About the Tarji-Bands
Tarji`-bands [tarjî`ât-- literally, "bound to return") are similar in form to that of the ghazal (and the qasîda), in that the first half of the beginning line rhymes with the second half, but the first halves of the following lines are free from this constraint. After that, it is as if several ghazals-- of the same meter, but each having a different rhyme-- were combined together. In between each stanza with a different rhyme is single hemistich (with two halves) with an independent rhyme. The standard format is for these single intervening lines to be the same repeating (= returning) refrain. However, Rumi's intervening lines are different from each other within the same poem (which, technically, qualifies the poems to be "tarkîbât," not tarjî`ât). Occasionally, an intervening lines begins with the word "tarjî`" ["Returning..."]. The separate sections consist, in most cases, of an odd number of lines, usually ranging between 7-15 lines
Following, is an example of the tarji-band format at the beginning of Tarjî` no. 1. It consists of 40 lines and four sections (of exactly nine lines), each followed by a tarjî` "refrain" (such as line 10):
1 XXoX XXoX XXoX XXo-FAA
XXoX XXoX XXoX XXo-FAA
XXoX XXoX XXoX XXo-HAD
XXoX XXoX XXoX XXo-SHAA
XXoX XXoX XXoX XXo-MEEN
XXoX XXoX XXoX XXo-TAA
. . . . . . .
9 XXoX XXoX XXoX XXo-ROON
XXoX XXoX XXoX XXo-FAA
10 XXoX XXoX XXoX XXo-MAN
XXoX XXoX XXoX XXo-MAN
XXoX XXoX XXoX X-STAAN MEE-RAW-EE
XXoX XXoX XXoX X-MAAN MEE-RAW-EE
XXoX XXoX XXoX XXoSAR
XXoX XXoX XXoX X-DAAN MEE-RAW-EE
13 XXoX XXoX XXoX XXo-RAA
XXoX XXoX XXoX X-LAAN MEE-RAW-EE
. . . . . . .
The tarji`-bands are only a very small part (4% of the verses) of Rumi's poetic output in the Dîvân (collected works of poetry), and there are only 44 in the earliest manuscripts.
Persian Editions of the Tarji-bands
The best edition of the tarji-bands available is in the edition of Rumi's Dîvân (in Volume 7), done by the Iranian scholar, Badi`uzzamân Forôzânfar, based on the earliest manuscripts and published in 1966.
There is a commercial edition in one volume (1957, enlarged 1962, and re-printed many times since), which falsely purports to contain all of Foruzanfar's edition. However, it was first put out before Foruzanfar completed editing the tarji-bands. The tarji-bands in the commercial edition were incorporated from some other (inferior) edition (and in a different order) and are therefore not those in Foruzanfar's authentic edition. These (non-Foruzanfar) tarji-bands number, in the one-volume edition, numbers 3366-3502 (= a total of 15).
English Translations of the Tarji-bands
Only about a dozen tarji-bands have been translated so far-- and none directly from the original Persian. As part of Nevit Ergin's ongoing translation of Rumi's Dîvân from Turkish (translated from Golpinarli's complete translation of Rumi's Dîvân from Persian to Turkish, completed in 1974), he is gradually translating more and more tarji-bands His first volume ("Dîvân-i Kebîr, Meter 1," was published in 1985.1
Notes
1. Here is a list of those identified so far (the numbers of the tarji- bands are those of Foruzanfar, Volume 7), with gratitude to the research of Susan Friedman, Ph.D.)--
Vol. 1: Tarjî` no. 1 (pp. 85-92), Tarjî` no. 23 (pp. 269-75), Tarjî` no. 28 (pp. 347-54);
Vol. 2: Tarjî` no. 6 (pp. 7-11), Tarjî` no. 42 (pp. 287-91);
Vol. 3: Tarjî` no. 2 (pp. 23-31); Tarjî` no. 24 (pp. 250-56);
Vol. 4: Tarjî` no. 7 (pp. 12-17), Tarjî` no. 13 (pp. 68-72), Tarjî` no. 15 (pp. 114-17), Tarjî` no. 25 (pp. 189-94), Tarjî` no. 43 (pp. 241-45);
Vol. 9: Tarjî` no. 17 (pp. 123-28);
Vol. 10: Tarjî` no. 14 (pp. 52-57); Vol. 11: Tarjî` no. 8 (pp. 11-15), Tarjî` no. 10 (pp. 61-68);
Vol. 14: Tarjî` no. 19 (pp 23-25), Tarjî` no. 27 (pp. 94-97), Tarjî` no. 37 (pp. 159-62), Tarjî` no. 38 (pp. 190-93);
Vol. 15: Tarjî` no. 11 (pp. 50-62 ), Tarjî` no. 16 (pp. 147-54);
Vol. 16: Tarjî` no. 30 (pp. 208-13), Tarjî` no. 31 (pp. 174--82);
Vol 19: Tarjî` no. 33 (pp. 129-34), Tarjî` no. 34 (pp. 128-29), Tarjî` no. 35 (pp. 13-16);
Vol. 20: Tarjî` no. 12 (pp. 19-24), Tarjî` no. 26 (pp. 126-30), Tarjî` no. 32 (pp. 188-93);
Vol. 21: Tarjî` no. 21 (pp. 79-86);
Vol. 22: Tarjî` no. 40 (pp. 98-104), Tarjî` no. 41 (pp. 145-52).
