Poetry
لیلی و مجنون
Not translated into English
Jami · 1484
Synopsis
Qeys, son of a rich tribal chief, loves Leyli and sings of his love before everyone. Leyli's father sees it as a dishonour and refuses any marriage; Leyli's tribe has to leave in search of other pastures, and the lovers are separated. Qeys loses his reason and becomes Majnun, the madman: he withdraws into the desert, lives among the beasts and does nothing but recite verses for the woman he loves.
Context
Jami composed the poem in 1484, a few years before his death, and placed it among the seven long poems of his Haft Awrang. In his preface he says that he let chance choose his hero after Joseph and Zuleikha, and names Nizami among those who had treated the subject. Closer to the Arabic version than his Persian predecessors, he dwells on Majnun's wandering and on the nomadic world of the desert, and gives the story a mystical meaning: Majnun's adventures stand for the soul's quest.
Who it is for
To read the legend of Majnun as a spiritual path, as a Sufi master rewrote it in the fifteenth century.
Prizes and reception
Less illustrated than the older versions, the poem appeared in 2021 in a translation by Leili Anvar accompanied by one hundred and eighty miniatures.
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