A Socio-Historical Approach to Poetic Origins of Persian Proverbs

Abstract

The connection between proverbs and poetry is a profound and ancient one. The classical poets often cited well-known proverbs to attract and engage common people. In the case of legendary poets, some of their enchanting poems were well received and commonly repeated by ordinary people and gradually became famous proverbs themselves. More than any other Persian poets, Rumi, Sádi and Ferdowsi cited and created proverbs. Due to the condensed structure of maxims, often the preconditions and teachings of poets became distorted. As shown here, even the logical and philosophical views of Rumi and Khayyam were not spared. This is a common phenomenon in all languages, but can be reversed by finding their poetic roots and rediscovering the lost lessons of master poets. Nevertheless, the majority of proverbs are created by rural people to share, reason, and transfer their everyday life experiences to their children, one another and future generations.