Nezami Ganje’i’s satire, the bitter song bird (An overview of Nezami Ganjae’i’s satirical and critical discourse based on his Khamsa)

 
1- Introduction
The concept, meaning and instances of laughter as a social action, which is defined under the term of literary culture of humor, like any other phenomenon, is formed in a "contextual" and "diachronic" process and in each period it has its special meaning and has evolved according to its literary culture and the certain contextual situation; by studying the general situation of society of a particular author’s time or a special text era, one can recognize what and why of the literary features of the author's imaginative and mental field and the text. This method of studying literary subjects or critique of literary texts is called humanistic literary criticism. The assumption of this approach is that there is an independent field of culture called literature and a creative man called a writer or poet who, based on his own imagination, has been able to produce ideas of a unique work. This article also seeks to answer the following questions based on the humanistic approach to Nezami’s poems in his Khamsa:
- What effect has the atmosphere of the society in Nezami’s time left on his poetry especially its satirical type?
-What is the style and satirical features of Nezami’s works?
- Is Nezami’s satire bitter and tragic?
The purpose of this research is to study the structure and content of satire in Nezami’s khamsa and tries to recognize and evaluate the relationship between this particular type of Nezami’s satire, which is closer to critical discourse, with the poet’s time, method and character. Since recognizing the structure and content of a work from different aspects and finding their connection with the time and poetic character, has a prominent role in understanding the different semantic layers of text and it expresses the poet's intellectual and verbal system, so familiarity with satirical and critical Nezami’s language in Khamsa is necessary and instructive in recognizing this poet and his poetry.
 
2- Research method
The research method in this article is descriptive-analytical and is conducted with the help of library tools. Thus, first the humorous examples of his poems are extracted from Nezami’s five narrative poems, then Nezami's method and character are studied to better understand his thought in order to determine and explain the field of criticism and satire of the poet, thus, by classifying, describing and analyzing the structural and content features of Nezami’s humor, the satirical techniques of his poetry will be analyzed.
 
3- Discussion
Any serious criticism has the potential to turn into satire, so Nezami uses satire in his poetry as a style of expression to express his critical thoughts. For him, satire is the arena of showing the contradiction between existing reality and what it should be. Nezami is protesting the situation of his time, and satire is the most literary form of this protest.
According to the readings and studies conducted on the satirical themes of Hakim’s Panj Ganj, in terms of the content of humor, the poems of Khosrow and Shirin, Makhzan-ol-Asrar, Haft Peykar, Leily and Majnun and Iqbalnameh are in the first to fifth places, respectively. Makhzan-ol-Asrar is more valuable than other poems of the poet in terms of the value of the content of satire, critical expression, the scope of satirical discourse and the educational aspect of humor.
Nezami’s sprit has suffered from the contradictions in society, so it cannot tolerate such a situation. Therefore, the poet is seeking for a better place and because he does not find it in the foundations of society and his surroundings, he uses satire to defend ideals and criticize the current situation, because "in satire, humor is often created with tragic and dramatic themes, and according to Dostoevsky, tragedy is always the basis of humor." (Bachka, 2007: 73). Generally, Nezami’s humor is rooted in tragedy, and it is the fact that Nezami’s humor has a serious, poignant, and tragic effect on the reader's soul, especially the allegorical type that carries the most fundamental painful and shocking messages. In studying the satirical themes of the poems, we come across cases in which the poet's satire focuses on catastrophic and tragic components such as the oppression of kings, the poverty and misery of the people, death and the confrontation with fate.
The implicit and indirect satire of Nezami is rooted in his precaution, this precaution is a mirror of the whole suffocating situation of the poet's era and this is what has caused Nezami’s satire to take on an allegorical form and image. In the form of satire, he shows his opposition to the current situation and the people of the time, and implicitly presents his positive ideal, which is in the opposite direction, to the reader. The concealment of his humor is not so exaggerated as to confuse the reader and damage the artistic and aesthetic style of his works, incidentally, the audience's little reflection on Nezami’s satire makes the poet's words more joyful in his eyes. The most important and unique feature of Nezami's speech at the end of his anecdotes and satirical contents is the expression of moral consequences that lead the poet to give advice.
The techniques of Nezami’s satire include simile, metaphor, allegory and proverb, symmetry, antithesis and paradox, fantastic etiology, hyperbole, pun, language play and debate.
 
4- Conclusion
The method of Nezami’s satire is based on the overall picture of the poem collection or the vertical axis, rather than based on the accompaniment of words and linguistic elements in the horizontal axis of the poem. In fact, a comedy of manners or a comedy of situation integrates his humorous images, which often occur in the form of anecdotes in Nezami’s words.
Nezami has used various techniques to achieve satire or magnify it, linguistic and expressive techniques such as simile, metaphor, antithesis, paradox, allegory, symmetry, fantastic etiology, hyperbole, pun, repetition and language game can be mentioned. The debate in the satire of Nezami’s poetry is his unique style and context. Kurd and the fox are the satirical personalities of the poet.
Satire in Nezami’s poetry is rooted in his insight and behavior and his special way of life. Nezami has a keen eye, sees the inhumanities of the time and its people and kings, and is aware of the hatred of its enemies and envious people. He understands these misfortunes and cultivates them with his creative mind, and speaks of them in a funny but painful way, creating a new arrangement and disturbing the proportions in the word play, he makes the bitter and painful meanings of his speech tolerable.
Nezami’s satire is implicit and indirect and usually occurs in the form of allegory and anecdote, all of which indicate the dark atmosphere of his time. His satire is serious, poignant and sad, and has a tragic basis. Therefore, its effect is shocking and especially its allegorical type has serious and rooted messages. The main theme of Nezami’s satire is the protest against the time, and therefore it often ends with advice and a moral conclusion. The context of the debate is a good place for Nezami’s satire, and "Fox" and "Kurd" are the most frequent satirical character types of his poetry.
 
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