Portrait of Sadie
Literary freedom?
Looking at Rudaki's collection of poems the other day, there is a poem about gender relations, and I have been thinking about how to translate this poem, whether it should be sent out. Of course, I also wondered if this poem has another meaning. Later, I talked to a friend who studied literary translation about this matter, she said: "Literature is free, may not be free to translate, but your ideas are free." Didn't Maugham and Wilde write about sex as well? ”
Ludaki's Collected Poems
The reason why I was thinking about whether the poem should be sent out was actually influenced by my own mentor. Last fall I wrote a comparative literature essay about the image of women and gender relations in Li Bai's poetry. The teacher deleted the whole paragraph without thinking, and said, "I can't understand this paragraph, and I can't use it." ”
A friend once asked me: Is a relatively unfree place like Iran really suitable for studying literature?
Until now, my answer is still: not suitable.
I am a person who studies classical literature. The joy of classical literary studies is in the hamlet problem, what you see is what you get. But in Iran, I can't have a view that the mainstream academic community doesn't agree with.
Again, the aforementioned question of literary freedom, literature is not at all free in Iran. On the surface, everyone tells you that Rumi and Shams are really just soul mates, but in private, who doesn't die as a couple? Even college teachers will secretly tell you that our great poets are not heterosexual.
Excerpts from Rumi's poetry collection
Rumi wrote in his Collection of Shams:
"I only ask you for a kiss, but you kiss me a thousand times." You are so knowledgeable in this matter, you must have asked others for advice. ”
"Inside and outside my heart, it's all him."
"When you think of the night you spent with me, please forget my rudeness and recklessness."
Who reads and doesn't say a sentence that Rumi is really cute and really dedicated? But this point of view can not be published, and finally I have to say that the "he" in Rumi's heart is Allah.
This popular view in Iranian scholarship also works with other poets. For example, Sadie, my own favorite poet.
Sufism love?
Let's start with who Sadie is. Saadi is known as "the greatest figure in the Persian classical literary world", and his works have a great influence on later generations, being translated into dozens of foreign languages and praised by readers. His notable works include Orchard and Rose Garden. Sadie enjoys a high place in the history of Persian literature, and he is recognized as one of the four pillars that underpin the edifice of Persian literature. Words are pearls, and the articles are splendid. This is what I have said about Sadie's poetry.
Although Sadie is one of the most famous figures in Persian literature, we know very little about him personally and his religious beliefs. Sadie lived in a period dominated by Sufi thought, and Iranian academic circles generally believe that Sadie's poetry is Sufist poetry. I don't want to explore here whether Sadie himself is a mystic, a Suf or an ascetic. Explore the meaning of Sadie's love poems only from his own informal point of view.
Sadi's tomb in Shiraz, Iran
First of all, several academic points need to be clarified. Sufi love does not only represent love, it is expressed as a strong emotion in the heart. This kind of love is divided into two kinds, one can be regarded as the love of saints, and the opposite is the love of mortals. These two kinds of love manifest themselves in two kinds of people: the suitor has the love of mortals, which is usually short-lived, ordinary, changeable at any time, and gradually dissipated. The seeker has the love of a saint, which is eternal, continuous, vivid, and irreplaceable.
The love in Sadie's poem is the latter. Of course, this is a commonly accepted view, and I do not agree with it.
How many good sisters do you have?
Whether Sadie was a mystic or a Sufi poet or not, I don't argue. I also don't deny that most of his love poems are praise Allah, but do you say that he doesn't have mortal love? Of course he did. Sadie is a mortal, he has flesh and blood and empathy, will love others and enjoy the love of others, and will use his own good means to attract the attention of his lover, which is perfectly normal.
In Sadie's love poems, in addition to his love for Allah, he has a lot of love, a lot of emotion, for dusk, for sunset, for the starry sky, for early spring, for the person he loves. After reading a lot of Sadie's love poems, I think That Sadie has more than one lover, and he often publishes some "scumbag" quotes:
"Although my heart and soul have fallen because of you, I will only say anything else. So that no one knows, you are what my heart desires. "Oh, though I like you, I don't say it, so that no one knows I like you. Contemporary scumbag characteristics one: the circle of friends never sends photos of the opposite sex, and he is always single.
"Others leave, just away from my consciousness and heart. And the departure of someone like you at the tip of my heart is like a soul detached from the trunk. "The Third of the Stinky PUA Trilogy: I'll Die Without You."
"Why did you break your heart when I was completely surrendered to you, or what did I do that made you never face me again?" I've done so much for you, why aren't you moved, or am I doing something that disgusts you? Everything I do is for your own good! Some kind of scumbag's means: licking the dog's self-touching.
"We all know that reason can triumph over everything, but there is nothing he can do because love comes to him." If I love you, then you must also love me, otherwise who will save me from fire and water? Typical moral kidnapping.
"I didn't break my promise and talk to people other than you, they only exist in my mouth, and you buried my soul deeply." This is the most scummy sentence I think, I just chat with others, my favorite person is you! The scumbag was found to be powerless to defend himself.
This and the phrase "She's just my sister!" "It's the same thing. So Sadie, how many good sisters do you have?
"Emperor, moon, scroll, idol, sculpture, spring, I wonder what your name is?" I thought this was the use of flowery superpositions to describe loved ones, which are very common in Persian poetry, but I heard my teacher silently say next to him: Oh, Sadie is like this, seeing a person, whether he is male or female, as long as he is good-looking, he has to write a love poem to someone.
Utterly scumbag!
Even if he is such a scumbag, I love him. After all, who doesn't like scumbags, good looking and high emotional intelligence. Like Sadie, there are also poetry writing skills. But does Sadie just scum at others? Hadn't he ever been a scumbag? Of course it was slagged over!
"My heart grieves because you are far away, and my love for you never diminishes and never leaves. A hundred flowers are not as beautiful as you appear in my mind, wine is more bitter than snake venom, but you flick your sleeves to make me forget the sweetness of being together. If one day I can't hug you, every night I will turn around and wet my tears. Without you, a thousand glasses of wine would have become poison into drunkenness. Even if you were an executioner, you'd rather kill me than leave me. ”
"Sadie delusionally has a loving heart, because love hurts you. You don't come near me or reject me. ”
"If your sharp arrow comes at me, I will be ready to die for love." I don't run away, I just turn my head to hide my embarrassment. ”
"Scumbags" never grow old
Sadie has been to many places and landscapes in his life, and he once wrote in "The Orchard": "I have traveled to the farthest places in the world and spent spring and autumn with all kinds of people. "The reason why I like Sadie is because unlike other Persian poets, he has lived a very full life, recording beautiful landscapes, watching the changes of nature, experiencing different lives, and finally leaving his own life understanding to future generations. He does not flaunt how much he has contributed to the country and literature, does not praise others for the sake of the future, does not pile up flowery rhetoric for the sake of beautiful words, he just likes life, likes to live in the present, does not agonize over the predicament of not arriving, and is not confused about the mistakes he has made. He was also drunk and addicted to beauty, but this is a living person, he has a fresh life.
Alamy Jalalaloddin Khomay wrote in the History of Iranian Literature that poetry represents the human soul and emotions, and is the product of emotions. From the beginning of the manifestation of kindness and tenderness in the world, to the impulse of love and emotion that surges in the human brain, that is, from the beginning of creation to the last moment of human life, poetry means everything, it will always and always live.
I think that's probably what it means that we like poetry to study poetry.