Dictionaries and Encyclopedias

Pashto has strong oral traditions—see *Songs—Pashto, *Afghani love song, *Oral poem—Pashto (ca. 1885), the earliest relevant work. *Alessandro Bausani has written a study of the literature (in Italian). Work on the literary history has been done in Russia (see Rypka, History of Iranian Literature, p. 808—bibliography).

Modern Persian dates from 800 A.D. when the country was occupied by Arabic speaking Islamic Arabs and when *Islam was adopted and the language written in the script of Arabic. Since then there has been a huge interchange between Arabic and Persian poetry. Seljuq Turks invaded Iran in the eleventh century and brought Turkish influence; interaction with Turkish was constant from then to the fall of the Ottoman empire in 1918. (See *Influence— Persian, —Arabic, —Turkish.) Persian has itself strongly influenced Urdu and languages in Pakistan and north west India (e. g., Punjabi). The Persians occupied Pakistan—see the poet *Farrukhi—and parts of India from the thirteenth century following the invasion of the Indian subcontinent by the Persian speaking Mughals and a school of *Mughal poets existed. Persian influence was enormous in Pakistan and India as far as Bengal: the language was for centuries a lingua franca and widely spoken and written (including Persian poetry) until the British domination of the Indian subcontinent from 1857.

The entire tradition of classical Persian *divan poetry is pederastic with many poems directed at *youths and the *saki (or *cupbearer at drinking parties), who is a fixture of the poetry tradition (this custom may date back to ancient times; it almost certainly has connections with the ancient Greek *symposium tradition). A *Saqi-nama is a collection of wine drinking verses, usually, but not invariably, by one poet.

The tradition of Persian poetry is basically lyrical and the *ghazal was the main poetic form (though *masnavi or long poems were written). The *epic poet *Firdawsi's Shah-na-mah shows considerable homoeroticism; it relates to vast epic traditions in the area of central Asia and *Turkestan. *Wine drinking—see *Khamriyya—and *down on the face are notable tropes associated with homosexuality throughout Persian poetry. The trope of *Sultan Mahmud and the slave *Ayaz is a trope of gay love occurring in the works of many poets.

Explicitly erotic homosexual poetry occurs in the work of *`Ubayd Zakani and *Iraj Mirza (who wrote at the beginning of the twentieth century). *Dancing and singing boys (noted by *E. J. Browne a century ago in *Shiraz) still sing bawdy songs. Urdu and Turkish poets also wrote in Persian; for example see the Urdu poets *Dard and *Ghalib and the Turkish poet *Nef`i. Classical Persian dates to 1500 but traditional forms were used until 1945.

The *Sufi tradition of *mystical poetry is strongly homosexual. The founder of Persian and Turkish Sufism, *Rumi, wrote strongly homosexual poetry and the Sufi *Kirmani is an outstanding homosexual poet. Sufism descends from, has in turn been influenced by, and in turn influenced *Indian Philosophy in India and Pakistan (see *Kabir but even further back the *Vedas). It has strongly influenced the poetry of all languages around Iran—such as the northern *Indian languages.

*Literary historians and critics (e.g., the brilliant Czech Jan Rypka already mentioned) have notably commented on homosexuality in Persian (which cannot be escaped, though *A. J. Arberry the noted British expert managed to avoid mentioning it). *Marten Schild has perceptively discussed homosexuality in the Middle East, including Persian. Recently such major Persian scholars as *Ehsan Yarshater have dealt extensively with homosexuality in the poetry (notably in the entry “Homosexuality” in Encyclopaedia Iranica. *Paul Sprachman has written an exceptional article on the Persian bawdy tradition in which poets insult others by homosexual reference (compare similar traditions in Arabic—see *Jarir).

Strong *censorship in Iran in the twentieth century has severely curtailed the writing of gay poetry especially from the 1970s. The modern poet *Reza Bahareni has written about *rape in *prison. In Iran, from the time of the Islamic revolution of 1979, homosexual behavior has been severely proscribed leading even to the death penalty: see *Law —Persian. A contemporary poet *Cyrus Atabay lives in Germany and writes in German. The poet *Hushang Merchant who comes from Iran has written a fine work in English. For biographical sources see *Biography—Persian.

Polish, spoken in Poland, is an *Indo-European language in the *Slavic group. It is the third largest Slavic language after Russian and Ukrainian, both contiguous languages. *Slowacki (died 1850) seems the first poet of relevance.

The great Polish Romantic poet *Mickiewicz died in the arms of a male friend and the poet *Cyperian Norwid wrote a long poem based on the gay Roman emperor *Hadrian. The *decadent movement had a significaant influence in Polish (e.g., *Pater was translated). *Waclaw Rolicz Lieder around 1900 was a disciple of the homosexual German poet *Stefan George.

*Modernism and *surrealism were strong movements in the twentieth century. Polish poets of the twentieth century who are relevant include *Iwaskiewicz, *Jan Lechon (pseud.), *Bialoszewski, *Gombrowicz and *Andrzejewski. For contemporary poets see *Josef Czechowica, *Tadeusz Olszewski, *Grzegiez Musial. The *Nobel Prize winner *Csezlaw Milosz has translated Whitman and Shakespeare. Polish is rich in translations of gay poets and works e.g., *Michelangelo, *Martial, *Whitman, *Oscar Wilde and the *Palatine Anthology. In 1995 gay poems were openly published in *Journals.

Gay *oral poems have been discovered in Hawaiian. *Chants associated with the strong male bonding exhibited in *dancing (men dance and sing in groups with other men) are of interest. Male *transvestites who sing and dance also exist. *Eulogies in which men praise other men who have died are another genre which needs examination. However much literature remains in manuscript (e.g., in Maori in Auckland Public Library and the Hocken Library, Dunedin, and in Hawaiian in the Bishop Museum in Hawaii). Until this material is published no adequate assessment is possible and even then *censorship may have resulted in the non recording of homobawdy, particularly as *Christian missionaries played a big part in the recording of these languages.

The Journal of the Polynesian Society surveys material in these languages and is nearly one hundred years old. See *Stephen O. Murray for the social background and bibliographic sources for homosexuality; see also Bengt Danielsson, Love in the South Seas, New York, 1933 (trans. from Swedish).

The great gay poet *Antonio Botto who was brought up in Portugal spent his last years (1947–1959) in the country and is the first major gay poet associated with Brazil. Many poets from the late nineteenth century appear in the first Portuguese gay anthology *Poemas do amor maldito (1969), compiled by the poets *Gasparino Damata (pseud.) and *Walmir Ayala; published in Brazil it was on the *decadent model. The country has an active gay movement which saw the publication of the cultural *journal *Lampião (1978–81). *Cassiano Nunes and *Franklin Jorge both appeared in the first Latin American anthology *Now the Volcano (1979). The major poets *Carlos Drummond de Andrade and *Jorge de Lima have written homosexual poems. In 1982 *Glauco Mattoso published an extraordinary volume illustrated with erect penises. *Robert Piva is a noted contemporary poet.

*Twenty-four Poemas Gays (1982) is the second Brazilian gay poetry anthology. *Valdo Mota is an outstanding recent gay poet whose poetry is centered on the asshole as a way of finding *God. *Valery Peleleshin, a gay poet who wrote in Russian and lived in Brazil, has also written some poems in Portuguese. *Chants and songs sung in connection with *Afro-Brazilian cults contain homosexual poetry, but need investigating.

There have been periods of repression of homosexuals in Brazil though the law was decriminalized in 1823 under the influence of the *Code Napoléon. *João Trevisan has written a fine historical and cultural study and *Luiz Mott has written extensively on Brazilian gay culture and compiled the first detailed bibliography. *Irwin Stern has written the first article in English on homosexuality and literature in Brazil. David William Foster, Gay and Lesbian Themes in Latin American Writing, 1991, deals with prose (bibl. pp. 165–74). Libraries in Brazil are generally poor in quality. The city library in Rio de Janeiro was formerly the National Library until 1960, when the capital was moved to Brasilia, an artificially created city which now houses the National Library.

The compatriot of Pessoa and Botto, *Gomes Leal, defended sodomy in a pamphlet entitled Sodomia divinisada ("Sodomy Divined") at this time, while another friend the possibly bisexual *Mario de Sá Carneiro committed suicide in *Paris in 1914. The outstanding Portuguese literature on gay cultural history begins with *Arlindo Monteiro, who wrote a huge cultural study of homosexuality in 1922 showing the influence of *Magnus Hirshfeld. *Asdrubal D'Aquiar has written a survey mostly discussing the laws while *Luiz Mott has done recent work on the historical background.

The *surrealist poet *Mario Cesariny has written homosexual poems while *Eugenio de Andrade is an important poet active from 1940 whose work, especially from 1988, is relevant. *Al Perto (pseud.) was a notable 1980s gay poet. *José Blanco has compiled the finest bibliography on *Pessoa (many of whose works remain unpublished; there is no collected edition of his poems); *João Simões's biography of the poet remains inadequate in dealing with homosexuality.

Portugal is at present a democracy (from 1975) but has been a military dictatorship at times during the twentieth century; it was formerly a monarchy. The influence of Portuguese homopoetry in Portugal on Portuguese in Brazil is considerable and also from 1968 in the reverse direction as regards homosexual poetry: that is, of Brazilian Portuguese gay poetry on Iberian Portuguese.

A number of *troubadour poets are relevant—e.g., *Arnaut Daniel—though more research is needed on them. The *Anacreontea have been translated. On Provençal see Encyclopedia of Language and Linguistics.