سیب فریب (پژوهشی در بارۀ بازتاب میوۀ ممنوعه در شعر امروز)

Poetry is a mirror, reflecting the authors' literary and artistic taste besides their knowledge and understanding of the world. The concise reflection of this knowledge will make literary works loaded with various historical, mythological, and sociological information. These data originate from different sources among which mythological legends, specifically the story of prophets and heroes, are the most rewarding. One of the myths, constantly inspiring poets, seems to be the story of Adam and Eve. The story of the forbidden fruit is a significant scene of this tale that has been widely reflected in modern sonnets. Employing descriptive-analytical method, we sought to study this story in the modern poetry and the differences that have been made to it in Persian poems. The necessity of this study is to become familiar with the modern poetry. The results indicated that this story is mostly employed in modern sonnets.  Moreover, modern poems sound to have a different view of the mentioned story. The most obvious change in these poems is the application of apple instead of wheat which is a direct result of modern poets' acquaintance with the Western literature. That is the reason why apple is considered as a symbol of love, kindness, deception, temptation, guilt, etc. nowadays.
 
Keywords: allusion, modern sonnet, story of Adam and Eve, forbidden fruit, apple, wheat

1.     Introduction

There are no evident proofs that what and how exactly the forbidden tree or fruit was. In the Quran, it is mentioned only as “this tree” (hadhihi-sh-shajara) and it has not been mentioned that how and what it was. In Torah, it has been called the tree of eternality and the tree of distinguishing between good and evil which is believed most probably to have a symbolic function; because among trees, no one knows such a tree. However, reporters of the Bible and the Quran, sometimes on the basis of old myths, have mentioned different things in this regard: wheat, grapes, fig, camphor, jujube, colocynth, apple, wisdom, jealousy, eternality, etc. what has become popular in the public and has been widely reflected in literature, poetry and arts is that in the Islamic culture, it is mentioned as wheat and in the Western culture, it comes as apple. Popularity of wheat in the Islamic and Iranian culture is not strange; because it has a huge background of narratives, interpretational and historical reports in the books interpreting the Quran, the Quranic tales, history, etc. (for example, Meibodi, 1978, 1/149 and 3/557; Razi, 1992, 1/220; Neishaburi, 2007: 17; Sour Abadi, 1986: 74; Tabatabaee, 1993, 1/143; Javadi, 2001, 3/359); however, popularity of apple in the Western culture is strange, because there is no mention of it in their religious sources, and most probably, it has entered the reports of Torah and Enjil from old myths and folkloric legends and from there, it has entered their culture and art (Shafee Kadkani, 2011: 288).
1.1.Statement of the problem
The story of the forbidden fruit or tree, the fruit that God forbid for Adam and Eve to eat, and when they ate it, they were cast out of paradise, seems to have roots in the report of Torah, a report that has later been mentioned in the Quran with a little difference. This report has some similar samples in the African myths, etc. as well (Bayer, 1975: 95-97). The most outstanding event of the story of creation that has found a fully new form and name, especially in the present-day sonnets, is the story of the forbidden fruit. This survey tries to report it and answer these questions: how is the story of the forbidden fruit reflected in the contemporary poetry? Why has it changed from wheat to apple? What has specific symbolic function it taken?
1.2.Research methodology
In this survey, by the use of the descriptive-analytical method, the reflection of the forbidden tree has been studied in many contemporary poetry collections, and the effect of cultural events on this story as well as poetic allusions have been extracted.
1.3.Literature
About the forbidden tree, the books interpreting the Quran, for instance, have discussed the issue; some of these books are: Majma-ul-Bayan (Tabarsi, 2007: 1/193); Roz-ul-Jenan (Razi, 1992: 1/220); Kashf-ul-Asrar (Meibodi, 1978: 1/148)’ Al-Mizan (Tabatabaee, 1973: 1/126), etc. All of these sources have discussed whether the fruit was wheat, grapes or something else; but about its reflection on the contemporary poetry, its change from wheat to apple and its literary functions, no independent work has been carried out yet.
1.4.Conclusion
The story of Adam and Eve, especially story of the forbidden fruit, has extensively been reflected in the works of Persian poets with different names such as wheat, grapes, the fruit of wisdom, forbidden fruit, and forbidden tree. It has been a productive source for poetic points, imagery, and articulation. In the contemporary poetry, especially in sonnets, in addition to extensive reflection, this story, along with modernization of life and period, has become modernized, too. The more important thing is the replacement of wheat by apple under the influence of Western culture, and following that, the appearance of symbolic and new functions for apple, like the symbol of love, kindness, sin, temptation, and deceit. It is also mentioned that using apple is sometimes intentional and out of poetic skill, and sometimes it is cliché and indecisive. It is also said that the forbidden fruit has entered the postmodern poetry with the postmodern names of kiwi and pineapple as well.