6. The metrical principles of classical Gūrānī poetry
6.2 The metrical principle of classical Gūrānī poetry
6.2.3 Characteristic (c): the rhyme and its form
The ―regularity‖ and ―predictable position‖ of a potential constituent are two features on which a constituent can be judged as either metrical or not metrical (compare Fabb 1997:116). If a constituent systematically shows these two features, it counts as a metrical constituent. Since rhyme in our poems fulfills both conditions, it counts as a metrical constituent, but a constituent like alliteration does not count as a metrical constituent, because it involves ―unsystematic sound-patterning‖ (Fabb 1997:116).
There are different types of rhyme and different definitions of rhyme. For our purposes, a most basic definition is that rhyme involves the repetition of sounds at the end of lines, and these lines occur in a specific arrangement, such as in couplets or strophes (that is, in a set of three or more lines).
The most important and most common type of rhyme in classical Literary Gūrānī poetry is the monorhyme. Although it is of secondary importance to our study and not the way Iranian scholars talk about it,122 our use of the term monorhyme includes as subtypes what Western scholars have called ―masculine rhyme‖ and ―feminine rhyme‖. For example, Chatman (1960:152) describes masculine rhyme, as the ―repetition of final stressed vowels and final consonants and consonant clusters, if any, but not of initial consonants in the syllable: be – agree.‖ And feminine rhyme he describes as ―The above, plus any additional unstressed identical syllables: taker – maker (but not taker – sicker).
A typical example of a monorhyme is illustrated by the following couplet from the Dīwān of Mawlawī. Both lines end with same sound -ardim, which occur in two different words, dardim and fardim. Moreover, we can call this example a ―couplet monorhyme‖ because the two lines form a couplet with an ―aa‖ rhyming structure (that is, both lines end in the same sound, as symbolized by one ―a‖).
(148) Mudarīs 2006:89
manʕim makardē, girānan dardim Don‘t snub me! My pain is heavy
ar šēwyā bo qāfyay fardim (Therefore) if my mono-rhyme is disturbed
(If my monorhyme is disturbed, don‘t snub me, my pain is heavy!)
In most kinds of classical Gūrānī poems, the monorhyme is the only form of rhyme. It seems it is a part of the typical structure of classical Gūrānī poetry. The monorhyme is so established in Gūrānī poetry that in the Dīwān of Mawlawī, from which our above example comes, there is only one poem, which does not have the monorhyme. In this poem, instead of only couplet monorhymes in the pattern of ―aa, bb…‖, we also find the rhyming pattern of
―ab, ab…‖. However, it is interesting to note that, in the above couplet, the poet Mawlawī actually apologizes for what he calls ―disturbed‖ rhymes. The disturbed rhymes do not occur in this above quoted couplet (which is actually part of his introduction to a larger poem) but they come later in the poem.
122 Shamissa (2004b:107) says that the most important point about rhyme is to change the first consonant of the last syllable of a word (e.g. CV, CVC, CVCC). According to Shamissa (op. cit., p. 102), line-final rhyme should include part of the root of the word, and any suffix that is added to the root should not be counted as part of the rhyme.
The other situation when the poets have avoided the couplet monorhyme is when they change language in a poem. For example, in Yārsān poetry, as we will see in a later section, there is a chapter called Dīwān ʕĀbidīn. In this dīwān the verses are written in Central Kurdish (that is, in Sorānī) and the monorhyme is not used. It is clear that, as soon as the language of the poetry changes, the poet takes the opportunity to change the rhyme pattern.
Besides monorhyme, the lines in a poem can have identical rhyme, which is called radīf in the Persian literature. In the case of identical rhyme, an entire word is repeated after the monorhyme. This is illustrated in the following couplet from a longer poem by Mullā Parēšān (we will cite the full poem later). The identical rhyme (or radīf) is the word nīn ‗they are not‘, which ends each line, and the monorhyme is -ast, which comes before that:
(149) MS: 1196 Parēšān Nāma
7 mastān-e maǰāz dēwānan mast nīn Those are not drunk who are metaphorically drunk, they are mad;
8 hawāparastān xudāparast nīn it is those who serve lust who do not serve God In the classical Gūrānī poems, monorhyme and identical rhyme can be arranged in different strophe structures, which include the following types:
The strophe contains two lines, that is, it is a couplet, and the two lines have a monorhyme (aa)
The strophe contains four lines, that is, it is a quatrain, and all four lines have the same rhyme (aa aa).
The strophe contains several lines (e.g. four, six, eight, etc.), in which case the rhymes can have different patterns, such as:
o aa, aa, aa, aa, aa, …, bb, bb, bb, bb, bb, … o aa, aa, aa, aa, .., bb, cc, dd, ee, …
o aa, bb, cc, dd, … o aa, aa, aa, aa, …
The strophe contains four lines, that is, it is a quatrain, and in addition to a monorhyme, there can also be an identical rhyme, as in the following:
(150) Ms. or. oct. 1182
qazā ǰiryān kard Mishap set off
qādir ţi qudrat qazā ǰiryān kard Mishap from the power of mishap set off čand ţi čūbdārān puxta-w biryān kard It boiled and fried some of the stick-owner dīda-y diłsozān piř ţi giryān kard It filled the eyes of good people with tears In the above lines, the word kard functions as the identical rhyme, and the words ǰiryān, biryān and giryān function as monorhymes.
The strophe contains several lines and, apart from a monorhyme, there is an identical rhyme in all of the lines, with exception of the last couplet. This pattern is illustrated in the following example. In all but the last couplet, we find the identical rhyme of to ‗you‘, which is connected to the preceding word by the Ezāfa marker (-e). Additionally, there is the monorhyme -(i)yā in lines 1 to 4;
lines 5-6 have -ēš, lines 7-8 have -ēz, lines 9-10 have -āmān, and lines 11-12 have -ām.
(151) Ms.Or. 6444:f. 16b
1 čirāx! siyā-y to Lamp! Your black (eyes)
2 ba har dū dīda-y mast-e syā-y to (I swear) by both your intoxicated (i.e., beautiful) black eyes
3 ba nīm nigā-y nāz nāgā-dyā-y to (I swear) by your short pampered glances 4 ba zułf-e ħabaš pašēwyā-y to (I swear) by your disheveled locks
5 ba tāq-e abrū-y qałamkēš-e to (I swear) by your arched and painted eyebrow 6 ba moţa-y nāwāk ţār-e nēš-e to (I swear) by your eyelashes with poisoned spikes 7 ba řēza-y řāzān šakar-řēz-e to (I swear) by your soft falling sugar (speech) 8 ba nāf-e āhū-y ʕanbarbēz-e to (I swear) by your (scent, which brings) the musk
of the navel of deer to shame
9 ba bāłā-y čun sałw xarāmān-e to (I swear) by your high stature (which is) like a swaying cedar
10 ba ǰawr-u safa-y bē-sāmān-e to (I swear) by your irregular tyranny and ingenuity
11 ba gišt sawgand bo, ǰamīn wēna-y ǰām It will be sworn by all (these things), (O) forehead like mirror!
12 dūrī to kardan xāw wanam ħarām The distance of you (has caused) me to never sleep in the night.
In many strophes, as illustrated in the last poem, an identical rhyme may be used in only some of the pairs of lines, for example, it may occur at the beginning, middle, or end of the poem.
As is clear from the above examples of classical Gūrānī poetry, the monorhyme is the most common type of rhyme. Certain other kinds of rhyming do not even exist in Gūrānī.
Even the use of the identical rhyme differs from its use in Persian or Arabic. According to the preference of the poet, some lines may have identical rhymes while others may have none.
We know from Persian poetry, for example, that in a ghazal poem, if there is an identical rhyme, every second line of each couplet has the same identical rhyme. But in Gūrānī poetry, identical rhymes are not used in this way.
This shows that the classical Gūrānī poets have not been limited to the poetic rules that are dominant in a language like Persian. For the Gūrānī poets, what is important is to manage the homophony and harmony between the lines. One way that this is done is to use the similar sounds at the end of each couplet, that is, by using rhyme. But there are other ways that the poets used similar sounds to create homophony and harmony (or ―musicality‖) between lines.
We will take up these other ways in detail in section 6.4.
Let us now consider the following poem of thirty-four lines by Mullā Parēšān and see how the above mentioned characteristics of classical Gūrānī poetry are executed:
MS: 1196 Parēšān Nāma
1 sāqī! bāwara // jāmē pay mastī Cup-bearer! Bring in a glass of wine for drunkenness
2 sūdim mastīyan ziyān ţi hastī Drunkenness is for the best and existence is a loss 3 ǰāmē ka maġzim bāwaro na ǰoš a glass that so stirs and excites my mind
4 dunyā-w māfīhā bikam farāmoš that I forget the world and whatever is inside, 5 na ţa-w bāda-y bazm ħarīfān-e rad not the wine of a gaggle of good-for-nothings, 6 munhī-ye ałlāh muzill-e xerad who deny God and corrupt wisdom.
7 mastān-e maǰāz dēwānan mast nīn Those are not drunk who are metaphorically drunk, they are mad;
8 hawāparastān xudāparast nīn it is those who serve lust who do not serve God 9 ţa-w bāda-y bē ġaš xumxāna-y dīrīn (Pour) the pure wine from the most ancient of
cellars
10 mašrī mardafkan tałx-e lab-šīrīn Wine to fell a man, a bitter sweet to the lip 11 bidar tā yakǰā pāk ţi gunāh būm Pour it to cleanse from sin once and for all
12 mastī bāwaro, finā fīllāh būm Bring me to drunkenness that I may be extinct in God
13 musilmānī! gar min tēšna-kāmim Oh, Muslims! If I am thirsty,
14 kāfir-e zohdim murīd-e jāmim (it is because) I am a traitor to asceticism and a disciple of the glass,
15 bidar binūšām wa yād-e mastān Pour me a drink in honor of the intoxicated ones 16 panǰa-y ebl'īs hīč paymān diristān The finger of Satan cannot be trusted
17 sāqī! piř bikar ǰām-e yak manī Cup-bearer! Fill this glass with enough for three 18 šāyad bigżarim ţi māʔ u manī That from the desire to pour (my own) water I
might be free
19 tā ka binūšim ba yād-e kasī In order to drink in honor of the one,
20 zindigīm margan bē aw nafasī Without whom every moment of my life is like death
21 yak nafas ba aw // arzad bařř-ū būm Even one breath at his side is more than the world 22 kāfirim agar ǰūyā-y mīnū būm Seeking (only) heaven, I‘d be an infidel
23 či ħāǰat ba xuld ħūr u qusūran What do I need with eternity, palaces and houris 24 bahaštparast nīm // dostim manzūran (when) I don‘t serve Paradise and seek only my
Friend
25 zāhid! to u ħūr-u bahašt-e barīn O ascetic one, Paradise and its houris are all for you
26 min u xāk-e ko-y // diłribā-y dērīn For me is the ancient beloved and the earth of his home;
27 min ba āb-e ʕašq xākim sirištan I was sculpted from clay with the water of love 28 yak ǰafāš ţi lām čun hašt bihištan An ounce of his cruelty is for me the eighth
heaven
29 har yarē ţi šast sāf u diłbaran All three are from the pure finger of friend (?) 30 zāmiš ţi mīwa-y Tūbā123 xuštaran His wound is sweeter than the fruit of Tuba 31 bē zaxm-e xadang muţa-y diłārām Without a wound from the arrow of the beloved‘s
lash
32 nangan pā nīyān wa saħrāy qīyām ‗tis a shame to set foot in the plains of battle (i.e., where Hussein was martyred)
33 bē zaxm-e xadang muţa-y mah-řuwān Without a wound from the arrow of a moon-faced beauty‘s eyelash,
34 nangan wa saħrā-y qīyāmat luwān 'tis a shame to face the plains of resurrection.
We can now summarize the metrical principles of the above poem:
Each of the 34 lines has ten syllables.
A caesura divides every line into two hemistichs.
Every couplet ends with a mono-rhyme. For example, lines 1-2 end with -astī (mastī/hastī); lines 3-4 with -ǰoš; and lines 5-6 end with the feminine rhyme -eřad.
Beside mono-rhyme, we also find identical rhyme in lines 7-8 and 21-22.
123 Tūbā is the name of the most important tree in Paradise.
In lines 17-18, there is only identical rhyme.
Here, we can point out the symmetrical features of classical Gūrānī poetry. Not only does each line have the same number of syllables and divide into two equal hemistichs, but the couplet rhyming structure adds to the overall symmetrical schema, as do also the harmony between lines that is created by alliteration, consonance, assonance, and many other kinds of repetitions (we will discuss these latter constituents in the next sections).
Finally, caesura is another main constituent that adds to the symmetrical schema. The exact division of ten syllables into two groups by the caesura is an important constituent that enhances the symmetrical structure.
We can compare our conclusions about the caesura at the end of this section with what we found when looking at the historical background of Iranian poetry. As we saw with the Avestan texts, though there are various competing and uncertain hypotheses about the role of caesura, nevertheless, based on some analyses of the Old Avestan texts (see Chapter 3) the number of syllables and the position of the caesuras functioned as the main metrical constituents. Therefore, it seems that the same constituents have been preserved in classical Gūrānī poetry.