Iranian poetry

Persians are known for their poetry. The tradition of Persian poetry began in the urban centers of central Asia, Bukhara and Samarkand and flourished uninterrupted for a thousand years. Poetry has been declaimed by kings and beggars, has brought fortunes unto poets and has kept the culture and language of the Persians alive through numerous invasions. The earliest two forms of Persian poetry were the epic and the ballad. It took the legendary 10th century Persian poet Ferdowsi 35 years to write his epic, the Shahnameh (Book of Kings) and has been at the root of heroic legends and stories for the peoples of this region: Persians, Pashtuns, Afghans, Kurds, Gurans, Talishis, Armenians, Georgians, North Caucasian peoples, etc. The middle ages saw Persian poetry thrive. The remarkable poets of that time - Omar Khayyam, Rumi, Saadi, Sanai, Attar, Hafiz, and Jami – are still being translated and discovered by western audiences to this day. The medieval Persian poets got their inspiration from the mystical Sufi tradition in Islam. Their belief is in the concept of tawhid (union) with their beloved from which they have been cut off and their desire to reunite with it. They understand like as a journey in search of enlightenment. Their poetry is both lyrical and spiritual. Their poems deal with love, wine and intoxication and are known for rich meters, and the relative simplicity of their language. Modern Iranian poets are more concerned with the social and the political and their verse is an entirely free and unrestrained. They use simple diction and colloquial words. Poetry is the national literary form of Iran. Even today, Iranians quote verses from their national poets in their daily lives. During the events that unfolded after the 2009 elections, Iranians tweeted verses. One such Iranian is 26-year-old Parham Baghestani. “Baghestani tweeted frequently, sometimes several times an hour; he even tweeted from the voting line on June 12. [...] His tweets range from the mundane to the spiritual, and offer a window into the psyche and everyday life of an Iranian. Baghestani is an engineering student and Web developer specializing in e-learning and user-interface engineering.” So you see, poetry is no small part of this month’s country’s literature and below are some of its more infamous poets and their works.

	The Poems of Abu Sa'id Abu'l Kheyr by Abu Sa'id Abu'l Kheyr Abu Sa'id Abu'l Kheyr is known as the father of Sufism and Rubaiyat. His understanding of Islam was that of a nearness to good that can only be achieved through selflessness and love. Most fo what is known about him comes from the biography written by Mohammad Ibn Monavvar one of his grandsons, some 130 years after his death. His philosophy was sustained and propagated in a Sufi center he founded in Nishapur.
	Rumi by Jalaleddine Rumi   "Jalāl ad-Dīn Muhammad Rūmī was a 13th-century Persian poet, jurist, theologian, and Sufi mystic. Following his death, his followers and his son Sultan Walad founded the Mawlawīyah Sufi Order, also known as the Order of the Whirling Dervishes, famous for its Sufi dance known as the samāh ceremony.” Rumi’s belief, similar to that of other mystic and Sufi poets, is in the concept of tawhid (union) with his beloved from which he has been cut off and his desire to reunite with it. His poetry is both lyrical and spiritual and his images bring the earthly and the sacred together. This book includes a variety of translations of his most deeply moving poetry
	Rubaiyat Of Omar Khayyam by Omar Khayyam Omar Khayyám  was a Persian polymath, mathematician, philosopher, astronomer, physician, and poet. His fame as a poet has overshadowed his fame as a mathematician. He is believed to have written about a thousand four-line verses and his poems were translated by many, but the Fitzgerald translation are the most well known.  Khayyam’s verses continue to ring as true today as they must have in his days.
	Sin: Selected Poems of Forugh Farrokhzad by Forugh Farrokhzad Forough Farokhzad is arguably Iran’s most controversial and most influential poet of the last century. After the Islamic revolution Farokhzad’s poems were banned for a decade. Her brother, Fereydoun Farrokhzad, was also a controversial figure. The singer, actor, poet, TV and radio host, writer, and political opposition figure was stabbed at his home in Bonn, Germany. Forough wrote about love, sex, morality, politics and religion in a candid language. Sin includes the entirety of her fourth book Reborn, part of her third and some of her earlier works.
	Belonging: New Poetry by Iranians Around the World by Niloufar Talebi   Niloufar Talebi, the translator behind this anthology, founded the translation project (http://www.thetranslationproject.org/) in 2003 with the aim to bring contemporary Iranian literature to larger western audiences. Belonging is just one of the innovative book, theatre and multimedia projects of the translation project. All 18 of the contributors to this anthology are writers in exile. They all left Iran after the Islamic revolution. They are all representative of the budding modern Persian poetry. Niloufar Talebi has produced a remarkable, beautifully translated collection of the Iranian poetry of the Diaspora.
	The Poetry Of Iranian Women by Sheema Kalbasi This anthology arranged by Sheema Kalbasi gives way to a range of voices and outlook s. Politics and mysticism come together in these poems whose authors are both Iranian residents and expats. Some of the poems were originally written in English and others were translated. But all of these poems share a sense of loss and longing. This collection is a must for those of you wanting to understand who to people behind I ran’s Green Revolution are and what they want.
	That Kind of Sleep by Susan Atefat Peckham National Poetry Series Award-winner Peckham’s debut collection brings up images of her Iranian heritage intertwined with her multinational childhood. In these poems about memory, culture and individuality, she looks at Iranian women with an American eye.