Literary Arts (Nov 2013)
Looking at Radif and its Functions in Khaghani’s Poem
Abstract
Abstract According to researchers, radifs can be one of the main components of the ancient Persian poetry made by Iranian talent and muse. Radif as one of the pillars of the side music, has played a major role in classical Persian poetry, and Persian poets have shown great attention to composing radif-consisting poems, since ancient times. In the early Persian poetry, radif is used slightly but the more the Persian poetry completed, the more application of radif have seen, and gradually, poets intended to use simple types instead of those complicated. One of the poets who have shown special attention to using radif and its application forms are of high-frequency in his poems, is khaghani. In this essay, we have tried to analyze Khaghani's poem statically. For this purpose, we have provided accurate statistics of the radif-consisting poems and those are not radif-consisting. We studied various types of radifs in all khaghani's Divan as well. Then it is proved that the frequency of his radif-consisting poems is higher than the other with no radif. Statistical analysis shows that 815 of 1212 khaghani`s poems consist radifs.This number equals 20/68% of his all poems. Study of radif in different form showes that poem with radif appreciably are more predominant than poems without radif. 81/77% of Ghazels, 39/64% of odes, 88/54% of quatrains/rubais, 22/64% of fragments and 66/79% of his small odes have radif. The types of radif in Khaghani's poem includes: verb, noun (noun phrase), letters, adverbs, pronouns, adjectives and phrases, or sentences (such as overnight). But the verb type (70%) is mostly used in his poetry. In this article we discussed the functions of radif in khaghani' poems and concluded that the main functions of radif in his poetry are as follows: 1- Creating unity between poet and audience When the reader can guess the word (or phrase) in a particular situation, he will find himself as a contributor in composing poet. 2- coordination of radif with theme and motif Coordination of radif and poetry is of high importance in view of the great poets such as khaghani. Of course, creating such a figure seems to be elaborate especially in long odes. Keeping this coordination needs a strong sense and high capacity that khaghani have. 3- Creating new figures of thoughts and speeches Repeatition of radifs in Khaghani`s poem created new themes and combinations. Forozanfar says: "khaghani is among the great poets of Iran in inventing of combinations and pleasant ironies"(Forozanfar, 1384:617) 4- Foregrounding an image or theme One of the aims of radif is foregrounding the poet repeat a word, theme or image in order to highlight and make it important. Special position of radif in the end of poem and the pause after or before it increases emphasis and focus on it. 5- Inducing the interior sense of poem Poet sometimes repeats a word or phrase in the poem sequence and aims at inducing an interior sense to the audience. Sadness, happiness, hope, hopelessness, and any other senses are conveyable through these repetitions. 6- Unifying thought and imagination Poet with the help of radif leads the poem to a unique thought for example, khaghani in one poem selected word "safahan" as radif to highlight it, and establish poetic concepts about this city until the end as well. 7- Strengthening the music of poetry Musical function of radif is featured in khaghani's poem and he used these radifs beautifully with the aim of making his poem melodious and musically rich. 8- Creating visual pleasure Sometimes the writing form of radif in khaghani's poem - specially in the long noun and verb type of radifs - creates a visual balance and pleasure for reader. At the end, we should say that the Divan of poetry of any poet (except for Mowlavi) is not like khaghani's, because of containing diverse images and new radifs.
