"Behbahani . . . blends Eastern and Western cultures, leaps from one time period to another, switches back and forth from masculine forms, and imbues the lines with multiple layers of meaning."—The Miami Herald
"The translation is remarkable for its craftiness and fluency. . . . The poems are sure to impress the American reader with their honesty, technical precision, rhythmic quality, and compassionate concern for the underdog."—World Literature Today
"Simin is proof that Scheherazade is among us, reincarnated in millions of us, Muslim women, sculpting the world we want simply by weaving words. Scheherazade changed the violent king by feeding him soft words. She did not shout, she just murmured stories in the nights."—Fatima Mernissi, author of Dreams of Trespass
Description
Simin Behbahani’s collection contains some of the most formative work of twentieth-century Persian literature. Written over almost a half-century, much of her poetry reflects the traumatic experiences that have shaped Iranian history: revolution and war. Behbahani balances artful inquiry and shocking realism in both her language and imagery to probe the depths of political, cultural, and moral oppression. In the traditional verse of the ghazal, she improvises with meter to echo and provide new interpretations.
Table of Contents
Preface, Michael Beard
Acknowledgements
We Await the Golden Dawn, Simin Behbahani
The Poems
HIs Master's Voice
A Thousand Golden Butterflies
Oh, I Made Love!
The Child Trailed Behind
I Gave My Face to the Scalpel
I Am So Full of Light
I'm an Old Sanctuary
Has the Game Ended?
A State Beyond Words
Whirl, Whirl, My Friend
I Write, I Cross Out
If the Snake Is Domestic
The Perfume of Coffee and Thoughts of You
Orange-tressed Sun
Caduceus
Bring Me the Palette
Footsteps
Two Rows of Acacia Leaves
Necklace
Fossil
Our Tears Are Sweet
I Sing in Your Voice
The Ants' Leftover
A Man with a Missing Leg
It's the End of the Line
From the Street (6)
A Lily, Like a Smoke Ring
Heart, You Are So Restless
The Windows Are Closed
You Won't Believe It
In My Necessary Silence
"I Swear on the Fig, I Swear on the Olive..."
Glass-like Snow
Twelve Fountains of Blood
And Behold
Raining Death
Thump, Thump, Thump, Echoed the Drum
Morse
When the Hand of Darkness
Thorned Fruit
From the Street (3)
From the Street (1)
It Was the Pulse Flying
The World is Shaped Like a Sphere
Mind: Smoke Rings
Flog!
It's Time to Mow the Flowers
Ears, Ears of Gold
A Bat or Some Other Creature
You Said, It's Only Grapes
I Used to Tell You
Must Write Something
My Country, I Will Build You Again
Sounds of Blossoms
My Heart is Heavy Friend
Song (5)
Song (4)
Song (3)
Gypsiesque (15)
Gypsiesque (13)
Gypsiesque (14)
Gypsiesque (1)
Tick Tock, Tick Tock
Love Came So Red
You Leave, I'll Stay
Dry, Lifeless, Dry
O Child of Today
Time, It Is Dream Time
Barren Desert
Doubts, Doubts, Doubts
Can You Really Fly?
I Can't Look
What a Cold and Somber Silence
So Long in This Old Land
I Sell Souls
Metamorphosis
O Box Within Box
Laws of Lead
I Want a Cup of Sin
Don't Read
The Dead Are Silent
Workshop
Lead Insulation
Lead Dust
Apples, Crimson Lanterns
Maybe It Is the Messiah
Mind Blister
Dialogue
Limestone Branches
"Ours"-An Image
Opium of False Promises
My Little World
The Last Leaf
The Rabbit's Garnet Eyes
Green Blood
Ignorance
Wine of Light
Rival
Nightmare
Tombstone
Inheritance
Dead Man's Tooth
The Prostitute's Song
Afterword
Translating Simin Behbahani, Kaveh Safa
About the Author
Simin Behbahani (1927–2014) was a celebrated poet, lyricist, and activist. She received the Simon de Beauvoir Prize for Women’s Freedom in 2009 and was nominated twice for the Nobel Prize in Literature.
Farzaneh Milani is professor of Persian literature and studies in women and gender at the University of Virginia. She is the author of Veils and Words: The Emerging Voice of Iranian Women Writers and Words, Not Swords: Iranian Women Writers and the Freedom of Movement.
Kaveh Safa has taught courses in anthropology and Persian at the Universities of Virginia and Chicago.
August 2023