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7.7.10

Aliases for a lover

Finding an alias for a beloved person is like a mission impossible. Can love withstand such an operation, which takes away one of the integral parts of the beloved person - its name. One cannot liberately remove or exchange pieces from somebody you love, without damaging the feelings for this person. The name was one of the first to associate with this love, and this was even easier to recall than one of the details of the face or the stature. The exact form of her ears or the curvature of her eyes might be forgotten some time after she left, but the name Ghazal remains in his mind forever. Therefor, when he set himself the task to choose an alias name for her, to be used later in a book or an internet blog, he knew that he might easily fail or - at a later stage - rip the sheet with suggested alias-names into pieces. Too much was the love to the girl symbolized with her name GHAZAL, not least cause he probably spend more time writing her letters and e-mails and blog-articles than the few hours they were together physically. And these long nights during which he was engaged in imaginary dialogues with her, it was always her name that kept him bound. Ghazal, where are you, Ghazal, what are you doing, Ghazal, when will we see each other.
For this almost impossible task, he had to decide that the alias must bear the greatest possible similarity to her real name. Maybe just remove or change one or two letter, so it would turn to Azal, Chazal, Tazal or Sazal. In a next step, the changes could involve a simple permutation of two letters, which would give Salal or Sachal. Further changes would violate the feelings to the girl to much. Finally, he was most attracted to use the persian name "Azal", which strictly speaking means Honey. The girls real name, "Ghazal" had an uncomparable more poetic meaning - it stands for the gazelle, to which her swinging step always reminds her. But it is also used as a synonym for a "beloved, beautiful girl" and even describes the use of language, if one wants to express some very erotic feelings. From this transcendent term the name of a form of persian poetry is derived. As compared to this, Azal was much more prosaic, with its relation to some sweets that when you swallow them leafs back sticky fingers and a bitter after-tast. And in contrast to a beautiful ghazelle, Azal means donkey - at least in ancient irish language.


(from Wikipedia)
The ghazal not only has a specific form, but traditionally deals with just one subject: Love. And not any kind of love, but specifically, an illicit and unattainable love. The subcontinental ghazals have an influence of Islamic Mysticism and the subject of love can usually be interpreted for a higher being or for a mortal beloved. The love is always viewed as something that will complete a human being, and if attained will lift him or her into the ranks of the wise, or will bring satisfaction to the soul of the poet. Traditional ghazal love may or may not have an explicit element of sexual desire in it, and the love may be spiritual. The love may be directed to a man or a woman.

The ghazal is always written from the point of view of the unrequited lover whose beloved is portrayed as unattainable. Most often either the beloved does not return the poet"s love or returns it without sincerity, or else the societal circumstances do not allow it. The lover is aware and resigned to this fate but continues loving nonetheless; the lyrical impetus of the poem derives from this tension. Representations of the lover"s powerlessness to resist his feelings often include lyrically exaggerated violence. The beloved"s power to captivate the speaker may be represented in extended metaphors about the "arrows of his eyes", or by referring to the beloved as an assassin or a killer.

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