Greetings and welcome to the gathering honouring Iran’s great and
unique poet of our time. While my heart bleeds for the death of one of the most
cherished friends of my entire life, it is a privilege to talk on the work of
this unique figure in Iranian contemporary culture. I cannot cover even a
fraction of this in the limited time allotted to me. But we will be organising
a seminar shortly where I, alongside other friends, will examine the manifold
aspects of Shamlu’s creativity.
Ahmad Shamlu was a multi-faceted figure, in that he worked in a number
of cultural fields simultaneously. The product of some of these fields are so
glorious and distinguished that were a person to accomplish just one of them
would without doubt earn them a place as a leading light in contemporary
Iranian culture. Shamlu worked in film, studied the classic poets, expanded the
culture of poetry among the people, wrote children’s literature, and was active
in journalism and lexicography. And he did great work, though his masterwork
was in poetry. What will keep Shamlu immortal as Shamlu is without doubt, and
above everything, his poetry.
He produced some youthful work in cinema. I heard him say, and I
believe it is published somewhere, that this was more in the pursuit of bread.
Our eminent cinema critique, Shahrokh Golestan, once said to me that he liked
some of them. I only recall seeing one of his films where Shamlu himself had a bit-part.
I believe that that film will remain something to see for future viewers, if
for no other reason than for its images of the young Shamlu.
On the study of classical poets, he worked particularly on Hafez [1].
Of course he published a book, again a youthful work, called Taraneha [ballads] which gathered rubayyat [2] from Abu Said, and I think
Baba Taher and Khayyam. His main work in this field was on Hafez. If you
compare this work with those of experts such as Dr Khanlari, it will not have a
great literary merit. It is Hafez as narrated by Ahmad Shamlu (which is
actually how it is described on the cover). If it sold well, and continues to
do so, this because of the presence of two celebrated names, Hafez and Shamlu.
I want to say that in the study of classical poetry Shamlu’s work was not such
as to add anything to the cultural eminence of his output.
On the spread of the culture of poetry among the people is important to
note that Ahmad Shamlu was gifted with a very agreeable and pleasant voice. He
was a master in reciting poetry and used this beautiful voice to record some
faces from classical Iranian poetry, contemporary poets such as Nima Youshij
and also from the world’s poetry. These tapes have penetrated the Iranian home
widely. A friend recently arrived form Iran told me that there is no house
where you cannot find at least one of his tapes. And this was undoubtedly a
remarkable achievement by Shamlu, a master in poetry recital, among his other
masterliness in so many other fields.
Ahmad Shamlu also undertook shining works in the realm of children’s
literature. I do not have time to name any. But I will say in passing, to be
expanded at some future date, that his creations in this field, particularly
with regards to poetry, as well as in stories, is such that when the history of
contemporary children’s literature is written, Shamlu will undoubtedly occupy a
chapter.
In journalism Shamlu was one of the celebrated of our time. I have
personal experience of that. We faced an editor who truly understood language,
was knowledgeable, kind, and very very exacting while at the same time very
very encouraging - an authentic teacher.
Any poet who worked with the numerous periodicals Shamlu produced will
know that, where necessary, he generously edited the poetry of the young. From
this angle many of the young who published a poem in the Shamlui’ journals are
indebted to the poetic genius of this master. I do not have the time to expound
on this topic, but cannot pass on without mentioning the beautiful and entirely
accurate words of Najaf Daryabandary. Najaf once said that if a magazine is
about to fold all you need is to hand it over to Ahmad Shamlu who will in all
likelihood get it going again. And if you have a magazine that is doing fine and
is progressing without any clash with the censors, all you need do is to give
it to Shamlu to get it closed in no time!
It was thus that Shamlu, with his combatant and uncompromising nature
against tyranny, despotism and especially the censor proceeded in the realm of
journalism. Undoubtedly the journals under Shamlu’s editorship are treasure
houses for future generations.
But the other domain where Shamlu has completed major works, and as I
said had anyone merely accomplished this they would have occupied an exalted
position in contemporary Iranian culture, is translation. Shamlu I think
translated 35 books into Farsi - poetry and prose. Some of the poetry books
have also been recorded on audio tape which he recited in his fine voice.
Shamlu was singular in that he was one of the very few translators who
tried to reflect the style of the writer or poet. You need only read the
translations of many of our most famous translators, I do not wish to name
names, translations from writers ranging from 500 years ago to modern, and
among the contemporary works for example, one was in free prose and the other
realist. The translations are such that you might think that all these books
were written by one person. It was not so with Shamlu. From book to book,
language and style genuinely varied. This is an important quality, especially
in the realm of poetry.
Compare for example Shamlu’s translations of Lorca with those he made
of Hughes. You can see the enormous difference in language. The reason for this
attribute was Shamlu’s mastery of the use of Farsi language in all its various
diversities and levels. As you know, Farsi, like any language has numerous
diversities and levels in its literary applications - from the language of the
street step by step to the summit of language, the classic application of
language, the classicist use of language. And in all these domains, the work of
Shamlu is truly illustrious. Although I am certain that if some day people
decide to judge existing Farsi translations, many will end up in the dustbin,
most of Shamlu’s translations will survive this sieve and remain firm in their
place. If Shamlu were merely a translator, he would still be one of the
celebrated faces of Iranian contemporary culture.
His more glorious work, among the various fields I have listed, is of
course his work on lexicography. The Ketabe
Kucheh (the book of the street) is a treasure store which will remain
eternally alive for future generations. He worked on it for about 50 years. At
the beginning his work did not have the benefit of scientific method and of
modern views on lexicography. As he progressed he became more familiar with
contemporary methodology on research into language. A large part of the work he
did personally, and latterly for some years his dear and honourable wife Aida
and our mutual friend Askari Pashai’ also came to his aid.
Despite many volumes that have been published, the work is incomplete
and will not be finished in a short space of time. It is a work that even if
Shamlu had taken it to the last letter of the alphabet, would remain
incomplete. This is because one of the peculiarities of language is that need
to be revisited every few years, and from one point of view annually. Shamlu’s
work can be compared to Dehkhoda’s whose monumental dictionary was not
completed in his lifetime. Yet after his death a research institute was set up
to finish the work of the master. We now have the shining and distinguished
Dehkhoda dictionary which of course is the resultant of the efforts of a large
number of researchers young and old. It is in Dehkhoda’s name, because he was
the founder. Similarly I hope the Ketabe
Kucheh will be completed in this vein and a research foundation will be set
up in Shamlu’s name to pursue this line of work. By “completing” this work,
which I explained earlier is never completed as a culture is continuously being
made, this work will remain unassailable and indestructible.
Shamlu’s most momentous contribution is of course to poetry. It was in
1968 or 69, if my memory serves me right, that Ali Asqar Zarrabi, described
Ahmad Shamlu in Ferdowsi magazine as
the “immortal man of Iranian contemporary poetry”. Since that time one can say
that not just every year, but every week, new voices joined those who accepted
this title for Shamlu. Today all of us accept that judgement.
In the limited time available to me to explore Shamlu’s contribution to
poetry, I feel it best to look at him from in the light of my own definition of
poetry. As I have often repeated, poetry is the emotional interlocking of
thought and imagination in a language both concise and musical. If you focus on
this definition you will note that at the core of poetry lie the elements of
emotion, imagination, language, and thought.
Emotion is that ingredient that gives poetry blood and life, or in
Hafez’s language it is the presence of emotion which makes speech fiery.
Words that are fiery are words brimming with emotion. And of course the
more capable a poet the more the poet can transmit their emotion to the
listener or speaker. I have little time to give an example, but we have poems
from Shamlu that when reading you find your face covered in tears
involuntarily. On the other hand we have poems by him that on reading you
become intensely filled with anger, energy and power.
Can I add another characteristic in the same sphere of emotion. This
particular quality refers more to poets rather than their readers, a
characteristic that Shamlu attributed to Dowlatabadi’s Keleidar [3]. He called
his novel “enviable”. For poets the highest form of poetry is one that when you
read it you become astonished and envy takes over your being – astonishment at
how such a poem was composed thus, and envy as if to say I wish I had created
this poem. Shamlu has truly many such poems. Poems that not just young poets,
but well established, even famous poets, have confessed so, at least inwardly,
and some openly to me.
And now to imagination. From days gone by it was said, in definition of poetry, that a poem is an address that provokes the imagination. In reality the most fundamental element in the essence of poety is imagination. Shamlu’s was one of the most powerful, most exhillerating, and versatile imaginative power. We have very few poets, not just among contemporaries, but throghout the history of Farsi poetry like him. I insist on this even though we had Sa’ed and Hafez and other masters who truly possessed astonishing powers of imagination. Ahmad Shamlu belongs without doubt alongside this select handful.
He not only recreated and reinvented into new, fresh and very innovative shapes the more familiar examples of imagintive leap, but indeed introduced new genres of imaginative thought to Iranian contemporary poetry. Again time forces me to skip examples. In analysing the poetry of Shamlu one can write a book soley on examining the varieties of imagination employed and examples of innovation which Shamlu used to make his poetry overfowing, glorious and delightful.
As to language, which is the cradle, the body of poetry, it is said,
rightly, that each poem is an event in language. And each and every poem by
Shamlu is an event in the Farsi language. Language can be analysed from three
viewpoints: phonetic, semantics, and syntax. In all three realms if you dissect
Shamlu’s poetic language, his best works are full of innovation.
In phonetics the point worth making is the melodious nature of his
language. Nima Yushij did not negate the meter in Farsi poetry. What he did was
to remove the obligatory equal length of poetic lines out of the poems way.
What he did was to extend the Farsi prosody (meter) and made the poet’s life
easier – in the sense that in his own words he brought the language of poetry
closer to the language of prose, to normal speech. But he did not go beyond the
meter. Akhavan, his best student, kept the Nimai’ rhythm and in fact classified
and developed it. Shamlu, however, went beyond meter, yet he did not abandon
rhythm and musicality.
Shamlu’s poetry is musical without being prosodic. His poems are not
divisible by the prosodic meter. I must add that from the point of view of
rhythm he has two kinds of poetry: his Nimai’i poems, which follow all of
Nima’s principles of meter. The other are his Shamlu’i poetry, poetry that
create the Shamlu school. These poems are post-prosodic without abandoning
musicality. Musicality is a concept wider than prosody. All metric poetry is
musical but poetry can be musical without necessarily being prosodic. Shamlu’s
poetry is musical, and Shamlu’s understanding, and expertise in meter, allows
his post-prosodic poems to be such that expressions apparently demand each
other’s embrace. The words are like waves on a seaside, one sliding over
another and invites the other onto itself.
An important point that I have already noted: in the post-prosodic
poems of Shamlu we see lines that indeed have a metered rhythm. Also in
rhyming, Shamlu kept it, but used it in such a way to make it peculiar to his
poetry. I must leave the clarification of this point to a later date.
But what is important to say – and I believe Elliot said this – is that
great poets, through no fault of their own mislead many people. Shamlu’s poetry
has become a school, the largest school in Nima’i poetry is now the Shamlu
school. Shamlu has found the largest number of followers in the generation that
followed him. Others like me too he has influenced. The point that many of
these do not understand is that even though post-prosodic, Shamlu’s poems
remain musical. Many write prose and think they have composed poetry. So,
although Nima has students who went beyond and greater than him, and obtained a
more exalted position in contemporary poetry, so far Shamlu has not found a
student that can reach anywhere near his stature.
As to words, he has made numerous innovations. These are especially in
four fields. One a new use of old terms. Second to use the words of street talk
and to give them poetic identity. Third coining new words. He courageously
invented words wherever he found it necessary. He had a special masterly in
compounding words. It can be said the vocabulary of Farsi language has become
immeasurably richer because of the genius of Shamlu – this is a feature of any
great poet - in vocabulary and structure.
This brings me to
the third aspect of language, grammatical structure. Nima Yushij taught Iranian
contemporary poetry that one can break with tradition in Farsi grammar too – to
break the construct. Shamlu took this further [4]
And finally to thought, which to me is the most important domain and
feature of poetry – others might not agree. What distinguished Shamlu in this
was his commitment. In reality he was in the vanguard of the writers and poets
who came after Nima, and far more serious than Nima Yushij. He was the
formulator of the charter of commitment in Iranian contemporary poetry. His
poems such as 23, or the poem that was life [5], are truly
manifestos of Iranian poetry. Shamlu’s commitment was not to a party or
politics, but to principles.
That is why he did not shun confronting political parties, as he did
with the Tudeh Party when there arose a difference of opinion between it and
the Writers Association over freedom of speech. All his life was spent in
struggle on the road to freedom. Bahman Maghsudlu appropriately called him the master
of freedom. There are few poets who showed a greater love of freedom in their
works. He fought both Shahi-tyranny and Sheikhi-tyranny, and was persecuted by
the censors in both regimes.
At the time of the Shah the confrontation with the censors forced him
to leave his homeland in 1977 and taste exile. Luckily the revolution came
along and he was able to return and swore never to leave for exile again– come
what may. He faced the Islamic Republic and confronted the rule of the akhund. He was one of the poets that in
no situation and at no time gave any concession to the rule of akhund. While he was alive he stood
against this anti-people, cannibalistic, anti-culture, anti-woman, anti-beauty,
anti-joy regime – a regime, indeed, anti-everything. Even his silence was in
reality a deafening shout, the loudest form of protest to this pre-mediaeval
rule. I will end my talk with a poem I wrote in mourning of Ahmad Shamlu.
Talk made in memoriam to Ahmad Shamlu. The meeting was held in London
in July at the invitation of the Iranian Writers Association in Exile. Ahmad
Shamlu died June 24, 2000. He was 74.
Translators note
1. Iran’s most renowned poet - no house is complete without a copy of his divan (collection)
2. Quatrains
3. A twelve volume epic novel with a singularly poetic prose.
4. Nima wrote: ba tanash garm biabane deraz, mordeh ra manad dar goorash tang. Shamlu has many such innovations. For example: ey she’rhaye man soodeh va nasoodeh. Saltanate shoma ra tardidi nist agar oo betanhaii khanandeh-e shoma bad Or badha abr-e abir amiz ra…, abr baranhay-e haselkhiz ra… – and after each there are three dots – ie extend the word is set free, you can complete it as you wish.
5.
She’ri ke zendegist