The next line contains an enigma (mu'ammá), which again Mu'ammá. I have not been able to solve:—
73. Mawj u dúd-i-dil u du dída-i-man burd daryá wa abr-rá
miqdár.“The waves (of tears) and heart-smoke (i.e., sighs) of my two eyes
have lowered the esteem of the sea and the cloud.”
The next figure illustrated is the taḍmín, or “insertion” (i.e., of the verse of another poet in one's own), already men- Taḍmín. tioned at p. 45 supra. It is necessary, however, either that the “inserted” verse should be very well known, or that it should definitely be introduced as a quotation, lest the poet employing it expose himself to a charge of plagiarism. A good instance in English is the following from the Ingoldsby Legends:—
“‘One touch to his hand, and one word to his ear,’—
(That's a line which I've stolen from Sir Walter, I fear).”
The following taḍmín is one of the few Persian verses which the author of this work has ventured to compose, and was written at the request of a friend who was enamoured of a young lady named May, which word (pronounced in exactly the same way) means “wine” in Persian. Shaykh Sa'dí, of Shíráz, says in one of his verses in the Gulistán:—
Mast-i-may bídár gardad ním-i-shab:
Mast-i-sáqí rúz-i-maḥshar bámdád,
which means—
“He who is intoxicated with the Wine (May) will come to his
senses at midnight:
He who is intoxicated with the cup-bearer [only] on the Resur-
rection morning!”
From these verses I made the following taḍmín, which also contains a tajnís-i-támm, or “perfect word-play,” on the word “may,” and an ighráq, or “exaggeration” of the most approved type:—
‘Mast-i-may bídár gardad ním-i-shab,’ farmúd Shaykh:
Ín, agarchi qawl-i-Shaykh-ast, níst já-yi i'timád:
Man mayí dánam, ki hargah mast-i-án gardad kasí,
Sar zi mastí bar na-dárad ‘rúz-i-maḥshar bámdád.’“‘He who is intoxicated with the Wine will come to his senses
at midnight,’ says the Shaykh: *
This, though it is the Shaykh's saying, is not a statement on
which one can rely.
I know a certain Wine (or a certain May) wherewith should one
become intoxicated
He will not raise up his head from his intoxication even ‘on the
Resurrection-morning.’”74. Waṣl khwáham: na-dánam ánki bi-kas ráyagán rukh namí-
numáyad yár?“I desire union: [but] do I not know this, that the Beloved will
not show her face to any one for nothing?”
The deplorable fact that I do not know which part of the verse is the quotation, nor whence it is borrowed, rather lays me open to the charge of ignorance than the poet to that of plagiarism.
The figure termed ighráq (“straining”) is next illustrated.
Ighráq. This is one of the three recognised forms of hyperbole (mubálagha), viz., tablígh, when the assertion made “is possible both to reason and experience”; Ghuluww. ighráq, “when it is possible, but not probable”; and ghuluww, “when the assertion is absolutely impossible.” A good instance of this last is given by Dawlat-Ṣawáb kard ki paydá na-kard har du jahán
Yagána Ízad-i-dádar-i-bí-nadhír u hamál:
Wa gar-na har du bi-bakhshídí ú bi-rúz-i-sakhá;
Umíd-i-banda na-mándí bi-Ízad-i-muta'ál!“Well it was that God, the One, the Judge, Exempt from peer
or mate,
Made apparent one alone of those two worlds He did create;
Else the King's unstinted bounty would have given both away;
Nothing then would have been left for which a man to God
should pray!”
Another still more extravagant instance of ghuluww (in the theological as well as in the rhetorical sense) is the following verse addressed to Bahá'u'lláh, the late Pontiff of the Bábís, by Nabíl of Zarand:—
Khalq gúyand Khudá'í, wa man andar ghaḍab áyam;
Parda bar dáshta ma-p'sand bi-khud nang-i-Khudá'í!“Men call Thee God, and I am filled with wrath thereat:
Withdraw the veil, and suffer no longer the shame of Godhead
[to rest upon Thee]!”*
The instance of ighráq given in our qaṣída is the following:—
75. W'ar numáyad zi bas ṣafá ki darúst, Ráz-i-man dar rukhash
buwad dídár.“Or if she shows it [i.e., her cheek], such is its translucency that
my secret will be apparent in her face.”
The next seven verses illustrate different combinations of Jam' u tafríq u taqsím. the figures called jam' (combination), tafríq (separation), and taqsím (discrimination), of which the nature will be sufficiently clear from the following lines:—
Jam'. 76. Bar lab-ash zulf 'áshiq-ast chu man: lá jaram
hamchu man 'sh níst qarár. Tafríq. 77. Bád-i-ṣubḥ-ast bú-yi zulf-ash: nay, na-buwad bád-i-
ṣubḥ 'anbar-bár! Jam' u taqsím. 78. Man u zulfín-i-ú nigúnsár-ím, lík ú bar gul-ast u
man bar khár. Jam' u tafríq. 79. Hast khaṭṭ-ash firáz-i-'álam-i-rú: án yakí abr, u ín
yakí gulzár. Taqsím u tafríq. 80. Ghamm-i-du chíz mará du chíz supurd: dída-rá áb,
u sína-rá zangár. Jam' u tafríq u taqsím. 81. Hamchu chashm-am tawángar-ast lab-ash: án
bi-ashk, ín bi-lu'lu'i-shahwár.
82. Áb-i-án tíra, áb-i-ín rawshan; án-i-ín girya, w'án-i-u
guftár.“Her tresses, like me, are in love with her lips, consequently,
like me, they know no rest.
The fragrance of her tresses is [like] the morning breeze; nay,
for the morning breeze is not laden with ambergris!
I and her tresses are cast down headlong, but they on the roses *
and I on the thorns. *
The down overshadows the world of her face: that is the cloud,
and this the rose-garden.
Sorrow for two things conferred on me two things: tears on my
eyes and verjuice on my bosom.
Her lip is as rich as my eye, the latter in tears, the former in
royal pearls. *
The water of those [tears] is dark, while the water of these
[pearls] is bright; the property of those [my eyes] is weep-
ing, and of these [her lips] speech.”
The next four verses illustrate the figure called tafsír
Tafsír-i-khafí and Tafsír-i-jalí. (“explanation”), of which there are two kinds, called respectively jalí (“patent”) and khafí (“latent”), which last is complicated by a kind of chiasmus. The following exemplifies the latter:—