”
In his An Essay on the Poetry of the Eastern Nations Jones raised the question:
“Why Persia has produced more writers of every kind, and chiefly poets, than all Europe together?”
Then he made an attempt to answer this question that obviously had occupied his mind for quite a while and came to the conclusion that “The greater part of them [of the Persians], in the short intervals of peace that they happen to enjoy, constantly sink into a state of inactivity, and pass their lives in a pleasurable yet studious retirement; and this may be one reason why Persia has produced more writers of every kind, and chiefly poets, than all European together; since their way of life gives them leisure to pursue those arts.”
He then went on to observe: “There is a manuscript at Oxford containing the lives of a hundred and thirty five of the finest Persian poets, most of whom left very ample collection of their poems behind them: but the versifiers, and moderate poets are without number in Persia. This delicacy of their lives and sentiments has insensibly affected their language, and rendered it the softest, as it is one of the richest, in the world: it is not possible to convince the reader of this truth, by quoting a passage from a Persian poet in European characters; since by sight, and many words, which are soft and musical in the mouth of a Persian, may appear very harsh to our eyes, with a number of consonants and gutturals: it may not, however, be absurd to set down in this place an ode of the poet Hafiz, which if it be not sufficient to prove the delicacy of his language, will at least show the liveliness of his poetry.”28
The seminal works by William Jones on Persian literature established his authority as a consummate oriental scholar and a proven expert on Persian poetry. Since he was the first to truly introduce the Persian language and poetry as well as numerous eastern poets to the English-speaking world, he was occasionally referred to as ‘Persian Jones,’ or ‛Oriental Jones.’29
Franklin D. Lewis, a scholar of Persian Language and Literature expressed the opinion according to which: “Sir William ‘Oriental’ Jones reversed the course of translation history. In 1771 he rendered one ghazal (a form akin to the sonnet) of Hâfez in stanzaic verse, complete with interpolated commentary on the nature of eastern poetry (‘Orient pearls at random strung’). As part of his programme to reinvigorate European verse with foreign forms and ideas, Jones begged in the closing lines that his ‘simple lay’ might ‘go boldly forth,’ and indeed it did, inspiring a virtual cottage industry of Hâfez translations and grammars of Persian; by 1801 there were at least five different collections, most quite faithful and most with parallel Persian text.”30
The American writer of Iranian descent John D. Yohannan (1911-1997), raced in his doctoral thesis the influence of Sir William Jones’s oriental scholarship and the fascination of the English romantic poets such as Sir Walter Scott, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Lord Byron, Thomas Moore, and Alfred Tennyson with Persian poetry.31
As a matter of fact, the most famous translators of Hafez such as Sir John Richardson, Sir William Ouseley, Edward B. Cowell, Herman Bicknell, Edward H. Palmer, William H. Lowe, Henry W. Clarke, Walter Leaf, John Payne, and Richard Le Gallienne, to name a few, were all inspired by Sir William Jones.
By including English translations and paraphrases of many of poems of Hafez in his “Grammar” William Jones brought the Persian poet for the first time to the notice of English readers. It is, therefore, only fair to say that it was he who made Hafez known to the Western world and awakened real interest in his poetry.
Kurt A. Johnson stressed the significance of Jones’s approach, stating: “Undercutting the European stereotype of ‘Eastern’ poetry as ‘ridiculously bombast,’ Jones was eager to show the ‘very great resemblances between the works of writers such as the Persian poet Hafiz and the epic Persian poet Ferdowsi, and, respectively, Shakespeare and Homer.”32
______________
- Anna Camilleri: “Byron’s Harem Heroines, the Vindication and a Vulgar Error,” in: “Byron’s Religions,” edited by Peter Cochran, Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2011, p. 224.
- According to an old Persian custom money was thrown among the guests at a bridal feast.
- “A Grammar of the Persian Language,” pp. 133-135.
- “Poems consisting chiefly of translations from the Asiatick Languages,” pp. 189-192.
- Sonnet 99 by William Shakespeare (1564-1616) the English playwright and poet
- David Lester Richardson: “Selections from the British Poets from the time of Chaucer to the present day,” Calcutta MDCCCXL (1840), p. ǀxxvii.
- William Ouseley: “Persian Miscellanies: An Essay to Facilitate the Reading of Persian Manuscripts,” London, 1785, p. 184.
- Vasco da Gama (1460-1524), the Portuguese explorer who was the first European to reach India by sea.
- William Rounseville Alger: “The Poetry of the East,” Boston, 1856, p. 8.
- Thomas Park: “The Poetical Works of Sir William Jones – Collated with the best editions in two volumes,” London, 1808, Vol. I, pp. 115-117.
- “Poems consisting chiefly of translations from the Asiatick Languages,” pp. 189-190.
- Michael J. Francklin: “Oriental Jones: Sir William Jones, Poet, Lawyer, and Linguist 1746-1794,” Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2011, pp. 43-89.
- http://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/acref/9780198183594.001.0001/acref-9780198183594-e-22
- John D. Johannan: “The Persian Poetry Fad in England 1770-1825,” Ph.D. dissertation, Department of English, New York University, 1947, p. 1.
- Kurt Andrew Johnson, op. cit., p. 45.