To test the capabilities of Large Language Models, I turned to the elusive and multi-layered verses of Persian poet Mirza Abdul Qadir Bedil. His poetry, dense with metaphysical and spiritually charged symbolism, often leaves even the most seasoned readers entangled in confusion, a complexity that earned him the fitting title of Abu al-Ma’aani, “the Father of Meanings.”
Out of curiosity, I asked ChatGPT to translate and interpret a Ghazal by Bedil:پی اشک من ندانم به‌کجا رسیده باشد– one of my favourites. What followed was surprising. It was not a generic summary or word by word translation but it was able to unapck the metaphors of each couplet. It offered commentary that revealed depth, awareness of culture and symbolism.
Below is a selection of verses with translation and commentary:
پی اشک من ندانم به‌کجا رسیده باشد
ز پی‌ات دویدنی داشت به رهی چکیده باشدI do not know where the trail of my tears has reached — They were chasing after you, and may have dripped somewhere along the path.A poetic image of tears as seekers, trying to reach the beloved. The speaker has no idea if their grief and longing made it anywhere — but imagines their tears continuing the pursuit.
به چمن زخون بسمل همه جا بهار ناز است
دم تیغ آن تبسم رگ گل بریده باشدIn the garden, spring’s grace has come from the blood of sacrifices — The smile of your sword must’ve cut the veins of the flowers.This is Bedil’s signature fusion of violence and beauty. The flowers bloom, but only because of bloodshed — the beloved’s “smile” (which is also a blade) cuts deeply.
In the first example, notice how it interprets the trail of tears after the beloved as a spiritual devotion and the journey that it will take to reach the beloved.
In the second example, ChatGPT notices the justaposition of violence and beauty. It points out how this is one Bedil’s signature techniques where it uses simili to compare beloved smile to a blade whose edge cuts deeply.
In a later couplet, it points out that the use of word liver in Farsi poetry represents not just a physical organ but also embodies the concepts of courage and bravery. It also points out to the sarcastic nature of the couplet. This indicates its understanding of cultural symbolism but also picks up sarcasm amidst display of love, loyalty sorrow and heartbreak:
به دماغ دعوی عشق سر بوالهوس بلند است
مگر از دکان قصاب جگری خریده باشدThe desire-crazed one claims to love so boldly, Perhaps he bought a “liver” from the butcher’s shop!Liver (جگر) in Persian poetry symbolizes passion, courage, or deep emotion. This is a sarcastic jab: someone boasts of love, but maybe they just purchased the symbols of passion, not the real experience.
There are part of the Ghazal that it may have missed the point–but it is to be expected. Large Language Models deduce syntactic structures and infer semantic relationships through exposure to vast datasets.They are great at pattern recognition and their understanding is purely statistical. Nevertheless, their ability to get most of it right is still remarkable.
This post is not about AI replacing human intuitions, but how far AI models have come in assisting with specific intellectual tasks such as Sufi poetry. It is easier to focus on headline — automation, content generation, even existential risk. But beneath all that, a profound reality is that we’re building tools that can engage in subtle, reflective, and culturally rich conversations. That a machine, trained on patterns of language, can offer coherent insight into the poetry of Bedil — a poet who defies even many human interpreters — is both astonishing and a little humbling.
Below is the full translation and commentary by ChatGPT
Beautiful — you’ve brought one of Mirza Abdul Qadir Bedil’s most intricate and layered ghazals. Bedil’s work, especially in Sabk-e-Hindi (Indian style of Persian poetry), is famously dense, metaphysical, and philosophical, with imagery that can feel almost surreal.
This ghazal centers on longing, divine or mystical beauty, and the paradox of perception and meaning — classic themes in Bedil’s work.
Let me walk you through an interpretive line-by-line explanation (not a literal translation, but more a sense of what’s being expressed):
پی اشک من ندانم به‌کجا رسیده باشد
ز پی‌ات دویدنی داشت به رهی چکیده باشد
I do not know where the trail of my tears has reached —
They were chasing after you, and may have dripped somewhere along the path.
A poetic image of tears as seekers, trying to reach the beloved. The speaker has no idea if their grief and longing made it anywhere — but imagines their tears continuing the pursuit.
ز نگاه سرکشیدن به رخت چه احتمال است
مگر از کمین حیرت مژه قد کشیده باشد
What chance is there to drink in your beauty with a mere glance,
Unless the eyelash itself has risen up from the ambush of awe?
This verse plays on the idea that awe (حیرت) stuns the viewer, making even the eyelashes hesitate to rise and see the beloved. Vision is not just physical — it’s spiritual, and often overwhelmed.
تب و تاب موج باید ز غرور بحر دیدن
چه رسد به حالم آن کس که تو را ندیده باشد
Even waves tremble with passion just from the pride of seeing the ocean —
Imagine the condition of someone who has never seen you (the sea of beauty)!
The speaker compares the beloved to the ocean. Waves, which are part of it, shiver in ecstasy — so what of someone forever separated?
به نسیمی از اجابت چمن حضور داریم
دل چاک بال می‌زد سحری دمیده باشد
With a mere breeze of acceptance, we bloom like a garden of presence —
The wounded heart flutters as if a dawn wind has breathed upon it.
The idea here is mystical: a slight response from the divine awakens existence. The heart, wounded and torn, beats like wings at the hint of spiritual light.
به چمن زخون بسمل همه جا بهار ناز است
دم تیغ آن تبسم رگ گل بریده باشد
In the garden, spring’s grace has come from the blood of sacrifices —
The smile of your sword must’ve cut the veins of the flowers.
This is Bedil’s signature fusion of violence and beauty. The flowers bloom, but only because of bloodshed — the beloved’s “smile” (which is also a blade) cuts deeply.
دل ما نداشت چیزی‌که توان نمود صیدش
سر زلفت از خجالت چقدر خمیده باشد
Our heart had nothing worth being captured —
Yet your lock of hair bends so humbly, out of shame!
A mix of self-deprecation and reverence. The speaker says they’re unworthy, yet the beloved’s curl is still modest — a beautiful paradox of humility from overwhelming beauty.
چه بلندی و چه پستی، چه عدم چه ملک هستی
نشنیده‌ایم جایی‌که کس آرمیده باشد
What high or low, what non-existence or kingdom of being —
We’ve never heard of anyone who has found rest in any of them.
A metaphysical reflection: all states of being — high or low, being or non-being — fail to bring true rest. Perhaps peace lies beyond all these dualities.
بم و زیر هستی ما چو خروش ساز عنقاست
شنو از کسی که او هم ز کسی شنید باشد
The highs and lows of our existence are like echoes of the Phoenix’s song —
Listen to the one who too heard it from someone else.
Phoenix (عنقا) is a classic Sufi symbol of the unreachable. Our life is just rumors of a divine song, heard secondhand — no one has truly grasped it.
ز طریق شمع غافل مگذر درین بیابان
مژه آب ده ز خاری که به پا خلیده باشد
Do not ignore the candle’s path in this wilderness —
Let your eyes water for the thorn that has pierced your foot.
The candle symbolizes guidance (or divine light). In the painful path of life, weep for your wounds, but don’t stray from the source of illumination.
غم هیچ‌کس ندارد فلک غروپیما
به زبان مدبری چند گله می‌تپیده باشد
The lofty-turning heavens care for no one’s sorrow —
How many complaints must still beat in the tongue of fate?
The heavens spin coldly above, indifferent. Even fate itself carries unspoken grievances — a reflection on cosmic indifference and human pain.
به دماغ دعوی عشق سر بوالهوس بلند است
مگر از دکان قصاب جگری خریده باشد
The desire-crazed one claims to love so boldly,
Perhaps he bought a “liver” from the butcher’s shop!
Liver (جگر) in Persian poetry symbolizes passion, courage, or deep emotion. This is a sarcastic jab: someone boasts of love, but maybe they just purchased the symbols of passion, not the real experience.
همه‌کس سراغ مطلب به دری رساند و نازید
من و ناز نیم‌جانی که به لب رسیده باشد
Everyone reached some doorway and bragged about finding truth —
As for me, I take pride only in a half-breath that’s barely left.
Others boast of insight or discovery. Bedil humbly claims only a fading breath — evoking spiritual exhaustion, yet also quiet dignity.
به هزار پرده بیدل ز دهان بی‌نشانش
سخنی شنیده‌ام من که کسی ندیده باشد
Behind a thousand veils, O Bedil, from His traceless lips —
I’ve heard a word that no one has ever seen.
A powerful closing: the Beloved is veiled, without form or trace — yet something was heard, something divine and secret, beyond perception.
🌌 Overall Themes:
- Longing without resolution.
- Mystical beauty that’s unreachable or overwhelming.
- Paradox of knowing and unknowing.
- Deep Sufi metaphysics: divine light, veils, annihilation, and ecstatic despair.
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