T h e Q u icken i n g Unknown Poetry of Tรกhirih . John S . Hatcher and
Am ro l l ah Hemmat
Wilmette, Illinois
Bahá’í Publishing 415 Linden Avenue, Wilmette, Illinois 60091-2844 Copyright © 2011 by the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of the United States All rights reserved. Published 2011 Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper ∞ 14 13 12 11 4 3 2 1 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Qurrat al-‘Ayn, 1817 or 18–1852. [Poems. Polyglot. Selections] The quickening : unknown poetry of Táhirih / John S. Hatcher and Amrollah Hemmat. p. cm. English translation with a facsimile of the original manuscript in Persian and Arabic. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-1-931847-83-4 (alk. paper) 1. Qurrat al-‘Ayn, 1817 or 18–1852—Translations into English. I. Hatcher, John, Dr. II. Hemmat, Amrollah. III. Title. PK6528.U77A2 2011 891’.5512—dc22 2011002942
Book design by Patrick J. Falso Cover design by Robert A. Reddy
Contents Foreword .........................................................................................................vii Introduction.......................................................................................................1 Poem 1: O God, Where Am I?.........................................................................21 Poem 2: A Preamble.........................................................................................25 Poem 3: Praise of “the Point”...........................................................................27 Poem 4: Exhortation........................................................................................29 Poem 5: Announcement................................................................................... 31 Poem 6: Praise of Mu¥ammad.........................................................................33 Poem 7: Prayer for Assistance at the Dawning of the Day of Resurrection.......35 Poem 8: Come Forth, O Seekers of Truth........................................................47 Poem 9: The Days of God...............................................................................53 Poem 10: A Prayer for Assistance and Protection in a Time of Oppression.......67 Poem 11: Arise and Proclaim that He Has Come!............................................75 Poem 12: I Have Heard the Good News!..........................................................77 Poem 13: A Song of Praise for the Appearance of the Báb................................79 Poem 14: The Letter “Fá”.................................................................................83 Poem 15: Praised be the Creator of All Revelations..........................................85 Poem 16: A Prayer of Thanksgiving.................................................................89 Poem 17: Assist Me to Sing Your Praises...........................................................91 Poem 18: Come Forth and Proclaim!................................................................93
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Poem 19: Rúmí’s Reed.....................................................................................95 Poem 20: God Speaks of the Manifestation.................................................... 101 Poem 21: The Twin Faces of Resurrection Day..............................................105 Poem 22: Make Me Like Moses!....................................................................107 Poem 23: You Who Hear My Prayer Before it is Prayed..................................109 Poem 24: Make Me a Mirror of Your Light.................................................... 111 Poem 25: The Day of Fulfillment Has Come!................................................ 113 Poem 26: The Banquet of the Minion of God............................................... 117 Poem 27: The Announcement of the Qá’ím and the Qáyyúm....................... 119 Poem 28: Praised Be He Who Has Been Sent from God................................127 Poem 29: A Prayer for the Maidservants of God............................................133 Poem 30: Poem of the Maiden.......................................................................135 Poem 31: I Will Proclaim the Advent............................................................. 141 Poem 32: For the Sake of Those Who Supplicate...........................................143 Poem 33: The Quickening.............................................................................145 Poem 34: God’s Promises Fulfilled................................................................. 155 Poem 35: The Meaning of the Súrih of Unity................................................165 Poem 36: Kun fa Yakúnu...............................................................................169 Poem 37: He is the One!................................................................................ 171 Poem 38: Praised be the Exalted One.............................................................175 Poem 39: This is the Day of God...................................................................179 Poem 40: Welcome, Friend, to the Cause of God..........................................183 Poem 41: The Grace of God Has Arrived.......................................................187 Poem 42: From Behind all the Veils...............................................................189 Facsimile of Calligraphy.................................................................................192 Works Cited................................................................................................... 251
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Foreword In the Beatific Vision God manifests himself to the elect in a general epiphany, which nevertheless, assumes various forms corresponding to the mental conceptions of God formed by the faithful on earth. Ibn al-Arabi, Futuhat, III (thirteenth century) The Arab conquest of Persia in the seventh century brought about fundamental changes in the language, the religion, and the culture of the nation. Attributed to this Arab Islamic influence was the unprecedented efflorescence of Persian poetry, an art that was hardly practiced before that time. In the words of William Jones, the Persians “learnt the art of poetry from the Arabs.” Among the great poets of Persia were Sa’adi, Hafiz, Jalál’ud-Dín Rúmí and Iraki, to name a few of many. These were great poets in their own right, universally acclaimed and sharing with their Western peers—such as Goethe, Dante, and Shakespeare—that supreme gift, which John Clare, the ploughman turned poet, described as follows: Poetry is indeed a thing of God; He made His prophets poets: and the more We feel of poesie do we become Like God in love and power. Most of the poets in Iran before modern times, if not all, were men. Very rarely do we come across a woman poet of distinction and eminence such as øáhirih, also known by her title Qurratu’l-‘Ayn. øáhirih had her own admirers, disciples, and followers at home; what is remarkable is that her character and poetry won universal acclaim in both the East and the West. Of her, Lord Curzon of Kedleston said: ix
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The heroism of the lovely but ill-fated poetess of Qasvin, Zarrin-Taj [another of her titles] is one of the most affecting episodes in modern history. While the well-known British orientalist E. G. Browne remarked: The appearance of such a woman as Qurratu’l-‘Ayn is in any country and any age, a rare phenomenon, but in such a country as Persia it is a prodigy— nay—almost a miracle. . . . Had the Babi religion no other claim to greatness, this were sufficient . . . that it produced a heroine like Qurratu’l-‘Ayn. Indeed øáhirih was a miracle in herself as an exceptional woman of great beauty and superior intelligence capable of writing miraculous poetry. In the moments of complete illumination and intensive inspiration—a condition of the spirit the Sufis call “tajalli”—both poet and mystic come to understand what is beyond understanding. This miraculous illumination is deeply suggested by øáhirih’s poems as translated into English by John S. Hatcher and Amrollah Hemmat, allowing us to be aware of øáhirih’s pure vision and clairvoyant insight. For she was both a poet and mystic who achieved moments in which she realized that she was in the presence of eternity. This state of illumination has been described by the English poet Henry Vaughan as follows: I saw Eternity the other night Like a great Ring of pure and endless light, All calm as it was bright And round beneath it, Time in hours, days, years Driv’n by the spheres Like a vast shadow mov’d, in which the world And all her train were hurl’d. *
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Translating Persian and Arabic into English is a notoriously difficult exercise. Some translators have succeeded in conveying the meaning of a text by neglecting the aspects of form, rhyme, and meter; others are academically worthy at the expense of literary style; few have combined both merits to produce definitive renderings in the way that John S. Hatcher and Amrollah Hemmat have done. Every translation is related to its time and belongs to the history of the period in
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which it is completed, and every translation involves an interpretation of a kind as well as a new creation. The formidable difficulties that face the translator of poetry, as described by the ninth-century Arab critic and erudite author al-Jahiz, also apply to a lesser extent to the translation of prose: Poetry cannot be translated, nor should it be converted, for once so rendered its order is disrupted, its metre fractured, its beauty lost, its points of novelty and delight devalued, so that it becomes as ordinary prose. And prose originally composed as such is both more eloquent and more effective than prose that has been converted from the rhythmic utterances of poetry . . . were the wisdom of the Arabs to be so rendered, that inimitable quality residing in its metre would be vitiated; notwithstanding that were such to be attempted, there would be found in its prescriptions naught that other peoples have not recorded in their own works, composed on various aspects of their life, perceptions and philosophy. . . . Amongst those who champion poetry, embrace it, and argue in its defence: “The translator can never convey the words of the sage [poet], having regard to the exact niceties of his meanings and the true intricacies of his intentions, nor can he render to them perfect justice. How, forsooth, could he undertake such a task, alike preserving all their meanings, and providing of them a true and accurate account, unless his knowledge of their meanings, the uses of their various word forms, and the significances of their applications were upon a level with that of the author and composer of the book himself? For when was Ibn Qaswah, and Ibn Fihr, and Ibn Wahlili, and Ibnu’l-Muqaffa’ the like of Aristotle? And when was Khalid the like of Plato?” Certainly the two current translators of øáhirih’s poetry have obtained excellent results on account of their being steeped in the culture and the language of both the Persians and the Arabs. In addition to this, they have expressed themselves fluently and lyrically in English and are able to grasp the reins of both the spirit and the form of the poetry that they have rendered into English. *
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So far John S. Hatcher and Amrollah Hemmat have published three volumes of øáhirih’s poetry in English Translation—The Poetry of øáhirih (George Ronald,
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2002), Adam’s Wish: Unknown Poetry of øáhirih (Bahá’í Publishing, 2008), and The Quickening: Unknown Poetry of øáhirih (Bahá’í Publishing, 2011). This latest volume consists of a mix of poems and prose in Arabic and Persian. It is indeed, as the authors themselves claim, “a most appropriate conclusion to the corpus of her poetry” and it “contains poems dedicated to the announcement and celebration of the advent of the Day of Days, the spiritual reformation of human society long promised in all the previous revealed religions by all the Manifestations of God.” This latest volume, like the two previous ones, is a brilliant and powerful rendering of øáhirih’s poetry in English and it stands as a monument to translation as a literary art. The Quickening is filled with fresh insights into the life of a Muslim woman who braved all odds to return her coreligionists to the true path of Islam, and a woman whose revolutionary spirit declared that God’s guidance continues to reach humanity and that no true faith of God could ever remain stagnant, refusing to move forward in order to bring about necessary change. This volume in its commentary is informed by an astonishing mastery of the entire corpus of øáhirih’s writing in verse and prose, and is based on exhaustive research (as the many commentaries in the footnotes testify) into the cultural, social, political, and religious life of Persia at the time. For a full understanding and appreciation of øáhirih’s poetry and vision, her insight and imagination, as well as the variety of her spiritual and mystical experiences, this last volume should be read in conjunction with the two preceding volumes. Above all, this magnificent book successfully teaches us that inspired poetry originates in experience of the sacred and with the precise choice of word, the cadences of its flow, and the rendering of symbolic images. It speaks directly to the core of the human soul; it insinuates its vision into the soul and opens the soul’s eyes to the presence of the sacred within and around it. But this would have been impossible without the pen of a poet such as John S. Hatcher, who himself understands fully the meaning of the sacred in art and poetry. He expresses in English what øáhirih had expressed in Persian and Arabic. In this he was greatly helped by Amrollah Hemmat, a great scholar in his own right. Perhaps in the final analysis, this marvelous book proves beyond a doubt the truth of Percy Shelley’s astute statement in his A Defence of Poetry that can be applied to both øáhirih and her translator poet, John S. Hatcher: Poets are the hierophants of an unapprehended inspiration; the mirrors of the gigantic shadows which futurity casts upon the present; the words which xii
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express what they understand not; the trumpets which sing to battle and feel not what they inspire; the influence which is moved not, but moves. Poets are the unacknowledged legislators of the world. —Dr. Suheil Bushrui, Khalil Gibran Chair for Values and Peace at the University of Maryland, and author of The Essential Gibran and The World’s Favorite Love Poems
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Introduction The heroic life of øáhirih—Fá¬imih Umm-Salmih (1817–1852)—has long been celebrated by playwrights, historians, and Persian social reformers, especially those advocating women’s rights in present-day Iran. Though a nineteenthcentury poet of superb eloquence and variety, she is better known by most as a woman of dauntless faith, courage, and resilience, whether by the Persian community in general or by the followers of the Bahá’í religion, for whom she looms as one of the most memorable figures in the Faith’s history. The followers of the Bahá’í Faith celebrate her as one of the Letters of the Living—the first eighteen followers of the Báb, the Herald of Bahá’u’lláh and a Prophet in His own right. Though never actually meeting the Báb, she recognized in His writings, and through a dream vision, that He was the fulfillment of the long-awaited Qá’im of Shi‘ih Islam. She remained one of the most outstanding teachers and leaders of the Bábí religion from the point of her recognition of His station in 1844 to her execution for her beliefs in 1852. Biographies, such as øáhirih the Pure by Martha Root, characterize øáhirih as fearless and unconventional in her daring words and actions, whether defying her father and husband, interacting with her coreligionists, or refusing to marry the king (Ná¦iri’d-Dín Sháh) even though her consent would have saved her from execution. In light of such a storied life, it might not be surprising that more attention has been paid to her as a vital personality and a figure of historical importance than to her poetry and to her other writings. But, in fact, the main reason that more has not been done to celebrate her accomplishments as a poet, as an intellect, and as an astute scholar of religion (especially among modern literary and religious academics) is that it is only now with our publication of this, our third and possibly final, work devoted to her poetry—both in its original Persian and Arabic and in English translation—that the public has had access to most of her work. 1
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Except for small pieces of her longer poems and the brief but memorable traditional lyrics, such as Face to Face—a passionate poem that has been put to music—her poetry for the most part has never been publicly available. Indeed, our first volume of her work, The Poetry of øáhirih (George Ronald, 2002) was the first publication of her poetic works translated into English.. That volume consists primarily of the briefer, more traditional passionate lyrics in the Sufi tradition. Among these pieces are plaints of longing to attain the presence of her Beloved, the Friend, the Presence of God on earth. Some of these poems are also lamentations for the suffering of the Bábís, over twentythousand of whom met deaths of untold cruelty and humiliation in the early days of the Faith’s history. Other poems in the first volume contain celebrations in praise of the Báb and Bahá’u’lláh, Whose advent she prophetically asserts will revive a fallen and bewildered humanity. Our second volume, Adam’s Wish: Unknown Poetry of øáhirih (Bahá’í Publishing, 2008) resulted from a most propitious find. We obtained a copy of a lengthy manuscript of øáhirih’s poems from Bíjan Bei¤áíe, son of renowned scholar Dhuká’í Bei¤áíe, who originally submitted this volume to the Bahá’í archives of Iran. This wonderful repository of her poetry in the original language and calligraphy contained mostly previously unpublished and largely unknown poems, which constitute øáhirih’s more industrious and more serious and complex works. That second volume includes a handful of longer, more theological and philosophical poems—works entirely distinct from the briefer lyrics of the first volume. In truth, portions of the poems in Adam’s Wish have the tenor of a scholarly treatise as she examines, often in great detail, the foundation for her most cherished theological and philosophical perspectives. In particular, she focuses on the eternal plan of God as manifest in the earlier dispensations of Adam, Noah, Abraham, and Moses. Informed by the Báb’s writings, and similar in some respects to the themes covered in Bahá’u’lláh’s most important doctrinal work, The Book of Certitude, øáhirih’s poems in Adam’s Wish discuss in detail the timeliness and gradualness with which God successively educates humanity through the ages by means of His Prophets or “Manifestations”—the Messengers or Intermediaries, Whose successive interventions serve to elevate by degrees the social and spiritual condition of the human body politic. According to Bahá’í belief, this systematic Major Plan of God is promulgated by two essential methods. First, through Their exemplary lives, the Manifes-
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tations demonstrate Godliness in daily action, whether in Their immaculate character or Their interaction with others. Second, each Manifestation unfolds in His revelatory utterances an incrementally more inclusive description of reality together with the prescription for a pattern of action for humankind. This guidance includes the revelation of new laws, the abrogation of dated laws, and the design for social institutions that will educate civilization until the next Manifestation appears with a more advanced portion of this continuous program of human enlightenment. It is in this sense that the “people of the Book” as alluded to in the Qur’án are, in fact, those who recognize and follow the teachings of the Manifestation designated to guide humankind for the particular age or “Day” in which the Prophet appears. The “Book” thus alludes to the word of God revealed at each stage of human enlightenment, not to the revealed teachings of a single revelation. Likewise, because each successive Manifestation summarizes all that has gone before and then revises specific guidance for the changed condition of human advancement, each of these Prophets can be correctly designated as the “Son of God” (Christianity), the “Seal of the Prophets” (Islam), the “Primal Point” (the Bábí Faith), or the “The Promised One” (the Bahá’í Faith). This third volume of øáhirih’s poetry is a translation of yet a second manuscript discovered by Dhuká’í Bei¤áíe and given to us by his son Bíjan Bei¤áíe, a manuscript that his revered father had also originally submitted to the Bahá’í archives of Iran. This manuscript of 203 unnumbered pages consists of a mix of poems and prose in Arabic and Persian with no mention of the transcriber, the calligraphers, or the date when the manuscript was transcribed. Facsimiles of the poems in this manuscript are included at the end of this volume. The Quickening contains poems that are indeed a most appropriate conclusion to the corpus of øáhirih’s poetry. They are largely dedicated to the announcement and celebration of the advent of the Day of Days, the spiritual reformation of human society long promised in all the previous revealed religions by all the Manifestations of God. This volume of forty-two poems contains verses of varied style and length, from brief two- or three-line pieces, to more formal and lengthy elucidations of what øáhirih portrays as a milestone in human history—the universal recognition of the essentially spiritual purpose of creation and of revealed religion as the motive force in the dynamic progress of human society. What distinguishes these poems from the works in the previous two collections is apparent from the beginning—a consistent tone and spirit of praise, exultation, and unleashed joy that we discover only occasionally in her other poetry.
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From compositions of Her Holiness øá, the Pure Soul.1 May glory be upon her!
Poem 12: O God, Where Am I? (The original poem begins on page 254)
1 Where am I and what has caused my isolation from the friends? Where am I and what is the source of this pain of separation? 2 What have I to do with the city of Rayy,3 O Creator? Where am I and why is the monastery4 in ruins?
1. “The Pure Soul” (an-Nafsu’z-Zakiyyah, ) نفس الزكيه: According to Shí‘ih sources, before the appearance of the Mahdí (the Promised One) several figures will appear: “the one eyed Dajjál,” the Sufyání, and the Yamaní. Another figure, “the Pure Soul,” will be assassinated” (Momen, p. 168). 2. According to Mo¥ammad¥oseini (p. 387), this poem is included in the attachment to page 98, volume 4 of þuhúru’l-Þaqq, a handwritten manuscript by Fá¤il Mázandarání. However, Mo¥ammad¥oseini is doubtful that this and some other mathnavís belong to øáhirih since he believes in terms of form and content these poems are below the level of øáhirih’s scholarship. 3. Rayy is an area close to Tehran (at this time, connected to Tehran). øáhirih’s reference to the city of Rayy could have multiple layers of meaning. Prophecies in Islamic traditions about events in Rayy are interpreted to refer to what has taken place in Tehran. Before Tehran became a prominent city, the city of Rayy was one of the Shí‘ih centers for scholarship (Momen, 1985, p. 108). By the time of øáhirih, only ruins of this once great city remained (Vaezi, p. 198). When Shaykh A¥mad A¥sá’í was visiting Rayy, several earthquakes devastated the city: “The Sháh had a dream in which it was revealed to him that, if Shaykh A¥mad had not been there, the entire 21
T he qui c kening
3 Where am I, O God, and what has caused me to be standing in the universe in the presence of one so mindless and shallow? 4 Where am I and why am I without veil or hijab, my head downcast, bewildered about where all this is coming from, 5 (here) in the presence of one so sinister that his very essence is evil, whose nature is “possesses no wisdom,” who lashes out so fanatically? 6 Where am I, O Eternal Creator? Why am I subject to the verdict of Ibn-i-Sufyán? 5 7 Where am I, O Omnipotent, Living, Wondrous One? Why have I been seized by the hands of the people of mischief ?
city would have been destroyed and all the inhabitants killed. He awakened terrified and his faith in the Shaykh grew apace” (A. L. M. Nicolas, “Essai sur le Shaykhisme,” I, p. 21.) In the Book of Certitude Bahá’u’lláh writes about Rayy, “In that place His companions have been with great suffering put to death, and all these holy beings have suffered martyrdom at the hand of the Persians, as recorded in the tradition” (¶275). In Adam’s Wish, poem 5, line 26 we see another reference by øáhirih to Rayy (“the deserts of Rayy”). 4. “Monastery”: Deyr ( )ديرA monastery is often built in a remote place, far from civilization. The word is an allusion to the earthly or physical world. In Sufi terminology, “monastery” alludes to “human civilization.” The “monastery of sadness” (deyr-i-qham, )دير غم, the “tight monastery” (deyr-i-tang), and similar combinations involving this word have been used in Persian literature. 5. Ibn-i-Sufyán, meaning “the son of Sufyán,” is a reference to Mu‘áviah (the son of Abú Sufyán). Mu‘áviah, the first Caliph of the Umayyad dynasty, was ruling Syria when ‘Alí, the first Imám, ousted him, but he engaged in war against ‘Alí (Dehkhoda, Vol. 45, p. 680. See “Mu‘áviah”). Mu‘áviah and his son Yazíd (who martyred the Imám Þusayn), together with the Umayyad rulers in general, are known for their cruelty in Shí‘ih tradition and history (Ishraq-iKhávari, 128 B.E., Vol. 1, p. 420 and Ghadimi, 1994–2005, see “Mu‘áviah”). The return of a negative historical figure with the same negative character, before the appearance of the promised Qá’im, is prophesized in Shí‘ih tradition (the appearance of the Sufyání mentioned in footnote 1). 22
P o em 1 : O G o d , W here A m I ?
8 Where am I, O Omnipotent, Living, Ancient One? Where did this army of roaring lions come from? 9 From where do they now come to our aid, proclaiming that this is the pure one and the purifying one, 10 proclaiming that this is the most beauteous one, the golden one6 struck down among us in a daze to the earth?7 11 Where am I, O Cause of all honor and generosity? What is the source of assistance for these iniquitous and mischievous ones? 12 Where am I, O Friend, and why am I so weary and mournful? What is the cause of lamentation and anxiety in this desert of confusion?
6. “The most beauteous one, the golden one” is the translation for Zahháriyah ()زهاريه. ّ This word is a variation of the word zahrá’, which in Persian literature is often an attribute of Lucifer, meaning “luminous” or “luminous Lucifer star.” Zahrá’ is also the title of Mu¥ammad’s daughter Fá¬imih, and means “good,” “beautiful,” and “white” (like a shining star). According to the Islamic traditions, Fá¬imah will appear again in the Day of Resurrection, interceding to God for the forgiveness of the faithful. øáhirih’s name given by her father was Fá¬imah (Mo¥ammad¥oseini, p. 155) and she was known to the Bábís as the return and manifestation of Mu¥ammad’s daughter Fá¬imih (Mo¥ammad¥oseini, p. 193). Therefore, since øáhirih means “the pure,” the phrases “The pure one and the purifying one” and “the most beauteous one, the golden one” in verses 9 and 10 of this poem can be references to øáhirih herself. Similar terms translated as “the source of purity” and “bright Venus,” appear in line 23 of poem 7 as a reference to the Manifestation of God. 7. Struck down (dakkán, )دكّان: A variation of this word is used in the Qur’án 7:143 for Moses when He falls on the ground unconscious from beholding the burning bush in Sinai. 23
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