When it comes to learning it as a second language, Persian is one of the easiest languages of the world. Even through self-learning, Urdu speakers can learn Persian to a great degree in just three months to the extent that they are able to comprehend its great poets like Hafiz with ease.
Literary scholar Ahmad Javaid made these remarks during a podcast at OTS EdSense on the Persian language, in which he conversed with journalists Najam Soharwardi and Rana Asif, and scholar Fazlullah Fani. The participants discussed the rich literature, especially poetry, written in Persian, the historical connection between Persian and Urdu, and issues pertaining to learning Persian.
Javaid Sahab started the conversation by highlighting two methods of acquiring Persian. He said the traditional method through which our ancestors learnt Persian was the grammar-translation method, which focused on reading and comprehension so that the learner was able to read, understand and appreciate Persian literature. On contrary, he said, the newer method of teaching Persian, which was employed by Iranian cultural centre Khana-e-Farhang, focused on speaking and listening skills as well as Iranian accent.
The literary scholar said a disadvantage of the new method was that it did not let the learner understand the richness of the language. Similarly, he said, the traditional method of learning Persian did not help much the development of speaking skills. He conceded that despite being an avid reader of Persian poetry, he still struggled when it came to conversing with someone in Persian.
Recalling his childhood spent in Uttar Pradesh in India, Javaid Sahab said knowing Persian was a sign of education and his elders would always write letters in Persian. He added that Poorbi was spoken in his family and conversing with elders in Urdu was considered disrespectful.
Highlighting another interesting feature of Persian, he said that whereas in other languages, poetry is considered difficult than prose and new learners have to start reading their literature from prose works, it is an opposite case in Persian where reading poetry is easier than reading prose.
Even the native speakers of Persian find its poetry easier than prose, Javaid Sahab said. Explaining this point, he said the prose works by Bedil are difficult to grasp by many learned Iranians but they will understand Bedil’s verses.
Commenting on how rich the tradition of poetry has been in Persian, Javaid Sahab said one cannot develop taste in poetry without having taste for Persian.
He opined that in the modern age, Urdu prose has surpassed Persian prose in terms of quality but Persian poetry is still miles ahead of Urdu poetry.
He asserted that when Urdu poetry started, it followed the standards, subjects and style of Persian poetry. There is no independent tradition of poetry in Urdu as it is a relatively new language, he said, adding that Persian poetry can be considered the mother-tradition of Urdu poetry.
However, he then made an interesting point in terms of the expressive abilities of Urdu. He said Urdu offered wider tenses and its verbs can convey more shades of meaning than Persian verbs, which have limited tenses.
To a question why Persian poetry is so rich, Javaid Sahab said many great Persian poets composed their works when the Persian Civilization was at its peak and there was no decline. Even when Persian came to India during the Muslim rule, it was the language of courts, he stated.
The discussion then turned towards Saadi and why his Gulistan and Bostan were traditionally taught to the learners of Persian at the very start. Javaid Sahab said that although these two books by Saadi were short, understanding them was sufficient for a learner to venture into any other book of classical Persian literature.
On Gulistan, he said a magical property of the book was that when you think of the meaning of any word of phrase in it, that meaning comes to the mind in the Persian language, not Urdu. Saadi transfers Persian into the learner, he remarked.
The podcast titled ‘How to Learn Persian? Language of Great Poets’ also discussed the poetic stature and legacy of Hafiz and Rumi, and Sabk-e-Hindi, a school of Persian poetry developed in India that produced great poets like Bedil and Ghani.
It was also announced in the podcast that Fazlullah Fani Sahab would start teaching Gulistan on OTS EdSense Youtube channel. So far seven videos have been uploaded on the channel in which Fani explains Gulistan.