Study of Socratic Irony and Romantic Irony in Khayyam, Abol-ala and Schopenhauer’s Quatrains

In this article we are determined to review Socratic irony, romantic and ironic structures of Khayyam’s quatrains and the ones attributed to him and explain the place of Khayyam as an ironist among other thinkers of the world, according to the meaning of romantic irony and Socratic irony in his quatrains. Irony is the recognition of the fact that the world itself is sick and only an ambivalent attitude can understand its paradoxical totality. Ashleh Goal believes that irony in this sense, according to its nature, is not moderating, but it means that it is endless and self-looking like Socratic wisdom. Irony is related to an aspect of speech in which the meaning of the word is placed in contrast to the literal meaning of the word. In fact, an individual mentions something which is not what he or she actually meant, or is not all of what he or she meant. Examples of these meanings can be seen in Socrates’ dialogues, which one type of irony is called Socratic irony and the other type is romantic irony. This term was used in a more complicated meaning, which was our purpose in this article, by the German romantic theorists in the late eighteenth century A.D. In romantic irony, the offended artist of the events of life portrays an excerpt from reality, from the perspective of his knowledge as Khayyam created a school and after him a number of Iran’s poets continued it. He constantly reminds the human suffering by offering images of the world inversion.


Khayyam Neyshaboori
About the wise man of Neyshaboor, Omar ibne Ebrahim Khayyami, the man in the field of literature who is too thoughtful as if he has come in fog, lived in fog and gone in fog, what many have written. The thing that is the focus of this article, is the concepts of ironic, the verbal inverted dialogues and humorous structures that is received from Khayyam's quatrains or attributed to him. The ontological perspective of Khayyam and his way of expression, is beyond rhetorical question or rhetorical array of allusion which we interpret as "Irony", that is a kind of rhetorical trick which is well-known in the world literature. However, more than comparing their views, we have been after proving a kind of romantic irony and Socratic irony (self-detract) in the poetry of Khayyam, and have a new look to his poetry which has seen the world in light among the works of other world thinkers who have attained to an understanding called romantic irony as a result of reflecting on the universe. position among the world thinkers, and compare his thoughts and ideas with Abol ala Ma'arri and Arthur Schopenhauer's death oriented thoughts.

Aims and Questions
In this paper we are determined to review irony or inverted sayings and ironic concepts, verbal inversions and ironic structures of Khayyam's quatrains and quatrains attributed to him with the necessities of Abol-ala Ma'arri and Arthur Schopenhauer. We want to answer this question that: to what extent can Khayyam's quatrains have the compatibility based on irony?

The Importance of this Research
Although there are scientific articles and many works written by researchers about Khayyam and his quatrains; but this literary work has not yet been studies according to irony point of view and comparing it with the ideas of Abol-ala and Schopenhauer. With this approach, a step can be taken in the direction of better understanding and exaltation and reliability of that work. Our hypothesis in this study is that this literary work is adaptable in accordance with the mentioned views.

The Background of Research
Gholam-Hossain Gholam-Hossain Zadeh and Zahra Lorestani (1388) in an article entitled: "Irony in the Sham's articles", Mystical Studies Quarterly, Issue nine, P. 69-94; have examined Sham's paradoxes according to irony point of view. Naser Nikoobakht Varamoon Gazha (1389), in an article entitled: "Evaluation of Khayyam's thoughts about life and death in the tradition of classical poetry of the world", Studies of the History of Literature, the ninth year, No. 61/3, P. 139-160; have examined life and death in Khayyam's thoughts. Mohammad-Jafar Yahaghi and Mohammad-Reza Barati, in an article entitled: "Poetics of death in Sanaee and Khayyam's poetry", Letter of association, No 6/1, P. 25-50; have examined death from their point of views. Ahmad Khaatami (1393), in an article entitled: "Doubt or Denial? An overview of verbal thoughts of Khayyam according to quatrains", Journal of Human Sciences, P. 208-231; has analyzed Khayyam's quatrains on the basis of verbal views.
As can be seen, Khayyam's quatrains have not only been studied according to Irony, but also have not been adapted to the thoughts of Schopenhauer and Abol-ala.

METHOD
In this study, according to its purpose and the mentioned question, irony has been analyzed in descriptive-documentary method in Khayyam's quatrains and its comparison with the views of Abol-ala and Schopenhauer; to distinguish the extent of comparison of these views with Khayyam's quatrains.

Irony
Is a speech in which the intended meaning of the speaker has a completely different verbal meaning. A sarcastic speech usually consists of a kind of explicit opinion or judgment; but there are signs in the overall condition of speech which indicates that the speaker has a very different opinion or judgment and often contrary to the verbal opinion. (Sabziyan, 1384:169)

Irony
As a word, it means covered speak and as a term, it is a speech that has two meanings of near and far and these two are correlative. So the speaker composes and applies that sentence in such way that the mind of listener transfers from the near meaning to the far meaning. (Homaee, 1383:256)

Rhetorical Question
According to the professor great scholar Homaee's view, a mystic means savant and wise, and ignorance is the infinitive of Babe Tafaol, which means pretending to be foolish and ignorant. Thus, the mystic ignorance is that the speaker pretend to be ignorant, even though knows something.

Romantic Irony
Irony is the recognition of the fact that the world is paradoxical in its nature and only a dual view can understand its entire paradox. Ashle Goal believes that irony in this sense according to its nature is not modifying; but it is self-looking and endless like Socratic wisdom. (Mecaric, 1388:14).

Self-detract Irony
Also in self-detract irony, the ironist has a mask on face… Ironist takes himself on the stage in the personality of unsuspecting, credulous, honest, jealousy… This method is actually the main kind of Socratic irony. (Muke, 1389:77).

DISCUSSION
Robert Burstein in the book named "rebellion theatre" (1965), claims that the usual critical classifications under the names like realism, naturalism or symbolism, causes neglect towards the intrinsic unity of writers such as Ibsen or Strindberg, Brecht, Genet and Gog Bernard Shaw, which any of them can rebel somehow on the absurdity of human destiny.
Burstein seeks templates in literature as most American critics, and finds three types of rebellions. He names the third type as "existential" which uses the inverted saying method (Irony). (Hinchlof, 1389:58).
Death is one of the main themes in the works of Khayyam and a central idea in Abol-ala Ma'arri's poetry. Abol-ala chooses the way of asceticism and ascetically accepts the determinism of the definite conclusion of human.
But Khayyam never raises asceticism and even if he believes in determinism, his look is a natural philosopher's look and a natural determinism and it is not as if he is challenging a mystical ascetic determinism.
When Abol-ala understood that the material life is intriguing, he took his heart away and desisted from life. But Khayyam has not seen something better than life and believes that until there is not a better and more important reason than our existence found in life, he should enjoy life and encourage people to enjoy it" (ibid, 1389,122).
In the meantime, the thing that is relevant to our discussion is the way of expressing opinions. The common ideas of those who have lived before or after Khayyam, but their thoughts are close to or have signs of the Khayyamic literary school of Iran, and their commonality is the ironic approach. They have brought up the perplexity towards life, inevitable death and the bitterness of the annihilation of human life, with an ironic approach and have used the language of mystery and irony.
"Abol-ala was well aware of the details of humor and farce and Schopenhauer was the same as him." (Ganjian, 1389:154). Schopenhauer says: "if we as humans, due to our nature, have the desire to get to know, or at least have it in mind, as the whole history and culture of human clearly demonstrate this point and at the same time this matter that knowledge and recognition is impossible, then the creation project or the existence of human being, ignominious failure, is an inherently contradictory matter and in fact it is a tragic -comic story that has been written with distressed mind." (Abedini Fard, 1389:154).
"The ideal way that Schopenhauer suggests for rescuing human from the pains and sorrows of life, is being resistance and overcoming towards will, eradicating greediness and lusts, believing in a complete purity and an ascetic life and achieving a stable state of tranquility… Like Schopenhauer, Abol-ala also believes that asceticism and piety is the way to escape from the life's difficulties and fears which mixes happiness with piety." (Ganjian, 1389:150)

Romantic Irony in the Poetry of Khayyam
"But Khayyam has negated any kind of illusion about the past and the future. He has thrown down the load of past and debris of centuries from shoulder and has broken away hope from the future. He has given negative answer to ascetic… and has no hope to any type of utopia." (Zekavati, 1379:112).
What has emerged in the poetry language of Khayyam is somehow the same romantic irony. The poet stands against life and death with astonishment and with his ironic questions, the fancy of nihilism thought is formed in the reader's mind.
I died because being in this injustice world / will have nothing in hand for us The one should be happy for my death / who can be free from the death Pay attention that you will be separated from the spirit / you will be annihilated in the veil of secrets Be happy, you will not know where you have come from / Be happy, you will not know where you are going to However this is a long discussion that traces of nihilism in Khayyam's quatrains are observed. "Gide, his French counterpart author believes in the same thing and in the Ma'edehaye Zamini addressed to Nathaniel about the philosophy of life and death says as follows: we should die and does it matter where?" (Fahim Kalam and Mohseni, 1389:109).
Khayyam mentions the "must die" with a smile on lips and a goblet in hand and a glitter of astonishment in eye; speaks about the potter of universe and the painter of eternity and any creative and disruptive force that suddenly rolls up the human stuff; speaks about the ambiguous and full of questions coming and going in the universe. "Nietzsche, Badler and Thomas Mann, believed in romantic irony. From their point of view, life is similar to this type of irony that in which God has the role of the play's author and human fancies that he is handling his life, while God disrupts this illusion by death and makes us understand that he is the main one who manages the universe and can change the path of life as far as Carl Soldier says: "The real irony is the reflection on the end of the universe". (Agha Hossaini and Agha Zaynali, 1387).
Romantic irony is completely obvious in quatrains that show the ontological perspective of the poet or challenges the ontological philosophy of others and it is not necessary to be funny because all kinds of irony are not necessarily funny.
In this quatrain, Khayyam sees an inverted image of the world creation and its disruption and annihilation which corresponds with what was quoted from Nietzsche and Thomas Mann.
If the owner arranges the combination of natures / then why should it be fallen into shortage If this universe doesn't turn out to be good, whose fault is it / if it turns out to be good, then what is the reason of failure.
Khayyam has reflected on the end of the universe, perhaps he has laughed bitterly in heart. In this quatrain like other Khayyamic quatrains, death has casted a shadow and has sprayed its poisonous-laughing throughout the poets' words, with this explanation that "Khayyam has accepted the reality of life and death with all its bitterness. His grievances of life are more regretful than being painful." (Seyyedi and Adineh Kalat, 1389:122).
The world will still exist even if we are not alive / there will neither be a name nor a sign of us We did not exist before this and there was nothing wrong / it will be the same after we do not exist anymore The image that the speaker of the quatrain has made is on the centrality of human nonexistence; about the future which we will no longer exist in but universe still exists and about the past which we never existed but the universe was in place. The externally cold and passive expression of this quatrain in contrast to its great depth and horror has a structural and verbal irony and in the concept of quatrain which implies the inevitability of death, the romantic irony is evident. However, to treat this unwanted pain, Khayyam sees its remedy in finding good times and pleasure and says: Lessen your greed of the world and live in happiness / and rupture from the goodness and badness of the time Wine in hand, catch a sweetheart's hair because soon / time will pass and these couple of days will not remain But there is no doubt that: "the carpe diem philosophy of making the most of chances and being happy is absolutely not for carelessness and superficiality, but it is the result of his deep understanding of the lamentable nature of human being in this world. It is the reaction of a sensitive and tender soul which has lost its ability to endure the universe" (Naraghi, 1388:171).
I cannot live without a clear wine / cannot endure myself without wine The wise person of Neyshabur thinks that it is hard to endure the burden of the universe without a forgetfulness drug; and he pretends that getting perplexed of the human fate in his quatrains is an ignorant questioning; and starts on a technique that is today known as Socratic irony in the world's literature.

Socratic Irony in the Poetry of Khayyam
Muke's definition of self-detract irony does not have much difference with the definition provided in the glossary of literary terms (Socratic irony). In this type of irony, the person asks so many questions in the subject that his addressee claims to be aware of or is even an expert on it, until he is caught on doubt and naturally understand that he really didn't know about that subject. (Lorestani, Gholam-Hossain Zadeh, 1388:76).
In most of the quatrains of Khayyam school, the speaker asks a question without having the concern for answer. He asks not for hearing a respond, but he wants to disturb the sleep and peace of philosophers and theologians and even public; and wants to pull anyone who studies his poems to interpret the dream of the universe. The perplexity of Khayyam's questions is "the perplexity of a dream that he wants to be interpreted" (Hekmat, 1389:196) My creation had no benefit for the universe / its glory and status did not change after I went My ears did not hear from anyone / that what was the purpose of my creation?
This quatrain is a show of the tragic -comic of death; a phenomenon that plays a role in all the poems of Khayyamic school and speaker is trying to fend its causticness for reminding it and forgetting again, by constantly asking questions, "Why did the painter of eternity draw my picture? / Where is the clamor of bells and wailings of drums? / Is there a benefit of our coming and going? / Where do our thoughts and efforts have benefit? / and finally, At the end, I know very little of who I am?" The target is just proposing questions in the manner of Socrates who "walked in the alleys, markets and streets of Athens and asked and destroyed" (ibid, 1389: 230). The target is just proposing questions; if not, the speaker does not need to respond. In the form of Socratic questions, Khayyam portrays the tragic fate of human and the world in an inverted, contradictory and humorous status in the quatrain: Those who travelled the world under their feet / and walked through both worlds for seeking it I am not aware of whether they were / ever aware of this condition as it is?
If the purpose of the speaker from seek, is seeking God, then according to the statements of the late great scholar Mohammad Taghi Jafari, all quatrains of this groups have one thing in common and that is the denial or doubt of the existence reality of something which cannot be understood with natural senses. But the poet says: "I am not aware" and this is the same self-detract irony method in which the ironist presents himself as being unsuspecting. Also in this example: O heart, you will not understand the enigma / you will not reach to the point of clever wises Here make wine with the heavenly wine and goblet / whether you reach or not the heaven Here also the speaker has not expressed himself in the group of wises and while expressing his inability to solve the enigma of the universe, he shows doubt in the existence of Heaven in an implicit way. However, he does not say "doesn't exist"! He says "reach or not", which means that it is not clear for me whether I reach the Heaven or not. In the quatrain: What is the benefit of our coming and going? / What is the woof of our hope warp?
In the censer of several innocent and pure men / Where is its smoke when it burns?
Apparently, the ironist poet has mixed the self-detract irony with romantic irony and suddenly sees the resurrection with a questioning or perplexity look. "In the broad sense, irony is the contradiction between appearance and reality with the word and meaning of one thing. It means that something is said externally but the main purpose seems to be something else." (Kord Chegini, 1388:37).
Khayyam never confesses to unbelieving the resurrection. With proposing these questions, he stands in front of those who want to prove the resurrection with reason and argue and the ironic purpose of these verses is expressing the philosophical perplexity of Khayyam. "The notion that the majority and public have from afterlife, is expressed with the strain of humor or even sarcasm; but no one of them is explicit. Certainly Khayyam could not keep the inherited delusions in his mind, as he is a thoughtful and educated philosopher" (Zekavati Gharagezloo, 1379: 95).
Expressing this kind of questions, whether it is the inability of speakers or wanting to remind the difficulties of proving the material resurrection in the method of Ibne Sina, in any case, his method is the Socratic method and his words are no empty of irony. In the course of his ideas, he uses paradoxical humors in his words for responding to some unanswered questions; and "the last word is that what matters if we think that Khayyam liked to express parts of his thoughts in poetry? Ironic skepticism mixed with good morals is an absolutely live tradition in Persian literature and the success of Khayyamic quatrains proves this claim." (Zhylber Lazar, 1389: 536).

CONCLUSION
The achieved results show that Khayyam among the philosophical ideas and expressing the ontological idea provides this possibility for his quatrains to have the adaptability based on the techniques of romantic irony and Socratic irony. Death is one of the main themes of Khayyam's quatrains and is the axis of Abol-ala's idea of poetry. He ascetically accepts the determinism of the definite conclusion of human, but while Khayyam believes in determinism, he has the thought of a natural philosopher and a natural determinism. He is not challenging a mystical ascetical determinism. Like Socrates, Khayyam is the wakeful alarm of people's mind for constantly keeping some questions new in their mind. He expresses his perplexed philosophy in poem in a way that today is called irony and uses the language of poem against the inefficient logic of others to make everyone partnered in his perplexity. Thus, like Andre Gide -Schopenhauer -Abol-ala Ma'arri -Thomas Mann -Nietzsche and others, Khayyam is plunged among philosophical thoughts which life and death are its two sides of the coin. But what has been considerable for the authors of this article in the way this artist expresses his thoughts, is using the technique that is known as irony in rhetorical science in the world. Socratic irony and romantic irony which some researchers of the twentieth century also called fate irony, cosmic irony and metaphysical irony are used perfectly in Khyyam's works and in Khayyamic quatrains school.