{"id":37,"date":"2016-05-04T01:02:19","date_gmt":"2016-05-04T01:02:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.harvard.edu\/brittan\/?p=37"},"modified":"2016-05-04T01:02:19","modified_gmt":"2016-05-04T01:02:19","slug":"week-9-the-ghazal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/brittan\/2016\/05\/04\/week-9-the-ghazal\/","title":{"rendered":"Week 9: The Ghazal"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone  wp-image-38\" src=\"http:\/\/blogs.harvard.edu\/brittan\/files\/2016\/05\/IMG_1047-300x200.jpg\" alt=\"IMG_1047\" width=\"391\" height=\"260\" srcset=\"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/brittan\/files\/2016\/05\/IMG_1047-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/brittan\/files\/2016\/05\/IMG_1047-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/brittan\/files\/2016\/05\/IMG_1047-1024x683.jpg 1024w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 391px) 100vw, 391px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>This image depicts\u00a0the ghazal as sacred poetry, and represents one of the major motifs of ghazals throughout history: wine drinking. In the foreground of the picture are a book and pen, representing the presence of the author. Farther from the camera is a wine bottle filled with light. Drinking wine and being drunk are often mentioned in ghazals, and can be interpreted in a variety of manners. Traditionally, these motifs are interpreted as metaphorical and religious:\u00a0the narrator has been drinking the &#8220;wine of love&#8221; for God, and\u00a0is completely consumed with piety. However, drinking wine is traditionally forbidden by Islam, and despite its symbolism, some people interpret such statements as heretical. Additionally, ghazals are typically addressed to an unnamed, unattainable Beloved.\u00a0Most of the time, the Beloved is a name for God. However, there has been some historical debate over whether all such poems are indeed addressed to God, or whether some are actually disguised\u00a0love poems to a mortal beloved.<\/p>\n<p>In this image, I chose to interpret the act of writing a ghazal as a holy one.\u00a0The light in the wine bottle represents the light of God, on which the author is metaphorically drunk.\u00a0This light illuminates the author&#8217;s mind,\u00a0facilitating his or her writing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This image depicts\u00a0the ghazal as sacred poetry, and represents one of the major motifs of ghazals throughout history: wine drinking. In the foreground of the picture are a book and pen, representing the presence of the author. Farther from the camera is a wine bottle filled with light. Drinking wine and being drunk are often [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7981,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-37","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/brittan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/brittan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/brittan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/brittan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7981"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/brittan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/brittan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":39,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/brittan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37\/revisions\/39"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/brittan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/brittan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/brittan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}