Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-rdxmf Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-24T06:57:36.289Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Yaḥyā Dawlatābādī’s Contribution to Persian Poetic Modernity

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2022

Amr Taher Ahmed
Amr Taher Ahmed*
Affiliation:
Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations, Harvard University
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

In 1912, Yaḥyā Dawlatābādī composed two poems, the form of which diverged greatly from the canonical rules of tradition. Both poems were based on syllabic meters. Critics and historians of modern Persian literature have given these poems little consideration, and discussed them merely from the point of view of metrics. When compared to the great modernist endeavors in the poetry of the time, these pieces were judged severely, or altogether disavowed. This paper aims to show that, beyond mere metrical audacity, Yaḥyā Dawlatābādī’s syllabic poems were in fact innovative. As the article argues, they were born out of the same quest for fresh poetic forms that induced contemporaneous modernists to create new, individualized poetic patterns.

Keywords

Yaḥyā Dawlatābādīsyllabic poetryPersian poetryliterary modernity
Type
Articles
Information
Iranian Studies , Volume 51 , Issue 4 , July 2018 , pp. 557 - 586
Copyright
Copyright © Association For Iranian Studies, Inc 2018

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Āryanpūr, Yaḥyā. Az Ṣabā tā Nīmā [From Ṣabā to Nīmā]. Vol. 2. Tehran: Frānklīn, 1971.Google Scholar
Ājand, Yaʿqūb. Tajaddud-i adabī dar dawra-i mashrūṭa [Literary Modernity at the Time of the Constitutional Revolution]. Tehran: Muʾassisa-i Taḥqīqāt va Tawsiʿa-i ʿUlūm-i Insānī, 2005.Google Scholar
Ahmed, Amr Taher. La “Révolution littéraire”: Étude de l’influence de la poésie française sur la modernisation des formes poétiques persanes au début du XXe siècle [The “Literary Revolution”: A Study of the Influence of French Poetry on the Modernization of Persian Poetic Forms in the Early 20th Century]. Vienna: Verlag der Österreichichen Akademie der Wissenschaften, 2012.Google Scholar
Alavi, Bozorg. Geschichte und Entwicklung der modernen persischen Literatur [History and Development of Modern Persian Literature]. Berlin: Akademie-Verlag, 1954.Google Scholar
Amanat, Abbas. Iran: A Modern History. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2017.Google Scholar
Amanat, Abbas. “Dawlatābādī, Sayyed Yaḥyā.” In Encyclopædia Iranica. Last updated November 18, 2011. http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/dawlatabadi-sayyed-yahyaGoogle Scholar
Bahār, Muḥammad-Taqī. Dīvān-i ashʿār-i Muḥammad-Taqī Bahār (Malik al-Shuʿarā) [Dīvān of Muḥammad-Taqī Bahār (Malik al-Shuʿarā)]. 2nd ed. Tehran: ʿIlm, 2002.Google Scholar
Bahār, Muḥammad-Taqī. “Marām-i mā” [Our Goal]. Dānishkada, no. 1 (1918): 1–6.Google Scholar
Bahār, Muḥammad-Taqī. “Intiqādāt dar aṭrāf-i marām-i mā” [Some Criticism of Our Goal]. Dānishkada, no. 3 (1918): 115–124.Google Scholar
Bahār, Muḥammad-Taqī. “Dastūr-i adabī” [Literary Manifesto]. Dānishkada, no. 9 (1919): 456–458.Google Scholar
Benveniste, Émile. “Le Mémorial de Zarêr, poème pehlevi mazdéen” [The Memorial of Zarêr, a Pahlavi Mazdean Poem]. Journal Asiatique, no. 220 (1930): 245–293.Google Scholar
Bihnām, Jamshīd. Īrāniyān va andīsha-i tajaddud [The Iranians and the Idea of modernity]. Tehran: Nashr va Pajūhishi Farzān Rūz, 1996.Google Scholar
Brookshaw, Dominic Parviz. “Women Poets”. In A History of Persian Literature XI: Literature of the Early Twentieth Century from the Constitutional Period to Reza Shah, edited by Seyed-Gohrab, Ali-Asghar, 295–308. London: I. B. Tauris, 2015.Google Scholar
Browne, Edward G. A Literary History of Persia. Vol. 1. Reprint. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1964.Google Scholar
Browne, Edward G. The Press and Poetry of Modern Persia. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1914.Google Scholar
Cornulier, Benoît de. Art poëtique, notions et problèmes de métrique [Poetic Art, Notions and Problems of Metrics]. Lyon: Presses Universitaires de Lyon, 1995.Google Scholar
Dānish, Husayn. Jangalistān [The Jungle]. [Istanbul]: Qanāʿat Matbaʿasi, 1912–13.Google Scholar
Dawlatābādī, Yaḥyā. Kungra [The Congress]. Islāmbūl: Maṭbaʿa-i Shams , 1912.Google Scholar
Dawlatābādī, Yaḥyā. Nahāl-i adab [Sapling of Literature]. [Istanbul]: Idāra-i Khāvar, 1916.Google Scholar
Dawlatābādī, Yaḥyā. Urdībihisht. Tehran: Shirkat-i Ḥayāt, 1925.Google Scholar
Dawlatābādī, Yaḥyā. Urdībihisht va ashʿār-i chāpnashuda [Urdībihisht and Unpublished Poems]. Tehran: n.p., 1975.Google Scholar
Dawlatābādī, Yaḥyā. Ḥayāt-i Yaḥyā [Yaḥyā's Life]. Edited by Farāhānī, Mujtabā Burzābādī. 4 vols. Tehran: Firdaws, 2008.Google Scholar
Dawlatābādī, Yaḥyā. Shahrnāz, dāstān-ī adabī, akhlāqī va tārīkhī [Shahrnāz, a Literary, Moral, and Historical Story]. Tehran: Umīd-i Fardā, 2016.Google Scholar
Gīlānī, Ashraf al-Dīn. Jāvidāna Sayyid Ashraf al-Dīn Gīlānī, Nasīm-i shumāl [The Eternal Sayyid Ashraf al-Dīn Gīlānī, the Breeze of the North]. Edited by Namīnī, Husayn. Tehran: Kitāb-i Furūzān, 1984.Google Scholar
Hugo, Victor. Œuvres complètes [Complete Works]. Paris: Robert Laffont, 1985.Google Scholar
Ishaque, M. Modern Persian Poetry. Calcutta: [Mohammad Israil], 1943.Google Scholar
Ishaque, M. Sukhanvarān-i Īrān dar ʿaṣr-i ḥāzir or Poets and Poetry of Modern Persia. Vol. II. Delhi: Jamia Press, 1937.Google Scholar
ʿIshqī, Muḥammad-Riḍā Mīrzāda. “Īdiāl-i yak pīrmard-i dihqānī” [The Ideal of an Old Farmer]. Shafaq-i surkh, no. 226 (1924): 3.Google Scholar
ʿIshqī, Muḥammad-Riḍā Mīrzāda. Kullīyyāt-i Mīrzāda ʿIshqī [Mīrzāda ʿIshqī's Collected Works]. Edited by ʿMushīr Salīmī, Alī-Akbar. 2nd ed. Los Angeles: Ketab Corp, 2006.Google Scholar
Iʿtiṣāmī, Parvīn. Dīvān-i Parvīn Iʿtiṣāmī [Dīvān of Parvīn Iʿtiṣāmī]. (n. p.): Rivāyat, 1992.Google Scholar
Karimi-Hakkak, Ahmad. Recasting Persian Poetry: Scenarios of Poetique Modernity in Iran. Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press, 1995.Google Scholar
Khānlarī, Parvīz Nātel. Vazn-i shiʿr-i fārsī [Persian Prosody], 6th ed. Tehran: Tūs, 1994.Google Scholar
Khānlarī, Parvīz Nātel. “Dar vazn-i shiʿr-i fārsī chi kār-i tāza-i mītavān kard” [What New Work Can Be Done on Persian Prosody]. Sukhan, no. 10 (1955): 855–863.Google Scholar
Lāhūtī, Ab al-Qāsim. Dīvān-i Ab al-Qāsim Lāhūtī [Dīvān of Ab al-Qāsim Lāhūtī], ed. Bashīrī, Ahmad. Vol. 1. (n. p.): Kitāb-i Jahān, 1958.Google Scholar
Lazard, Gilbert. “Deux questions de linguistique iranienne: la construction passive du parfait transitif; la versification du moyen-iranien occidental” [Two Questions of Iranian Linguistics : The Passive Form of the Transitive Perfect- The Versification of Western Middle-Iranian]. In E. Benveniste aujourd’hui, edited by Taillardat, Jean, Lazard, Gilbert and Serbat, Guy 239–248. Paris: Peeters, 1984.Google Scholar
Māhyār, ʿAbbās. ʿArūḍ-i fārsī, shīwa-i naw barāyi āmūzish-i ʿarūḍ wa qāfiya [Persian Prosody, a New Method for Teaching Persian Prosody and Rhyme]. 12th ed. Tehran: Nashr-i Qaṭra, 2010.Google Scholar
MacEoin, D. M. “Babism,” Encyclopædia Iranica, III, no. 3: 309–317. Accessed December 30, 2012. http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/babism-index.Google Scholar
Machalski, Franciszek. La Littérature de l’Iran contemporain [The Literature of Contemporary Iran]. Vol. 1. Wrokław: Wydawnictwo Polskiej Akademii Nauk, 1965.Google Scholar
Mashhūrī, Muḥammad-Mahdi. “Rūznāma-i Khāvar va naqsh-i ān dar kumītayi milliyyūn-i Birlin” [The journal Khāvar and Its Role in the Berlin Committee of [Iranian] Nationalists] Payām-i Bahāristān 1‒2 (2008): 690–696.Google Scholar
Mazaleyrat, Jean. Éléments de métrique française [Elements of French Prosody]. 7th ed. Paris: Armand Colin, 1990.Google Scholar
Morier, Henri. Dictionnaire de poétique et de rhétorique [A Dictionary of Poetics and Rhetoric]. 5th ed. Paris: Presses Universitaires de France, 1998.Google Scholar
Mudarrisī, Fāṭima and Bāmdādī, Muḥammad. “Nigāhī bi mūsīqī-i ashʿār-i Muḥammad-Riḍā Shafīʿī-Kadkanī” [An Overview of the Music of Muḥammad-Riḍā Shafīʿī-Kadkanī's Poetry]. Muṭāliʿāt-i zabānī balāghī, no. 1 (2010): 115–140.Google Scholar
Muḥammadī, Dāvūd. “Muʿarrifī-i awzān-i tāza va nādir dar ashʿār-i Sīmīn Bihbahānī” [An Introduction to New and Rare Meters in Sīmīn Bihbahānī's poetry]. Muṭāliʿāt-i zabānī balāghī, no. 3 (2011): 111–136.Google Scholar
Piemontese, Angelo Michele. “The Girdle in the Persian Intextus Poem”. In Muwashshah, Proceedings of the International Conference on Arabic and Hebrew Strophic Poetry and its Romance Parallels. London: SOAS, 2006, 173‒195.Google Scholar
Rashīd Yāsimī, Ghulāmriẓā. Dīvān-i Rashīd Yāsimī [Dīvān of Rashīd Yāsimī]. Tehran: Amīr Kabīr, 1983.Google Scholar
Rashīd Yāsimī, Ghulāmriẓā. “Inqilāb-i adabī” [Literary Revolution]. Dānishkada, no. 2, 5–12 (1918‒1919): 72‒78, 256‒262, 307‒310, 372‒379, 434‒440, 470‒476, 542‒547, 575‒579.Google Scholar
Rashīd Yāsimī, Ghulāmriẓā. “La poésie iranienne contemporaine” [Contemporary Iranian Poetry]. In L’Âme de l’Iran, edited by Grousset, René, Massignon, Louis and Massé, Henri, 193–217. 2nd ed. Paris: Albin Michel S. A., 1990.Google Scholar
Richard, Yann. L’Iran de 1800 à nos jours [Iran, from 1800 until Today]. Paris: Flammarion, 2009.Google Scholar
Seyed-Gohrab, Ali-Asghar, ed. A History of Persian Literature XI: Literature of the Early Twentieth Century from the Constitutional Period to Reza Shah. London: I. B. Tauris, 2015.Google Scholar
Shafīʿī-Kadkanī, Muḥammad-Riḍā. Mūsīqī-i shiʿr [The Music of Poetry]. 5th ed. Tehran: Āgāh, 1997.Google Scholar
Shafīʿī-Kadkanī, Muḥammad-Riḍā. Bā chirāgh-u āyina, dar justijū-i rīsha-hā-yi taḥavvul-i shiʿr-i muʿāṣir-i Īrān [With a Lamp and a Mirror, Searching for the Roots of the Evolution of Contemporary Iranian Poetry]. Tehran: Sukhan, 2011.Google Scholar
Shamīsā, Sīrūs. Farhang-i ʿarūḍī [Dictionary of Prosody]. 3rd ed. Tehran: Firdaws, 1996.Google Scholar
Shamīsā, Sīrūs. Anvāʿ-i adabī [Literary Genres]. 9th ed. Tehran: Firdaws, 2002.Google Scholar
Qays-i Rāzī, Shams-i. Al-muʿjam fī maʿāyīr ashʿār al-ʿajam [Compendium on the Poetry of the Persians]. Edited by Shamīsā, Sīrūs. Tehran: ʿIlm, 2009.Google Scholar
Thālith, Akhavān. Badāyiʿ va bidʿat-hā va ʿaṭā va liqā-yi Nīmā Yūshīj [Beauties and Innovations in Nīmā Yūshīj's Poetry]. 2nd ed. Tehran: Buzurgmihr, 1990.Google Scholar
Ṭabībzāda, Omīd. Taḥlīl-i vazn-i shiʿr-i ʿāmiyāna-i fārsī [The Prosodic Analysis of Persian Folk Poetry]. Tehran: Nīlūfar, 2003.Google Scholar
Utas, Bo. “Arabic and Iranian Elements in New Persian Prosody”. In Arabic Prosody and its Applications in Muslim Poetry, edited by Johanson, Lars and Utas, Bo, 129–141. Istanbul: Swedish Research Institute in Istanbul, 1994.Google Scholar
Van den Berg, Gabrielle. “Stanzaic Poetry”. In Encyclopædia Iranica. Last updated December 6, 2012. http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/stanzaic-poetryGoogle Scholar
Vejdani, Farzin. Making History in Iran: Education, Nationalism, and Print Culture. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2014.Google Scholar
Yāḥaqqī, Muḥammad-Jaʿfar. Chun sabū-yi tishna, adabiyāt-a muʿāṣir-i fārsī [Like a Thirsty Jar, Contemporary Persian Literature]. 4th ed. Tehran: Jāmī, 1997.Google Scholar
Yūshīj, Nīmā. Arzish-i iḥsāsāt va panj maqāla dar shiʿr va namāyish [The Value of the Emotions and Five Essays on Poetry and Theater]. Saarbrücken: Navīd, 1989.Google Scholar