The Role of Codes of Mysticism and Sufism in Poetic Imageries and Themes of Seyyed Hassan Hosseini

Abstract

Mysticism, Sufism, terminologies, and codes related to them have always been present in classical Persian poetry and have been deployed by numerous poets. However, this connection has become quite limited in contemporary poetry. Bearing in mind that these codes offer the possibility of producing, receiving, and interpreting texts, in this article, we attempt to examine the mystical codes in Seyyed Hassan Hosseini's poetry so that we can understand the role and influence of mysticism and Sufism on creation of poetic imageries and themes in his work. This article examines the linguistic, mental and rhetorical layers of Hosseini's poems via descriptive-analytical approach to show the quality of the influence of these codes. The results show that although with the developments in the modern world and the change in the taste of the new generation, mystical and Sufi elements and codes are no longer the focus of attention of contemporary poets, especially modern poets, Seyyed Hassan Hosseini has deployed these codes in three linguistic, literal and mental fields. In the field of rhetoric, he has used these codes to create various poetic imageries such as similes, metaphors, and all kinds of allusions and symmetries. In the mental field, he has used many of these codes to fight hypocrisy and its manifestations. In this way, he has been able to deploy these codes to enrich contemporary literature and reduce the chasm between modern poetry and classical Persian poetry, to some extent.

Keywords

• contemporary poetry
• codes
• mysticism and sufism
• seyyed hassan hosseini