Letters from Iran
Unspoken words for contemplating minds
by Aria Fani
Classical Persian poetry is characterized by its creative and highly cultivated language as well as strict regularities of rhyme and meter. Consequently, the Persian aesthetic tradition developed with reference to the lyric. Mohammad Reza Shafi’i Kadkani, a prominent literary figure, asserts that classical literary critics did not examine the overall structure of a poem, but rather focused on each Beyt, a metrical unit in Perso-Arabic poetry—more or less equivalent to a line in English poetry. In contemporary Persian poetry, poems are not assessed on the basis of each line. Kadkani further argues that a poem may not employ any literary devices, but masterfully convey a social message that both resonates meaningfully with the poet’s audience and transcends his/her time and place.
Bijan Jalali’s (1928 – 1999) verse disconnects from the poetic qualities of the classical tradition. There is no reliance on figures of speech or literary devices; Jalali skillfully makes use of a great body of imagery, strengthened by his sharp observations and brevity. For instance:
_ _ _
death
is before
my eyes
standing
sitting or walking
my eyes
turn to poetry
again
and I see
poetry–like death–standing
sitting or walking
The reader does not encounter dazzling diction here, but instead what we have is an unadorned and simple phraseology:
I have something
to say that I have yet
to write
for it is whiter
than paper
His body of work redefines the role of aesthetics in Persian poetry by placing an elegantly simple and brief form of expression at the heart of the poetic process. Jalali was a devout animal lover and had many dogs and cats at home. After he died, the Bijan Jalali Literary Award, awarded to more than five writers to date, was established in honor of his lifetime accomplishments. He passed away in 1999 in Tehran.
_ _ _
should someone ask
for me tell them
he has gone to watch
the rain
if they insist
tell them he has gone
to see the storms
if they proved
adamant tell them
he will not return
(All translations by Aria Fani)
Aria Fani was born and raised in Iran. He left the country at 18 years old in the early 2000s and came to the United States to pursue higher education. Fani learned about the U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iran late Friday night, along with much of the world. He said his family’s safety, many of whom still live in Iran, was and still is his primary concern. He’s now a professor of Persian and Iranian Studies at the University of Washington and serves as the director of the Middle East Center at UW’s Henry M. Jackson School of International Studies. Through his work and lived personal experience, Fani is very familiar with Iran’s powerful regime, which has historically been successful at maintaining control in Iran. Fani said Saturday that he’s doubtful a regime change war will be successful, and he questioned the U.S.’s involvement.
Bijan Jalali was born in 1928 in Tehran, where he received his elementary and secondary education. For several years, he studied physics at the University of Tehran and natural sciences in Paris and Toulouse. Ultimately, his passion for poetry led him to obtain a bachelor’s degree in French literature from the University of Tehran. Over the course of his professional life until his retirement in 1981, Jalali taught English and French, consulted with the Ministry of Culture’s Museum of Anthropology, and worked for Tehran’s Petrochemical Organization as a translator. In 1999, he passed away in the city of his birth.