Nets of Awareness "gloss"

Glossary

Bayāẓ (notebook).: A small personal notebook carried by poetry lovers; a bayāẓ normally contains a record of memorable verses its owner has heard or composed.
Bouquet.: See guldastah.
Chronogram.: See tārīḳh.
Closing verse.: See maqt̤a‘.
Continuous ghazal.: See Ġhazal-e musalsal.
Dīvān (volume).: A collection of poems by a single author. A dīvān is normally arranged in alphabetical order by the last letter of the radīf (refrain)—but not by the next-to-last, so that the poet is able to make his own arrangement.
Elegy.: See marṡiyah.
Faqīr (faqir).: A religious mendicant; ideally, one who lives an austere, simple life of wandering and meditation.
Ġhazal (ghazal).: A genre of lyric poetry in Arabic, Persian, Turkish, Urdu, and other languages. See the appendix for a close look at a ghazal.
Ġhazal-e musalsal (continuous ghazal).: A ghazal in which all the verses are linked into a sequence by a progressive development of meaning; it may even be used for narrative.
Ground.: See zamīn.
Ground-sharing.: See ham zamīn.
Guldastah (bouquet).: An anthology of formally identical ghazals, often containing those recited at a particular mushairah.
Ḥajv (satire).: A poem of (at least purportedly) humorous insult or abuse; some works in this genre are light and witty, others quite genuinely hostile; some are scatological or obscene.
Ham zamīn (ground-sharing).: Having the same zamīn (ground), and thus formally identical.
Ḥaẓrat (Hazrat).: “The Presence,” a title given to honored personages.
Implication.: See kināyah.
Inshā’iyah.: A mode of discourse—exclamatory, interrogative, vocative, subjunctive, etc.—that does not purport to give factual information; opposed to ḳhabariyah.
Intiḳhāb (selection).: A sampler or selection of poetry (or prose), often in abridged form. An intiḳhāb may be based on a single poet, a single genre, or simply the taste of the compiler.
IṣlāḤ (correction).: In poetry, the process of pointing out technical errors in a line or verse, and/or suggesting specific improvements in word choice or arrangement.
Iẓāfat.: A Persian and Urdu grammatical construction that connects two words—the first usually a noun, the second either a noun or an adjective—by means of a small linking vowel. See chapter 8.
Joining lines.: See miṣra‘ lagānā.
Kaifiyat.: “Mood.” A term for the response evoked by a certain kind of verse: an ineffable, mysterious, melancholy, romantic mood in the reader or hearer. See chapter 8.
Ḳhabariyah.: A declarative mode of discourse that does purport to give factual information; opposed to inshā’iyah.
Ḳhiyāl bandī.: A term used, either admiringly or disparagingly, for a tendency to carry maẓmūn āfirīnī, the creation of (complex) meaning, to extremes.
Kināyah (implication).: The art of causing the (suitably knowledgeable) reader or hearer to draw inferences and perceive implications beyond what is specifically stated in the verse. This is one of the techniques of ma‘nī āfirīnī.
Kulliyāt.: The complete works of an author.
Line.: See miṣra‘.
Ma‘nī.: In both normal and poetic use, “meaning.”
Ma‘nī āfirīnī.: “Meaning-creation.” The multiplication and enrichment of poetic meaning; the art of creating a verse that will elicit two or more different interpretations, and/or will be surrounded by a penumbra of suggestion (kināyah). See chapter 8.
Maqt̤a‘ (closing verse).: Literally, “point of cutting off.” In a ghazal, a verse that both includes the poet’s pen name and occupies the last (or sometimes next-to-last) position.
Marṡiyah (elegy).: A lament written to commemorate someone’s death. Many—but not all—Urdu marṡiyahs are devoted to the death of Ḥaẓrat Ḥusain at Karbala.
Mashshāq (practiced).: A term of respect for a poet who has, with time and experience, developed excellent technical skills.
Maṡnavī.: A narrative or reflective poem, often longish but of no fixed length, often romantic but with no prescribed subject matter. Its two-line verses normally rhyme AA, BB, CC, etc.
Matt̤la‘ (opening verse).: Literally, “where the sun rises.” In a ghazal, an introductory pattern-setting verse that has the rhyme (and refrain, if any) at the end of each of its two lines.
Maẓmūn.: Roughly, a poetic theme or proposition. See chapter 7.
Maẓmūn āfirīnī.: “Proposition-creation.” The making of the (implicit or explicit) assertions of metaphoric identity from which the ghazal universe develops. See chapter 7.
Miṣra‘ (line).: A single hemistich or line of poetry.
Miṣra‘ lagānā (joining lines).: A technical exercise in which one line of a verse is provided and the poet is challenged to improvise another line that will complete the verse.
Miṣra‘-e t̤araḥ (pattern line).: A line specified in advance, to which all the poems recited at a given mushairah are expected to conform in meter and rhyme and refrain. It is often part of a mat̤la‘, an opening verse.
Musaddas.: A poem in stanzas of six lines, usually rhyming AAAABB.
Mushā‘irah (mushairah).: A gathering at which poets read their verses—which are usually, by prearrangement, formally identical ones—before an audience of ustads, shagirds, connoisseurs, and patrons. Mushairahs are discussed at length in chapter 5.
Nāzuk ḳhiyālī.: A term used, either admiringly or disparagingly, for a tendency to carry maẓmūn āfirīnī to extremes.
Notebook.: See bayāẓ.
Ode.: See qaṣīdah.
Opening verse.: See mat̤la‘.
Pattern.: See t̤araḥ.
Pattern line.: See miṣra‘-e t̤araḥ.
Patterned.: See t̤araḥī.
Pen name.: See taḳhalluṣ.
Practiced.: See mashshāq.
Qāfiyah (rhyme).: In a ghazal, the rhyming syllable at the end of the second line of each two-line verse. The qāfiyah is usually (though not in all ghazals) followed by a radīf (refrain).
Qaṣīdah (ode).: A poem with a “purpose” (maqṣad). The term generally refers to poems in praise of something or someone—usually a patron. But a Ḥajv too may be technically described as a qaṣīdah.
Qit̤‘ah (verse-sequence).: Literally, “cutting, section.” Within a ghazal, a series of verses meant to be read as a connected sequence. The first verse of the qit̤a‘h is traditionally marked with the letter qāf; the last verse is not marked. Sometimes a qit̤a‘h outgrows the ghazal entirely and takes on an independent existence, as a unified poem in its own right; it is then usually given a title.
Quatrain.: See rubā‘ī.
Rabt̤ (connection).: The quality of internal relationship and self-reflexivity within a single verse, especially between its two lines. See chapter 6.
Radīf (refrain).: In a ghazal, the identically repeated word or words at the end of the second line of each two-line verse, after the qāfiyah. A radīf is extremely common but not compulsory.
Ravānī (flowingness).: The quality of euphonious, harmonious sound that makes a verse effective when it is recited aloud. See chapter 6.
Refrain.: See radīf.
Rhyme.: See qāfiyah.
Rubā‘ī (quatrain).: A four-line poem in one or more of a group of traditionally prescribed meters, and usually rhyming AABA.
ṢāḤib (Sahib).: A title of honor and respect.
Sanad (warrant).: A verification of a usage: the word or maẓmūn in question is cited in the work of respected ustads, and thus legitimized.
Satire.: See Ḥajv.
Shāgird (shagird).: An apprentice who has been accepted by an ustad for training in poetic composition.
Shi‘r.: A distich or two-line verse, treated in the ghazal as an independent poetic unit; both lines must be in the same meter and must make a complete poetic effect of their own, without regard to the rest of the poem. The second line must end in the rhyming elements (qāfiyah definitely, and in most ghazals radīf as well).
Shorish.: “Passion.” Direct, powerful expression of the lover’s experience of life; although charged with emotion, it is usually not narrowly personal. See chapter 8.
Silsilah (lineage).: The chain of transmission from ustad to shagird, which over time becomes a line of descent that can reach far back into the past; a long and prestigious silsilah is a great source of authority and pride.
Taḳhalluṣ (pen name).: A literary pseudonym adopted by a poet; it is often a meaningful word, and may or may not have some connection with the poet’s real name. It is usually incorporated into the last verse of each poem.
T̤araḥ (pattern).: A prescribed meter-rhyme combination, or zamīn, in which a ghazal is to be composed.
T̤araḥī (patterned).: The classical kind of mushairah, in which all the verses recited are formally identical (i.e., ham t̤araḥ or ham zamīn).
Tārīḳh (chronogram).: A verse, line, or phrase composed in such a way that the numerical value of its letters according to the traditional Arabic abjad system adds up to the (a.h.) date of some event to be commemorated.
Tarkīb band.: A stanzaic verse form that uses a single meter but varying rhyming elements. It has the following form: a mat̤la‘ (opening verse) and a certain number of shi‘rs (two-line verses) in rhyme-scheme A, followed by single mat̤la‘ in rhyme-scheme B, followed by a mat̤la‘ and the same number of shi‘rs in rhyme-scheme C, followed by a single mat̤la‘ in rhyme-scheme D, and so on.
Tażkirah (tazkirah).: A traditional genre of literary anthology in Persian and Urdu. A tazkirah consists of brief selections from the work of various poets, usually with some prefatory comments about each poet. The genre is discussed in detail in chapter 5.
Ustād (ustad).: A recognized master-poet, one who has completed his apprenticeship and now accepts and trains his own shagirds. The term is discussed at length in chapter 4.
Vāsoḳht.: A lyric genre, usually but not always in the six-line musaddas form, in which the lover expresses bitterness and quarrels with the beloved, after which they are reconciled.
Verse.: The basic unit from which all longer poems were built up. A verse was always in one of the traditionally recognized meters. The most common unit of verse was the two-line shi‘r, but there was also the stanza (band), which might consist of three, four, five, or six lines.
Verse-sequence.: See qit̤a‘h.
Volume.: See dīvān.
Warrant.: See sanad.
Zamīn (ground).: The meter-rhyme pattern, or the formal specifications sufficient to define a particular ghazal: meter plus rhyme plus refrain (if any). Any two verses (shi‘r) in the same zamīn could be part of the same ghazal. Synonym: t̤araḥ.