{"id":2882,"date":"2018-02-22T12:57:12","date_gmt":"2018-02-22T17:57:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.harvard.edu\/sulaymanibnqiddees\/?p=2882"},"modified":"2018-02-22T13:01:30","modified_gmt":"2018-02-22T18:01:30","slug":"majnun-ni%e1%ba%93ami-and-john-donne","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/sulaymanibnqiddees\/2018\/02\/22\/majnun-ni%e1%ba%93ami-and-john-donne\/","title":{"rendered":"Majnun (Ni\u1e93\u0101m\u012b) and John Donne"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ni\u1e93ami<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Translation:<\/strong><\/p>\n

And who am I \u2014 so far from you, yet near?<\/h6>\n
A singing beggar! Layla, do you hear?<\/h6>\n
Freed from life\u2019s drudgery, my loneliness ,<\/h6>\n
Sorrow and grief for me spell happiness.<\/h6>\n
And thirsty in the painstream of delight,<\/h6>\n
I drown. Child of the sun, I starve at night.
\nThough parted our two loving souls combine,<\/h6>\n
For mine is all your own and yours is mine.<\/h6>\n
Two riddles to the world we represent,<\/h6>\n
One answer each the other\u2019s deep lament.<\/h6>\n
But if our parting severs us in two,<\/h6>\n
One radiant light envelops me and you,<\/h6>\n
As from another world \u2014 though blocked and barred<\/h6>\n
What there is one, down here is forced apart.<\/h6>\n
Yet if despairing bodies separate,<\/h6>\n
Souls freely wander and communicate.<\/h6>\n
I\u2019ll live forever \u2014 Mortal Fear, Decay,<\/h6>\n
And Death himself have ceased to hold their sway.
\nSharing your life in all eternity
\nI\u2019ll live if only you remain with me.<\/h6>\n

(Ni\u1e93ami’s Layla and Majnun<\/em>, trans. R. Gelpke)<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

John Donne<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

As virtuous men pass mildly away,<\/div>\n
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0And whisper to their souls to go,<\/div>\n
Whilst some of their sad friends do say<\/div>\n
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The breath goes now, and some say, No:<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
So let us melt, and make no noise,<\/div>\n
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0No tear-floods, nor sigh-tempests move;<\/div>\n
‘Twere profanation of our joys<\/div>\n
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0To tell the laity our love.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Moving of th’ earth brings harms and fears,<\/div>\n
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Men reckon what it did, and meant;<\/div>\n
But trepidation of the spheres,<\/div>\n
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Though greater far, is innocent.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Dull sublunary lovers’ love<\/div>\n
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0(Whose soul is sense) cannot admit<\/div>\n
Absence, because it doth remove<\/div>\n
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Those things which elemented it.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
But we by a love so much refined,<\/div>\n
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0That our selves know not what it is,<\/div>\n
Inter-assured of the mind,<\/div>\n
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Care less, eyes, lips, and hands to miss.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Our two souls therefore, which are one,<\/div>\n
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Though I must go, endure not yet<\/div>\n
A breach, but an expansion,<\/div>\n
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Like gold to airy thinness beat.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
If they be two, they are two so<\/div>\n
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0As stiff twin compasses are two;<\/div>\n
Thy soul, the fixed foot, makes no show<\/div>\n
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0To move, but doth, if the other do.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
And though it in the center sit,<\/div>\n
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Yet when the other far doth roam,<\/div>\n
It leans and hearkens after it,<\/div>\n
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0And grows erect, as that comes home.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Such wilt thou be to me, who must,<\/div>\n
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Like th’ other foot, obliquely run;<\/div>\n
Thy firmness makes my circle just,<\/div>\n
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0And makes me end where I begun.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Ni\u1e93\u0101m\u012b<\/strong><\/span><\/div>\n
Fly in love as an arrow towards its target.<\/div>\n
Love loosens the knots of being<\/div>\n
Love is liberation form the vortex of egotism.<\/div>\n
In love, every cup of sorrow which bites into the soul gives it new life<\/div>\n
Many a draft bitter as poison has become in love delicious<\/div>\n
with love for a saqi, what is there to fear from a bitter draft<\/div>\n
However agonizing the experience, if it is for love, it is well.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
\n

(Ni\u1e93ami’s Layla and Majnun<\/em>, trans. R. Gelpke)<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ni\u1e93ami Translation: And who am I \u2014 so far from you, yet near? A singing beggar! Layla, do you hear? Freed from life\u2019s drudgery, my loneliness , Sorrow and grief for me spell happiness. And thirsty in the painstream of … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4522,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[65699,65685],"tags":[139173,65718,139181,65695,65691],"class_list":["post-2882","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-english-poetry","category-persian","tag-english-poetry","tag-john-donne","tag-nizami","tag-persian-sufi-poetry","tag-related-poems"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7NI4C-Ku","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/sulaymanibnqiddees\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2882","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/sulaymanibnqiddees\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/sulaymanibnqiddees\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/sulaymanibnqiddees\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4522"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/sulaymanibnqiddees\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2882"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/sulaymanibnqiddees\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2882\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2885,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/sulaymanibnqiddees\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2882\/revisions\/2885"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/sulaymanibnqiddees\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2882"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/sulaymanibnqiddees\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2882"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/sulaymanibnqiddees\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2882"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}