Rudaki

This article is about a poet; for other meanings, see Rudaki (disambiguation).

Rudaki, also Rodaki (literally "from Rudak"), with full name Arabic Persian ابو عبد الله جعفر رودكى, DMG Abū 'Abd Allāh Ǧa'far-i Rūdakī, (b. 858 or 859 in Rudak, Khorasan, now Punjrud near Punjakent, Tajikistan; † 940/41 probably ibid, possibly Bukhara) is considered the father of Neo-Persian poetry.

The poet and musician Rudaki worked for a time at the court of the Samanid prince Amir Nasr Ben Ahmad II. (914–942/3). Although he fell out of favor with the emir, he was known and famous among poets in different eras as the "master" or the "king of poets".

Rudaki died in 941 in modest circumstances. About 1000 verses of the genres Qasīda, Ghazal, Masnawī ("double verses"), and Rubāʿī ("quatrains") have survived from him.

Rudaki's masterpiece is Kalīla wa Dimna (Burzoe's Panchatantra), which he translated into New Persian in verse form. These are fables that are instructive and entertaining as well as humorous and critical. Ferdousī devoted a chapter of his Shāhnāme to this collection of fables by Rudaki.

The original script of the Kalīla wa Dimna originated in Sanskrit and was called Panchatantra in India, i.e. "Five Strands (of Narratives)". (The term "Tantra" common in German today goes back to another meaning of the Sanskrit word Tantra "warp, sequence, ritual, systematic teaching").

Kalīla wa Dimna belongs to the Punj Ketāb ("five books"), through which, for example, children on the soil of Afghanistan today learned to read and write in village schools and "madrasas," in the madchal ("preschool") and in families with special pleasure. Rudaki's language is simple, his poetry is melodic and complex.

Rudaki wrote other poems on the themes of "knowledge", "education", "art", "death", "life", "love", "nouruz" and "the world". Best known is his Qasīda The Fragrance of the Little River Mūliyān Approaches (Persian بوى جوى موليان آيد همى, DMG bū-ye ǧū-ye mūlīyān āyad hamī), with which he is said to have persuaded the sultan to return immediately from the steppe to Bukhara and which is still often set to music today.

Aphorisms (selection)

Ин ҷаҳонро нигар ба чашми хирад,

Не бад-он чашм, к-андар ӯ нигарӣ.

Ҳамчу дарёст в-аз накӯкорӣ

Киштие соз, то бад-он гузарӣ!

این جهان را نگر به چشم خرد

نی بدان چـشــم کاندرو نگری

همچو دریاســـت وز نکوکاری

کشـتيى سـاز تا بدان گذری

īn ǧahān-rā nigar ba čašm-i ḫirad

nē ba-d-ān čašm k'andar-ū nigarī

hamču daryā-st w'az nakūkārī

kištī'ī sāz tā ba-d-ān guẕarī

Look at this world with the eye of wisdom,

Not with the eye you usually look with.

She is like the sea, and out of benefits builds

You a ship, so you can see through the vastness.

In 1958, the Rudaki Museum of History and Local History was opened in Punjakent. On the facade of the museum are two carved murals and a famous saying of Rudaki:

Ҳеҷ шодӣ нест андар ин ҷаҳон,

Бартар аз дидори рӯи дӯстон.

هيچ شادى نيست اندر اين جهان

بـرتـر از ديــدار روى دوســـــتــان

hēč šādī nēst andar īn ǧahān

bartar az dīdār-i rō-yi dōstān

No greater joy this world knows,

When eye falls on friend's face.