The Cognitive Functions of Metaphor in Sayr al Ebad Elal Maad-e-Sanai

In Classical literature, metaphor is a kind of deviation from the normal language, whose main role is glory and speech, so that it can be removed from ordinary language. On the contrary with this traditional thinking, the cognitive linguists conceived the new concepts and functions for metaphor. In the new perspective, language is basically metaphorical and can not be thought of without metaphor and communicating with the outside world. In a new approach, unlile the view of classical intellectuals, metaphor is a meta-language tool that emphasizes the link between language and thought. In this perspective, the conceptual or cognitive metaphor, the experience of abstract and undefined matters are in the form of tangible and descriptive issues. The significance of conceptual metaphors in understanding the system of thought and perceiving the most important mental concepts dominates in each work. One of the most important functions of conceptual metaphor is the understanding of abstract and inexpressible affairs in terms of physical and sensible things, because many of fundamental concepts in our conceptual system are usually understood through metaphorical concepts. Sayr al Ebad Elal Maad-e-Sanai is one of the most prominent mystical works in Persian poems that expresses the journey of the soul to the world, and then returns to the kingdom of the metaphorical and allegorical language. The mystical, allegorical language of Sanai has given a special distinction to his gnostic thoughts. This style prominence owes to the metaphorical attitude and meaning of the Sanai hence, the most prominent tool used by the Sanai in Sierra El-Ebad is the use of the function of cognitive metaphor to describe and understand better the mystical abstract concepts and extrasensory.
Based on the above mentioned, the present study is descriptive-analytical and in the framework of the cognitive metaphor, the study of Sayr al Ebad Elal Maad-e-Sanai and the identification and analysis of the most important writings and concepts in which the poet attempts to portray and to associate them to the audience with the language of metaphor. Accordingly, these metaphors are analyzed based on the target domain and the subjective concepts of classification and some semantic functions. In the next step, another classification based on the cognitive function of the conceptual metaphors of Lakoff and Johnson (structural, ontology, and directional) has been respectively performed in the order of the highest frequency.
Sayr al Ebad Elal Maad-e-Sanai is the story of the soul's journey to the world of creation and the mystical kingdom and God’s gate. In this collection, the language of metaphor is the best tool for expressing the metaphysical concepts which related to the journey of the soul and its barriers. Therefore, understanding the main and most important metaphorical writings of Sierra El Abad has a valuable role in recognizing the hidden points of the text as well as the literary style and the poet’s intellectual system.After the analysis of the most important metaphorical writings of Sanai, the most important phenomena and the metaphorical concepts are respectively the use of moral vices, wits, four elements, the world, the soul, the heavens and the earth, desire, the kingdom, the virtues, the spirit, the body , Science and the stages of man's creation.
The results show that the use of conceptual, metaphorical patterns has an important and effective role in explaining the abstract and supernatural ideas of Sanaei. According to the findings, the most frequent metaphorical concepts and phenomena related to the ethical vices, which have been manifested in the metaphorical animal forms of moral vices; on the other hand, the most important semantic functions of the sensual field, savage, meanness, slander, ugliness and covetousness, blackness, poison, mercilessness, bitterness, impoverishment and destruction. The structural metaphors have the most important and the most cognitive function in Sayr al Ebad Elal Maad-e-Sanai. These metaphors have a more pronounced application in the emergence of dominant thinking on the subject. The most prominent metaphorical examples used to explain the important and often meta sensual concepts include: the types of animals, the types of instruments, the types of buildings, the governmental jobs, kinship relativity, the common occupations, prophets, plant types, and the lightening elements. The ontological metaphors have a special place after structural metaphors. In the meantime, the most frequent realm of ontological metaphors is the field of humanism. Then in the directional metaphor, the most manifested one is in the "high order", which is mostly used for positive, pleasant, and often superficial conceptual domains.