Poetry
دیوان
Not translated into English
Muhammad Nabi Wasel · 1994
Synopsis
The Persian divan of Wasel Kaboli, secretary to two emirs. In the version that survives, there are sixty-two ghazals, thirty-three elegies, three odes, two narrative poems and five fragments. Nearly half of the poems respond to Hafez, whose metre, rhyme, refrain and sometimes order of verses the author takes up; others respond to Rumi, to Bidel and to the early poets of Khorasan and Iraq, in a manner that turns its back on the Indian style.
Context
The Encyclopaedia Iranica notes that Wasel's poems, written in the manner of Hafez, had been printed only recently when it was written; Golha specifies that a first collection, put together by Talib Qandahari, contained only twenty-one ghazals and one tarjiʿ-band. A study of 2021 devoted to his replies to the old masters measures what his rhymes owe to Hafez. Wasel is said to be one of those who brought the so-called Iraqi style back to Afghanistan, against the Indian manner.
Who it is for
Poems in Persian, without translation. It is better to know Hafez, to whom the poet constantly responds.
Prizes and reception
No prize. Golha regards him as one of the great ghazal authors in Afghan literary history.