Baba Taher

Tomb of Baba Taher in his hometown Hamadan (Iran) from 1970

Bābā Tāher , luric باوا تاهر, completely Persian بابا طاهر عريان همدانى, DMG Bābā Ṭāhir-i 'Uryān-i Hamadānī (* around 944, † around 1019; other dates mentioned: * around 1000, † after 1055, including, Hamadan , Iran ), was a Persian poet of the 10th and 11th centuries. Century. His tomb is in Hamadan.

Life

Bābā Tāher grew up in Hamadan and is one of the first important poets of Persian literature . Little information is available about his life, which has led to research controversy. His nickname 'Oryān (the naked) suggests that Bābā Tāher was a wandering dervish ( Sufi ). In research, Bābā Tāher's death is primarily dated to the year 1019, although opinions differ here too. He is believed to have turned 75, which would have made him a contemporary of Firdausi and Avicenna and an immediate predecessor of Omar Chayyam .

plant

Bābā Tāher wrote his do beitī-hā ( Persian دوبيتى ها, lit. "double verse") in the style of the traditional quatrains ( Arabic رباعى, DMG rubā'ī ) in a dialect called Fahlawī , which is similar to the local dialect of Māzandarāns , but is also associated with the modern-day Luric language (Lorī) of the Hamadan area . It is noticeable that each line ( half verse ) consists of exactly eleven syllables. He is also said to have written poems in Kurdish and Arabic. Without being able to provide concrete evidence of this, around 300 quatrains and a collection of Arabic maxims - some of a philosophical, some of a mystical nature - are ascribed to him. His poems deal with love topics and themes from the mystical realm. When performing Iranian classical music , they are preferably accompanied on the long-necked lute setar .

Selected poems

agar dar masǧedī yā dar kelīsā
to har ǧā'ī delam-rā ka'be ānǧāst
torā ḫ ^w āham torā ǧūyam naporsam
ke īnǧā masǧede yā ke kelīsāst

Whether in a mosque or in the church there,
wherever you are, your house is the place of my heart.
I want you, I look for you and I don't ask:
is the mosque here or the church there?

ḫošā ānūnke az pā sar naẕūnand
miyān-e šo'le ḫošk-o tar naẕūnand
konešt-o ka'be-wo botḫāne-wo deir
sarā'ī ḫālī az delbar naẕūnand

Good for those who do not recognize the head from the foot, who
do not know dry and wet in the midst of the flame, who do not know
whether synagogue, Ka'ba, idol temple or Christian monastery,
a house empty of loved ones.

mū k'az sūte-delānom čūn nanālom
mū k'az bī-ḥāṣelānom čūn nanālom
nešaste bolbolān bā gol benāland
mū ke dūr az golānom čūn nanālom

I am of those who are burned in the heart because I am not sobbing.
I am of those who fail because I am not sobbing.
When the nightingales sit by the rose, they sob.
I'm far from the most beautiful of roses because I don't sob.

yekī dard-o yekī darmūn pasandad
yekī waṣl-o yekī heǧrūn pasandad
mū az darmūn-o dard-o waṣl-o heǧrūn
pasandom ūnkerā ǧānūn pasandad

Some people love pain, others love relief.
One is united, the other dear to separation.
Of relief, pain, union and separation
, I love what my dearest loved one.

agar del delbar-o delbar kodūme
wagar delbar del-o delrā če nūme
del-o delbar beham āmīte wīnom
naẕūnom del ke-wo delbar kodūme

If the heart that bears the heart, then who bears the heart is which one?
And if he who bears the heart, then which is the name of the heart?
I see the heart and the one who bears the heart, one another.
Now I don't know which heart and who bears the heart is which one?

bowad dard-e mū-o darmūnom az dūst
bowad waṣl-e mū-o heǧrūnom az dūst
agar qaṣṣābom az tan wākare pūst
ǧodā hargez nagarde ǧūnom az dūst

May I also be sorrow or relief from
my friend, May I also be union with him or separation from my friend.
If the butcher pulls the skin off
my body, May my soul never be separated from my friend.

torā mīḫ ^w ām wagar nei yār-e besyār
golī mīḫ ^w ām wagar nei ḫār-e besyār
golī mīḫ ^w ām ke dar sāyaš nešīnom
wagar nei sāye-ye dīwār-e besyār

I want you, but if not, a lot in friends.
I want a rose, but if not, a lot of thorns.
I want a rose in whose shade I sit, but
if not, shade from walls a lot.

mū ān mastom ke pā az sar naẕūnom
sar-o pā'ī be-ǧoz delbar naẕūnom
del-ārāmī k'az'ū gīrad del-ārām
be-ġeir az sāqī-ye kaus̱ar naẕūnom

I am so intoxicated that I don't know the foot from the head,
That I don't know the head and the foot except the one who bears the heart.
When the one who lets the heart rest takes from him the rest of the heart,
Except the heavenly cupbearer I know no source of paradise.

bī te yā rabb be-bostān gol marūyā
agar rūyā kasaš hargez mabūyā
bī te har kas be-ḫande lab gošāye
roḫaš az ḫūn-e del hargez mašūyā

Without you, O Lord, the rose does not bloom in the garden of fragrances.
But when it blooms, it does not smell to humans.
Without you, everyone may open their lips to smile, but
their face never shines against the heart's blood.

Some explanations

"The friend", "the heart-loving one", "the most beautiful of the roses", "the heart bearer", "who gives the heart rest" and last but not least "the burnt in the heart" (= that cannot burn any further) are included Bābā Tāher, as with other mystics, synonyms for the divine Beloved: Where He is, His house is (synagogue, church, mosque, idol temple, one's own heart).

expenditure

Manouchehr Adamiyat (Ed.): Dīvān-e Bābā Tāher . Atellyeh Honar, Tehran 2001.
Seyyed Yaḥyā Borqa'ī (Ed.): Sūte-delān - talfīqī az dobeitīhā-ye Bābā Ṭāher-e 'Oryān . Tehran 1346 AHS (1967/68) (Persian).

literature

Bābā Tāher . In: Encyclopaedia Britannica . London
EG Browne: Literary History of Persia . 1998, ISBN 0-7007-0406-X
Henri Massé: Anthology persane . Petite Bibliothèque Payot, Paris 1997, ISBN 2-228-89128-2 (first edition: 1950).
Jan Rypka, Robert Salek, Helena Turkova, Heinrich FJ Junker: Iranian literary history . Leipzig 1959.

Web links

Web link with poems by Bābā Tāher ( Memento of April 11, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) (Persian, English)
Baba Taher . In: Ehsan Yarshater (Ed.): Encyclopædia Iranica (English, including references)

References and comments

↑ Abolfażl Moṣafā in: Seyyed Yaḥyā Borqa'ī (ed.), Sūte-delān - talfīqī az dobeitīhā-ye Bābā Ṭāher-e 'Oryān , Teheran 1346 (1967/68) (pers.)
^ Henri Massé. Anthology persane . Paris 1950, 1997, p. 85
↑ Cf. Sura 9:82: "Just laugh a little and weep a lot / For what you have done!" (Translation: Friedrich Rückert, 1788–1866).
↑ "He who bears the heart" also means "dearest" in the figurative sense.
↑ Wissenschaftl. Transcription according to DMG , vocalization according to the official pronunciation of Radio Tehran.
↑ Poems taken from Thomas Ogger, Ex oriente lux - The language of God's love in East and West , in: Iranistik - German-language magazine for Iranian studies , Teheran 2002.

personal data
SURNAME	Baba Taher
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Baba Tahir; Oryan; Âryan
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	Persian poet
DATE OF BIRTH	around 944 or around 1000
DATE OF DEATH	around 1019 or after 1055
Place of death	Hamadan , Iran

[1] Abolfażl Moṣafā in: Seyyed Yaḥyā Borqa'ī (ed.), Sūte-delān - talfīqī az dobeitīhā-ye Bābā Ṭāher-e 'Oryān , Teheran 1346 (1967/68) (pers.)

[2] Henri Massé. Anthology persane . Paris 1950, 1997, p. 85

[3] Cf. Sura 9:82: "Just laugh a little and weep a lot / For what you have done!" (Translation: Friedrich Rückert, 1788–1866).

[4] "He who bears the heart" also means "dearest" in the figurative sense.

[5] Wissenschaftl. Transcription according to DMG , vocalization according to the official pronunciation of Radio Tehran.

[6] Poems taken from Thomas Ogger, Ex oriente lux - The language of God's love in East and West , in: Iranistik - German-language magazine for Iranian studies , Teheran 2002.