On Semantic Structure of Hafez's Ghazals

Abstract

One of the stylistic features of Hafez's ghazals is the covert semantic connections of his verses to one another. This causes the semantic structures of his ghazals to appear interrupted, so much so that some researchers have characterized this gap as a special feature of Hafez's ghazals. They believe that each verse or even every few verses of the ghazals are semantically autonomous, and have no relations with other verses. However, in this article it is discussed that even though the semantic structure of Hafez's ghazals is often visually disconnected there exists a semantic bond between the verses and the core, of his ghazals. This means that exquisite semantic ties and associations exist among the verses, the discovery of which requires profoundly detailed attention and interpretation. In this article, the author will attempt to explore the history of structural approaches to Hafez's ghazals. He will also analyze the semantic structure of one of his ghazals in order to represent the existence. of the core, the semantic ties between the verses, as well as the semantic connections between the verses and the core.

Keywords

• structure
• meaning coherence
• interpretation
• ghazal
• (sonnet)
• hafez