Hafiz and the Religion of Love in Classical Persian Poetry

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TheAlba

Dawnisasymbolicallychargedtimeinmanyliterarytraditions,perhapsmost
famouslyinthemedievalProvençallyric–or,intheterminologynowpreferred,
Occitanlyric,sincethelangued’ocwasnotdelimitedtothecountyofProvence,but
flourishedinPoitouandAquitaine,andeastwardbeyondthis,throughoutmuchof
southernFranceandintonorthernItaly,inaregionnowdubbedOccitania.Asmall
butimportantcorpusofTroubadourpoemssharingparticularfeatureshasbeen
classified generically as ‘dawn’ poetry. This genre is namedAlba, which word
appearsasarefraininmanyofthesepoems,thoughtheFrenchword‘aube’or
‘aubade’issometimesappliedtothematicallyrelatedpoemsinthelangued’oïl,and
anevenlargercorpusofmedievalGermanpoetryinthisgenregoesunderthename
Tagelied.^4 Bythetwelfthorthirteenthcentury,theOccitantraditionalreadyrecog-
nizedthese‘Alba’poems,whichwereprobablysungtomusicalaccompaniment
(andperhapsevendancedoracted,inatleastthreevoices),asbelongingtoadis-
tinctthematicconvention,orgenre,oftheirown.^5 Althoughthesedawnsongsare
wellknown,andhavebeenconsideredbysometobe,alongwiththesirventes,^6 ‘per-
hapsthemostfamous,peculiarandrepresentativeofProvençalforms’,^7 theyare
actuallyaratherminorgenre,notmuchpractisedbythemajorTroubadourpoets,
andgenerallycomposedinapopulartonewithcomparativelyunsophisticatedver-
sification.Howeverwidespreadthegenremusthavebeen,onlyasmallnumberof
Albasurvive:AlfredJeanroycounted16OccitanAlbapoems,^8 thoughatleastone
additionalOccitanorProvençalAlbawasdiscoveredafterhis1934studyofthemat-
ter.In1944,MartíndeRiquertallied18poemsasbelongingtothiscanon,^9 whilein
1965,B.Woledge,usingmorerestrictivecriteria,acceptedjustninetroubadour
Albas,withfourfurtherpoemsinthepenumbraoftheAlba,possibly‘derivativesof
themaingenre’,insofarastheyareallconcernedinsomewaywith‘theparting
ofloversatdawn’.^10 Thefivecommoncharacteristicsoftheninepoems,which
WoledgefeltwerecentraltoandrepresentativeoftheAlbagenre,includethe
followingfeatures:

1) Theydescribethefeelingsofloverswho,afteranightspenttogether,mustsep-

arateatdawnbecauseitwouldbedangerousforthemtobefoundtogether.

2) Inadditiontothetwolovers,theyhaveathirdcharacter,awatchmanwho

announcesthecomingofdawn.

3) Allexceptone[ofthesenine]havearefraincontainingthewordAlba(‘dawn’).

4) Mostofthemcontainacertainamountofdialogue,oracombinationofnarra-

tivewithdirectspeech.

5) Allseemtohavebeenwritteneitherinthelatetwelfthcenturytomiddlethir-

teenthcentury,withfewifanybeingfromthelatethirteenth.

Inafootnote,Woledgeaddsthatinfiveoftheninepoemsafurthercharacteristicis

thattheloversareindangerfrom‘thejealousone’or‘thehusband’.^11 Healsopoints

ḤāfiẓandtheReligionofLoveinClassicalPersianPoetry