SOURCE: "A Way to a Better Understanding of the Structure of Western Poetry," East and West, Vol. 9, No. 1-2, March-June, 1958, pp. 145-53.

In the following essay, Bausani analyzes the text of many Persian verses, including those of Hafiz, discussing the styles and techniques displayed in the lyrics of seventh-century Iran.

The scientific study of style in both European and Oriental lyrics is a comparatively recent conquest of our literary criticism. Unfortunately, the student of the form and historical developments of European, "Western", literary style does not have at his disposal sufficient materials for stylistic comparisons. "A thing is better known through its contrary" says an old Muslim tradition. One of the causes of the rather complicated and somewhat obscure language of many Western studies dealing with problems of stylistics lies, in my opinion, in the lack of comparing possibilities. Our critics considered the world of Western lyrics as...