What it means
استعاره (este-areh) is the Persian word for metaphor, the rhetorical figure in which one thing is called by the name of another without any explicit comparative word. When Hafez writes about the wine, the cup, the tavern, and means the spiritual seeking of God, that is este-areh. When a poet calls eyelashes the arrows of the beloved, that is este-areh. The literal sense is suppressed; the figurative sense rides on top.
How it differs from kenayeh
Persian rhetoric distinguishes este-areh from کنایه (kenayeh) with care, and learners conflate them. Este-areh is an implicit comparison: I say A and mean B, suppressing the link. Kenayeh leaves the literal sense undisturbed but layers a figurative reading on top, often through a stock idiom. When you say دستش درازه (dastash derazeh, his hand is long), the literal sense is not denied; you are using a fixed Persian idiom that, by convention, means he is a thief, or generous, depending on context. Kenayeh keeps both senses; este-areh replaces one with the other.
Classical Persian rhetoric (بلاغت, balaghat) distinguishes several subtypes of este-areh: استعاره مصرحه (este-areh-ye mosarrahe, explicit metaphor, where the borrowed-for term is named), and استعاره مکنیه (este-areh-ye maknieh, implicit metaphor, where only the borrowed-from term appears). These subtypes matter when you read classical poetry analytically.
How to use it
hafez az sharab be onvan-e este-areh estefadeh mikonad.
Hafez uses wine as a metaphor.
حافظ از شراب به عنوان استعاره استفاده میکند.
in jomle yek este-areh-ye ziba dast.
This sentence is a beautiful metaphor.
این جمله یک استعاره زیبا است.
tashkhis-e este-areh dar shaer-e kohan kar-e asani nist.
Recognizing metaphor in classical poetry is not easy.
تشخیص استعاره در شعر کهن کار آسانی نیست.
Where it comes from
Arabic, the form X verbal noun of the root ‘-w-r (عور, to borrow), built on the pattern isti’arah, literally the borrowing. Classical Arabic rhetoricians (al-Jurjani in the 11th century is the foundational source) developed an elaborate theory of isti’arah as one of the pillars of بلاغت (balaghat), eloquence, and Persian literary culture absorbed both the term and the theoretical apparatus wholesale. Reading Hafez, Sa’di, or Rumi without the concept of este-areh is like reading Shakespeare without the concept of metaphor.
References
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