A Study of External Music in Divan-e- Hafiz be-Al-Arabiyyate She'ran Translated by Nader Nezam Tehrani (Based on the first twenty Ghazals)

Abstract

Divan-e- Hafiz be-Al-Arabiyyate She'ran (Hafez's Divan in Poetic Arabic) is a poetic translation of four hundred and ninety ghazals by Hafez. This study aims to examine the external music or the prosody of this translation based on the subtleties of the Persian and Arabic prosodic system. Factors such as meter, differences in the number of prosodic elements, meter change, poetic necessities, modifications, or addition or subtraction of words for prosodic reasons were evaluated and criticized. For a deeper analysis, the first twenty ghazals of Hafez's Divan were investigated, while other ghazals, especially Molamm'at, were also considered to confirm the findings. The data were analyzed using a descriptive-analytical method with a prosody-based approach. The results showed that the syntax and sometimes even the rhetoric of Hafez's poetry has been influenced in this translation by external music, which has resulted in modifications and overabundance of poetic necessities in the target language. The changes that the prosody of Persian poetry have found over time, as required by Iranian taste, are not easily translatable. Alterations in the meter of the most Molamm'ats in the present translation seem to be a testament to this claim.

Keywords

• divan-e- hafiz be-al-arabiyyate she'ran nader nezam tehrani
• external music
• translation criticism