چکیده:
This article examines Lord Byron’s allusions to Persian literature، history، culture and its ancient religion. The influence of Persia on Byron is considerable. Byron was greatly influenced by orientalists such as Sir William Jones and their translations of Eastern literatures. After examining Byron’s allusions to Persia، one realizes that Byron’s attitude with regard to Persia appears to be ambivalent. Byron dismisses the Persian king، Nader، as the “costive sophy”، but reveres the Persian poet، Hafiz and mentions other Persian poets such as Ferdowsi with great respect. Sometimes he refers to Zoroaster’s religion as “devilish” and sometimes Zoroaster figures as a good person in his work. Byron makes use of the Zoroastrian Janus-like philosophy in explaining some of the predicaments that his characters face in life. Zoroastrianism provides Byron with a metaphor for the two confused sides of his characters’ nature، the one which struggles towards the light، and the one which، at the same time، involves characters in darkness and destroys them.
خلاصه ماشینی:
I shall pass over the dreams of Daghda which foretold the greatness of Zoroaster, while yet in the womb; as well as the journey of the prophet to heaven, where he received, from Hormuzd, the holy volume of the Zend-a-vesta, and the sacred fire; and his visit to hell, where he beheld Ahriman, or the evil spirit, release a man in whom he perceived some good, and threaten Satan, in his own regions, with shame and ignominy: nor shall I dwell upon his retirement to the mountain of Elburz, and his solitary devotion in a deep cave, adorned by mystical figures of the elements, the seasons, and the celestial bodies: nor upon the various miracles which he performed to establish the truth of his religion ...
In another instance in Canto XIII in Don Juan, Byron alludes to the "devilish doctrine of the Persian", referring to Zoroaster's philosophy of the two forces of good and evil ("Ormazd", as the force of light, life and creativity and "Ahriman", as the force of darkness, death and evil) while writing about the cold Lady Adeline who is described as "beyond all price, / When once you have broken their confounded ice.