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Cognitive linguists believe that human perception is inherently metaphorical. They assign metaphor to the realm of thought, over and beyond the realm of language. In contemporary theory, metaphor refers to conceptualization of complex and intangible mental phenomena through tangible and sensory human experiences. The significance of the concept of "heart" (del) lies in its indeterminacy and transcendence in language and literature, especially mysticism. This word implies a wide range of meanings. Therefore, studying its metaphorical processing techniques is essential in identifying Sana'i's emotions and thought system. This study seeks to identify the poet's thought system and the resulting mental and expressive subtleties through analysis of tools and techniques used for rendition of "heart" sensible in Sana'i's thought within the framework of cognitive theory and its conceptualization functions. The results show that the most frequent metaphorical use of heart in the poet's work is concerned with ontology, and the most remarkable concerned with objectification, which indicate the influence of primary subjective and subconscious collective experiences on the poet's mind in his understanding of "heart". The most significant semantic function of del in Sana'i divan is implying emotional concepts, best manifested in love, grief, and joy. Other semantic functions of del include ethical concepts (patience, nafs, and worldliness), the place of manifestation of haq, thoughtfulness and knowledge, and confidentiality.
 

In the late decades of the 20th century, advances in cognitive linguistics gave rise to introduction of metaphor with new identity and function. From a cognitive perspective, metaphor is considered a device for comprehending ambiguous and unfamiliar phenomena by employing concrete phenomena around us. The grandeur of mystical meanings and experiences is so impressive that can be only perceived under the guise of metaphor.  In mysticism, “heart” always has been considered one of  the striking concepts which has a wide range of semantic functions. In both source and target domain,  it plays a critical role in creation of cognitive metaphors. To be specific, the concept of “heart” is one of the most essential phenomena for expressing mystical meanings; it is considered as a source of emotions, ethics and different mystical states. Thus, investigating its cognitive function in the Divan of the founder of mystical poems, namely Sanaei, may lead to identifying its aestheticizing tools and conceptual functions. Due to its breadth and profundity,   Sanaei has made determining and important uses of metaphorical devices to visualize the concept of “heart”. Because of the importance of the concept of “heart”, the present study is going to answer the following questions: To what extent and in which cognitive metaphors have the visualizing tools of heart used in Sanaei`s Divan? What are semantic functions of metaphorical usage of heart as a source domain?  What is the frequency of metaphorical usage of heart in Sanaei`s Divan?
 
2.Literature Review
In recent years, cognitive theory of metaphor has created new perspectives in literature. Some researches have been conducted on metaphorical use of heart. Ghaderi Najafabadi & Tavangar (2013) analyzed the metaphorical usage of heart and reported that heart is a perfect example of conveying emotions such as love or grief. Mazepova (2013) compared heart metaphor in Persian and Ukrainian literature and reported that there are some similarities between Persian and Ukrainian language systems regarding metaphorical usage of heart.
It is important to analyze the metaphorical concept of “heart” within a cognitive theoretical framework since it creates a new perspective for the poet`s mind system. To the best of
Researchers' knowledge, no research has been conducted on this topic.   
 

By applying descriptive-analytic method and library resources, the current study aim to explain the techniques of visualization of “heart” and express its semantic functions. As a result, mental subtleties, hidden layers of the mind and stylistic nuances of the poet will be identified.
 

The research findings reveal that Sanaei has mostly visualized “heart” through ontological metaphors. In this field, the conceptual domain of objectification is considered as the most striking ontological metaphor. Orientational metaphors which refer to inner situations is of high frequency. Inner situation has a key role since it convey a wide range of concepts such as love, grief, patience, happiness, wisdom, inner inspiration and secrets. Concepts like cruelty and hardness, impenetrability, affinity and dependence, decay, withering state and sorrow were conveyed through natural elements and tools of structural metaphors. The most effective semantic role of  the heart is distinguishing emotional concepts (like love, kindness, happiness, sadness, aspiration, hope, peace, restlessness, regret, fear). Other semantic roles of heart identify concepts of ethics like the place of the presence of God, thinking, sagacity and the place of secrets. As it is viewed, the effect of the mystical principles refers to the heart as the place of love. Celestial concepts consider it as the place of manifestation of God. The ancients believe that thinking, wisdom and sometimes secrecy were common characteristics of soft-hearted and pious people.
 

The current study examined cognitive functions of heart based on Lakoff & Johnson`s three categorization of structural, ontological and orientational metaphor. Sanaei`s mind selected orientational metaphor as the most prominent tools for visualization of the concept of heart. The conceptual functions of “heart” in conveying various extrasensory concepts like desires, inner feelings, personality, secrecy, thought foundations and the place of God were also explored. In the field of emotional states, the semantic function of the heart was of the highest frequency. Ghaderi Najafabadi & Tavangar (2013) examined only conceptual functions and considered heart as a perfect symbol of conveying emotional concepts.
 
6.Conclusion
In contemporary theory, metaphor refers to conceptualization of complex and intangible mental phenomena through tangible and sensory human experiences. This word implies a wide range of meanings. Therefore, studying its metaphorical processing techniques is essential in identifying Sinai's emotions and thought systemExamining the word heart in Sanaei`s Divan revealed that Sanaei has predominantly applied cognitive metaphors to personify the word heart as both source and target domain.

Keywords: Cognitive linguistics, Conceptual metaphor, Del, Divan of Sana'i

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