Aesthetic aspects in the poetry of Mala-ye Jaziri

International Journal of Kurdish Studies, Jan, 2002 by Farhad Shakely

In classical poetry the common word for new moon, or crescent, is hilal, but the poet chooses mah, meaning moon in general, which better associates with night, whereas hilal may be seen in the first hours of night, but not necesserily all night. Jaziri has used hilal in another poem, DJZ-Dh: 2-2, where it was contextually relevant.

      Gar na tashbihe du birhen ta bitin
      Ma di 'idan bi hilale chi gharadh

      If it is not because it resembles your eye-brows
      what purpose do we have with the new moon in the feasts.

In beit 5 the new moon is likened to horse-shoes intended to depict the humility of the new moon, probably an allusion to the poet himself, in comparison with the eye-brows of the beloved. The same picture is employed by Hafiz to illustrate the glory and sublimity of his beloved, Yar-am:

      Dar na'l-e samand-e u shakl-e mah-e nav payda
      Vaz qadd-e boland-e u bala-ye sanawbar past

      In the horse-shoes of her horse the shape of the new moon is seen
      and to her high stature the stature/height of the fir is low.

In beit 3 the word qafas, cage, is a Kurdification of the Arabic and Persian forms of the word that ends with S (sad). This is made to qualify the rhyming letter S (sin), and it happens two more times in the poem; 'abas, absurd, vain, beit 7, instead of the Arabic and Persian 'abath, and maqas, scissors, beit 9, instead of miqass.

A great number of constituent units in the poem are composed of metaphors and similes. The latter are commonly constructed along with prepositions and words that connect the two sides of similarity. There are many words in Kurdish that can be used in similes. Here Jaziri uses connecting words eight times; mithl, like 2a; zhi range, similar to the color of, beit 4b; Chashin, sort, 5a; Shabhat similar, beit 5; wak, like, beit 7; li tab'e, resembling the nature of, beit 8; Shubhe, similar, 10a; parwana sifat, like a moth, that has the attributes of a moth, beit 10.

Another type of constituent unit worth mentioning are the personal pronouns frequently used, thirty times to be exact. This occurs in part because the radiff word of the poem is the first singular pronoun az, I, in the first person, repeated eleven times. Of the thirty personal pronouns, twenty eight are in the singular, either first or second person; az and min, and tu and ta, marking respectively direct and oblique usage. Only in two cases is the first person plural, ma, we, used obliquely, instead of the first person singular, the poet himself. The only interpretation for the frequent use of the singular form of the personal pronoun instead of the plural, especially when the addressee is God, is the overwhelming feeling of intimacy depicted in the poem.

One final, but important, remark concerns the repetition of most of the metaphors employed in this ghazal, and in at least two other ghazals in Jaziri's diwan; DJZ-N:9 and DJZ-W:6. The repetition is not limited to a few words or to a part of the metaphors. In most cases the whole picture is employed. The idea of being a mere cage that contains His soul, in this poem, beit 3, is repeated entirely in beit 5 and beit 22 in the two aforementioned ghazals respectively. In like manner beit 4 is the same as beit 6 in N:9; 6ab is the same as 14ab in N:9, 20ab in W:6 and DJZ-Y:8-15ab; 8b is the same as 3b in N:9 and 13b in W:6; 9ab is the same as 11b in N:9 and 18ab in W:6; and 10b is the same as 21b in W:6.