FUNCTIONAL SYNTAX AND MYSTICAL SEMANTICS: CORRELATING SYNTAXEMES WITH SUFI CONCEPTS IN ALISHER NAVAI’S UZBEK AND ENGLISH GHAZALS

Abstract

This paper studies the syntactic and semantic architecture of English translations of Alisher Navai’s three ghazals – “To Burnish It Bright as a Mirror” (Ghazal 99), “It Is You Whom the Lord Made Me Need” (Ghazal 100), and “The Gate to the Good’s City” (Ghazal 106)–published in Mundus Artium (USA, 2023). Grounded in Professor Mukhin’s theory of functional syntax, particularly the typology of processual, stative-possessive, and active-directed syntaxemes, this study explores how grammatical structures embody spiritual concepts central to Sufi poetics. By correlating Navai’s functional-syntactic patterns with mystical notions such as fanaʾ (annihilation) and baqaʾ (subsistence), the research demonstrates that Navai’s syntax performs as a vehicle of spiritual motion. The comparative analysis between Uzbek and English versions reveals how processual syntaxeme not only translates action but also conveys metaphysical transformation. This study contributes to translation studies and Turkic philology by showing that syntactic motion, rather than lexical equivalence, preserves the Sufi rhythm of Navai’s divine discourse