Poetry
Devoni Mashrab
Not translated into English
Boborahim Mashrab · 1700
Synopsis
Ghazals, five-line stanzas and quatrains by a wandering dervish. The poet mocks the hypocrisy of the doctors of the law and casts doubt on the dogmas he was taught: he offers to trade paradise, hell and Mecca for wine or a small coin. Wine and intoxication recur constantly, along with the road and the destitution of one who has left everything, and the tone ranges from prayer to provocation.
Context
It is not known that its author himself gathered his verses. They are known from copies of an anonymous account of his life, in which the poems are given as supporting pieces, and it is difficult to separate his verses from those attributed to him. He wrote in Turkic and in Persian, and a commentary on Rumi's great poem is attributed to him, not without debate. His verses were published in Uzbekistan several times between 1958 and 1990. Nothing dates these pieces, whose year is only approximate.
Who it is for
In the Turkic language of Ferghana, and partly in Persian, with no French version. It helps to know that the wandering dervish refused all possessions, and that provocation was part of his path.
Prizes and reception
His mockery of dogma made him, in the eyes of the rulers and clergy of his time, an avowed enemy.