Saeb Tabrizi
صائب تبریزی
Poet laureate of Safavid Isfahan and the leading Iranian master of the Indian style.
- Known for
- Ghazals in the Indian style
- Forms
- Ghazal
- Places
- Isfahanاصفهان
- East Azerbaijanآذربایجان شرقی
- Kabulکابل
- Collection
- The Greats
Mirza Mohammad Ali Saeb came from a merchant family of Tabriz that moved to Isfahan in the time of Shah Abbas I, and he grew up in the new capital. As a young man he travelled to Kabul and India, where he spent several years in the circle of the Mughal governor Zafar Khan and visited the court of Shah Jahan.
After returning to Isfahan he was named poet laureate by Shah Abbas II. His enormous Divan, mostly ghazals, made him the leading Iranian master of the so-called Indian style, prized for single couplets that pack a fresh image or idea into two lines, many of which became proverbs. He died in Isfahan in 1676 and is buried there.
Booksکتاب‌ها
The principal works of Saeb Tabrizi.
The Divan of Saeb
دیوان صائب تبریزیA very large Divan, made up mostly of ghazals. Saeb's art lies in the single couplet that sets an abstract idea beside a concrete image, and many of his lines became proverbs. It also includes poems on Kabul and Kashmir and on the court of Isfahan.
Read 3 poems
Poems by Saeb Tabriziشعرها
In the original Persian, beside an English translation.
یک عمر می‌توان سخن از زلف یار گفت
در بند آن مباش که مضمون نمانده است
One could speak for a lifetime of the beloved’s tresses;
do not fret that there are no themes left.
A Lifetime on the Beloved’s Tresses
خوشا عشرت سرای کابل و دامان کهسارش
که ناخن بر دل گل می‌زند مژگان هر خارش
Happy the pleasure-house of Kabul and the skirts of its mountains,
where the lashes of every thorn scratch at the rose’s heart.
In Praise of Kabul
آدمی پیر چو شد، حرص جوان می‌گردد
خواب در وقت سحرگاه گران می‌گردد
When a man grows old, his greed grows young,
as sleep grows heavy in the hour before dawn.
When a Man Grows Old
Saeb Tabrizi in Iranian history
Iranian historyThe Safavidsصفویان
The Safavids made Twelver Shia Islam Iran's state religion and rebuilt Isfahan as one of the most admired cities in the world.