Re:Rare Persian manuscripts dating back to 13th century now ...
by pohaku on Wednesday April 03, 2019 @02:49AM
(#19561307)
Yes, but on the other hand, original lyrics by Hafez, Rumi, and others are commonly used, unchanged, as lyrics for contemporary Persian songs, even for full-on rock songs, dance music, love songs, etc. I haven't heard any songs in the Hot 100 using lyrics by Chaucer lately.
Re:Rare Persian manuscripts dating back to 13th century now ...
by dalbasal on Wednesday April 03, 2019 @07:10AM
(#19562391)
In part, this is probably because old Persian poetry/song traditions were more modern, compared to english poetry from the same period. They had a strong, very old literary tradition. The English didn't, until a bit later. Chaucer was part of building it.
The musical/poetic sensibilities of old/middle English are way too different to ours.
The Bible (especially in Hebrew) can also easily be plagiarized, and you'll find lots of lines/poems that work "as is" in a pop song.
Eg, rivers of babylon, boney m.
Re:Rare Persian manuscripts dating back to 13th century now ...
by walrus01 on Wednesday April 03, 2019 @06:20AM
(#19562176)
As a cultural reference, poetry is such a big deal that the largest and most popular tv station in Kabul (Tolo TV), operating in the Dari dialect of Farsi, regularly hosts what could basically be described as poetry slams during prime time tv hours.
They have a fairly active youtube channel if anyone wants to take a look.
Re:Rare Persian manuscripts dating back to 13th century now ...
by garethrees on Wednesday April 03, 2019 @10:21AM
(#19563532)
The difficulty of Chaucer for modern English speakers is exaggerated because of the unfamiliar spelling. The reason that modern editions don't modernise the spelling is that if you do this it becomes hard to figure out the rhythm. For example, in the Ellesmere manuscript [1], line 9 is "And smale foweles maken melodye", but if you modernise this to "And small fowls make melody" then you only have seven syllables and it is hard to figure out how this was ever scanned as iambic pentameter. Modern editions end up compromising between spelling and scansion, making the language more difficult-looking than it really is.
Re:Rare Persian manuscripts dating back to 13th century now ...
by eternalban on Friday April 05, 2019 @06:35AM
(#19581252)
Not exactly correct. I have the 'Divan'e Shams'e Tabriz' open in front of me and even though I left Iran at 14 years of age I can read it.
The content matter is not super accessible but that was true from the very day it was uttered.
Similarly, English saw its fastest changing in the 12th century during the Norman conquest, when French became the dominant language of the ruling class.
In both cases, most of the core vocabulary and grammar survived, but with enough influence and new words that it is hard for speakers after the change to understand writings before the change.
My understanding from Persian friends is that Rumi is about as understandable to modern Persian speakers as his contemporary, Chaucer, is to modern English speakers.
Whan that Aprille with his shours soothe
The droughte of March hath perced to the roote
And bathed evry vein in switch liquour
Of which vertu engendyred is the flour...