Persian Poetry, Lewis Hyde's The Gift, and an Interview with Farideh Hasanzadeh

A recent interview on women's poetry with Iranian poet, translator, and editor Farideh Hasanzadeh moves me deeply.  It reflects not only Hasanzadeh's inspiring commitment to the poetry women write, but also, her palpable engagement with the most profound importance of the art of poetry itself.  Hers is not an academic interest; she does not analyze or compartmentalize poetry. She merely notices its uses and effects. Hasanzadeh is a unique poet and scholar, with sure poetic and critical instincts and a rare purity of dedication to the art.  Still, there is something in her basic approach to the subject of poetry—as if its key role in our lives were self-evident—that puts me in mind of the central place and exquisitely developed state of poetry in Persian culture generally. 

I was not surprised when, recently, I read in Meg Bogin's book The Women Troubadours that were it not for Persian poetry, English poetry would have no rhyme; the gift of rhyme came to us from Iran by way of the troubadour poets, through North Africa and into southern Europe. I will never be surprised again by anything I learn about the importance of Persian poetry. This is because I was invited lately to join a circle of neighbors where I live, born in Iran, who get together once a month simply to appreciate and read and enjoy poetry together. They are not poets, but readers and lovers of poetry who work in a great variety of professions from nurse to business executive.  Though these poetry evenings are conducted in Farsi of which I can't understand a word, they have given me more joy and a deeper understanding of poetry than many of the evenings I've spent devoted to poetry in English.  To be among a group of non-poets who have come together voluntarily so that they can literally laugh and cry over poems is a truly humbling experience for a poet. 

For the Winter 2008 residency of the Stonecoast MFA, Baron Wormser and I conducted a class on Lewis Hyde's book The Gift: Imagination and the Erotic Life of Property.   Hyde's book helped keep me going on my path as a poet when I first read it after graduating from college, and I understand that it has had a similar effect on many others.  It is the only discussion of art I've seen in English that really gets to the heart of these issues. 

Here is the interview with Farideh Hasanzadeh, from an Iranian women's magazine:

Introduction:  The success of Farideh's latest book : ''Poetry of Women World Wild ’’ among the public led to the publication, of a second edition, after only several months, giving our magazine to conduct an interview with her. Interestingly booksellers have said that it is mostly bought by men!

Q: Why did you choose Women‘s poetry for translation?

 F:  Well, I specialize in the translation of poetry. I work on anything that catches my interest in the field of poetry. Lately for example I've been translating Lorca's biography.To answer your question more specifically however- about 7-8 years ago I received a Penguin anthology with a selection of Women's poetry. I found it extremely interesting. I was especially surprised to find out that a poem by Iranian poet: Forough Farrokhzad ("Another Birthday") had been included in this book. I was deeply inspired by these poems.  It made me realize that there existed great number of talented women poets and they continue to exist in this world, whom we unfortunately rarely hear about. I was able to relate to so many of the themes in these poems, because these female poets shared so much with the reader. They were able to reveal and share their deepest emotions with incredible sincerity. What I also appreciated about the book was the introduction that was included for each female poet.  I understood that their lives had in fact been poems.. It was clear to me that the three editors, who also happened to be women, had included these introductions in order to make the reader realize what it meant to be a woman as well as a poet. This anthology revealed a whole range of poems concerning a woman's way of expressing herself. I was amazed at how courageous these women had been for wording their emotions and sharing it with others. This need for expressing themselves had been a kind of exorcism-  enabling them to somewhat release the pain and the frustrations of their lives.

While Reading these poems I found out that I was dealing with very important and deep poets. But I also realized that some of the poems were weak. I needed to read more poems by each of these poets in order to understand their work as well as to be able to appreciate their talent. So I ended up finding the complete works of each of these female poets. I was not disappointed. I noticed that the editors had unintentionally left out some of the strongest and deepest poems from their book. I wanted to translate the poems that brought the reader in touch with the poetess- those that would make the reader feel something. My work on this book ended up being more than that of a translator's. In fact, the time and energy I invested in selecting the poems made the end product more than just a poetry book for me.

Q: After all the researches that you have done on women poets, what did you learn from it and which characteristics did you find?

F: This is a difficult question. The truth is, I love poetry. But after working specifically on women's poetry, I came to realize that poetry is actually more serious and deeper than I had previously thought. Maybe the reader will also realize that poetry is an extremely serious art form in the women’s world.

Many people talk about the differences in the way men and women express themselves. In my opinion, however, there is no female or male poem. I just feel that poetry likes women more than men. This is not because women tend to be more sentimental but because they view love and life in such a serious way. I feel that poetry works better for them, since it is a literary form that enables them to express themselves in a very sincere way. I will not over-generalize, however, since men poets can also show signs of this female sensitivity. For example Nazar Gabbani is a male poet who has this feminine and sensitive side, and this is why the purity of his works are so high. Anyway, this is my feeling : poetry is closer to the women . I don’t think I would have come to this kind of conclusion if I had done research on men’s poetry. Poetry likes women more.

Q: You have dedicated this book to your little son. Is there a special reason for this?

F:  As a woman, I wanted to show that poetry likes women more, because they devote everything to love – even  poetry.