Ghazal genre in Nima Yushij’s poetics

The article introduces the classical ghazals in the poetry of Nimá Yushíj (1897-1960) that were previously unexamined in Russian and Western Iranian Studies, and that provided an impetus for the development of this traditional genre in the contemporary Persian literature. Analysis of the canonic language signs of medieval lyrics by the “father of Iranian new poetry’s” sheds light upon the transformation of the author’s self-awareness in line with the original artistic manner. Conventional images and stable motifs of love lyrics, which have absorbed traditional mystical and allegorical connotations, are uniquely refracted in Nima Yushij’s ghazals. The semiotic and structural aspect of research along with the methods of historical poetics reveals the polysemanticism of classical motifs. The multi-stratified text structure turns out to be a tool for the poet to allegorically present his artistic view. In accordance with his intentions, Nima applies both the normative components of the formal plan (e. g., husn at-taxallus) and the execution methods that are not typical for the classical canon (frame text). To sum up, semantic and formal wholeness of Nima’s ghazals is observed.