Lessons 10 · 1 lessons · B. To‘xliyev, B. Karimov, K. Usmonova. Literature: textbook-collection for Grade 10 of secondary schools and for students of secondary specialised and vocational institutions, Parts 1–2. 1st edition. “O‘zbekiston milliy ensiklopediyasi” State Scientific Publishing House, Tashkent, 2017
10
About Atoyi’s lyric poetry
Textbook: Part 1, pp. 61–71
GoalBe able to identify the devices in Atoyi’s lyrics (personification, allusion, antithesis, root-repetition, correspondence).
New words
personification · tashxisallusion to a known story · talmehantithesis, use of opposites · tazodthe beloved · ma’shuqa
Explanation
The textbook calls Atoyi a master of delicate imagination and unexpected exaggerated images. By making the beloved a “shah” and himself a “slave”, he expresses both the loyalty of love and its inequality. In the ghazal “Jamoling vasfini qildim chamanda” the flowers blush with shame before the beloved’s beauty: this is tashxis, giving human traits to a lifeless thing. The fifth bayt has talmeh, an allusion to the story of Yusuf and Ya’qub – the brothers threw Yusuf into a well and told their father a wolf had eaten him, and Ya’qub lost his sight from weeping for his son. In the sixth bayt the words “uzun” and “uzmasmen” share one root, the device of ishtiqoq; the contrast of “sarvi ozod” (free cypress) and “banda” (slave) is tazod. In the ghazal with the refrain “Ey do‘st” antithesis is used a lot, and so is tanosib (a chain of logically related words). In some ghazals a Sufi spirit is felt: the poet calls preferring paradise to union with the beloved “foolish”.
Worked examples
Example: in “the flower blushed from shame” the word “blush” is used both literally (colour) and figuratively (shame) – so the personification is strong.
Example: the beloved’s lip is compared to la‘l, a deep-red precious stone; the poet exaggerates that the mouth is so small nobody could find it.
Class activity
Pairs get mixed cards: the name of a poetic device (personification, allusion, antithesis, ishtiqoq) and its definition – match them correctly.
Practice
1
What is personification? Describe an example from Atoyi’s ghazal (without quoting).
Giving human traits to a lifeless thing; for example flowers blushing in shame before the beloved.
2
What do you understand by talmeh? To which story does the talmeh in the fifth bayt point?
An allusion to a famous event or person; here the story of Yusuf and Ya’qub.
3
Through which words does the device of tazod appear in Atoyi’s ghazal?
“Free cypress” and “servant” are contrasted; in the “Ey do‘st” ghazal opposites like pleasure–pain.
4
Why does the poet portray himself as a “slave” and the beloved as a “shah”? What meaning does this give?
It shows the boundlessness of loyalty and the beloved’s loftiness, and also the inequality of this love.