Forugh Farrokhzad

Feminine perspective in Farrokhzad's poetry

Farrokhzad's strong feminine voice became the focus of much negative attention and open disapproval, both during her lifetime and in the posthumous reception of her work.

In a radio interview, when asked about the feminine perspective in her poems, Farrokhzad replied:

If my poems, as you say, have an aspect of femininity, it is of course quite natural. After all, fortunately, I am a woman. But if you speak of artistic merits, I think gender cannot play a role. In fact, to even voice such a suggestion is unethical. It is natural that a woman, because of her physical, emotional, and spiritual inclinations, may give certain issues greater attention, issues that men may not normally address. I believe that if those who choose art to express their inner self, feel they have to do so with their gender in mind, they would never progress in their art -- and that is not right. So when I write, if I keep thinking, oh I'm a woman and I must address feminine issues rather than human issues, then that is a kind of stopping and self-destruction. Because what matters, is to cultivate and nourish one's own positive characteristics until one reaches a level worthy of being a human. What is important is the work produced by a human being and not one labelled as a man or a woman. When a poem reaches a certain level of maturation, it separates itself from its creator and connects to a world where it is valid based on its own merits.

Emphasizing human issues, she also calls for a recognition of women's abilities that goes beyond the traditional binary oppositions.

Death

Farrokhzad died in a car accident on 14 February 1967, at the age of 32. Although the exact circumstances of her demise have been the subject of much debate, the official story is that she swerved her jeep to avoid an oncoming school bus and was thrown out of her car, hitting her head against the curb. It was believed she died before reaching the hospital, however, Farzaneh Milani in her book, Forugh Farrokhzad: A Literary Biography with Unpublished Letters, cites an interview with Ebrahim Golestan who speaks about Farrokhzad's final moments where she died in his arms. Farrokhzad's poem "Let Us Believe in the Dawn of the Cold Season" was published posthumously, and is considered by some to be one of the best-structured modern poems in Persian.

Legacy

Farrokhzad's poetry was banned for more than a decade after the Islamic Revolution. A brief literary biography of Farrokhzad, Michael Craig Hillmann's A Lonely Woman: Forough Farrokhzad and Her Poetry, was published in 1987. Farzaneh Milani's work Veils and Words: The Emerging Voices of Iranian Women Writers (1992) included a chapter about her. Abdolali Dastgheib, literary critic and writer, published a critical review of Farrokhzad's poems titled The Little Mermaid (Persian title: پری کوچک دریا) (2006) in which he describes Forugh as a pioneer in modern Persian poetry who symbolizes feminism in her work. Nasser Saffarian has directed three documentaries about her life: The Mirror of the Soul (2000), The Green Cold (2003), and Summit of the Wave (2004).

In February 2017, on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of Farrokhzad's death, the 94-year-old Golestan broke his silence about his relationship with her, speaking to Saeed Kamali Dehghan of The Guardian. "I rue all the years she isn't here, of course, that's obvious," he said. "We were very close, but I can't measure how much I had feelings for her. How can I? In kilos? In metres?"

Translations of Farrokhzad's works

• Arabic: Mohammad Al-Amin, Gassan Hamdan
• Azerbaijani: Samad Behrangi
• English:
  • Sin- Selected Poem of Forugh Farrokhzad, edited and translated by Sholeh Wolpé (University of Arkansas Press) ISBN 978-1557289483 Recipient of Lois Roth Translation Award
  • Let Us Believe in the Beginning of the Cold Season, translated and edited by Elizabeth T. Gray, Jr., (New Directions Publishing, 2022) ISBN 978-0811231657.
  • Another Birth: Selected Poems, translated by Ali Salami, (Zabankadeh Publications, 2001) ISBN 978-9646117365.
  • Hasan Javadi and Susan Sallée translated Another Birth: Selected Poems of Forugh Farrokhzad with her letters and interviews in 1981. A revised edition of the same volume is published by Mage Publishers (Washington, DC) in 2010 as a bilingual edition.
  • Bride of Acacias: Selected Poems of Forugh Farrokhzad, translated by Jascha Kessler and Amin Banani, (Caravan Books, Delmar, N.Y., 1982) ISBN 0-88206-050-3.
  • A Rebirth: Poems, translated by David Martin, with a critical essay by Farzaneh Milani (Mazda Publishers, Lexington, Ky., 1985) ISBN 093921430X, including the poem "The Wind-Up Doll"
  • "I Pity The Garden" was included in The Green Book of Poetry edited by Ivo Mosley, (Frontier Publishing, Norfolk, 1993), later reprinted as Earth Poems: Poems From Around The World To Honor The Earth (HarperSanFrancisco, 1996) ISBN 0-06-251283-8.
• French: Mahshid Moshiri, Sylvie Mochiri (pen name: Sylvie M. Miller)
• Hebrew: Sivan Balslev
• German: Annemarie Schimmel
• Italian: Domenico Ingenito (ed.) Domenico Ingenito (ed.), Io parlo dai confini della notte. Forugh Farrokhzad: tutte le poesie (Milan: Bompiani, 2023)
• Kurdish: Haidar Khezri, It is Only Sound that Remains: The Life and Legacy of Forough Farrokhzad, with Translation of Two Collections of her Poetry ("Another Birth" and "Let Us Believe in the Beginning of the Cold Season"), published by Salahaddin University Press 2016.
• Nepali: Collected in Manpareka Kehi Kavita translated by Suman Pokhrel
• Polish: Barbara Majewska, Zofia Józefowicz-Czabak, Piotr Bachtin
• Russian: Viktor Poleshchuk
• Swedish: Namdar Nasser
• Turkish: Hashem Khosrow-Shahi, Jalal Khosrow-Shahi
• Urdu: Fehmida Riaz published by 'Sheherzade Publications' Karachi
• Uzbek:
  • Khurshid Davron published by "Qirq bir oshiq daftari" Tashkent
  • "Qayg'u guli", Tashkent, 2019-yil

Documentaries and other works

• Only Voice Remains, English-language award-winning short experimental documentary about Forugh Farrokhzad using Sholeh Wolpe's translations. Directed by London-based filmmaker Makez Rikweda.
• I Shall Salute the Sun Once Again, English-language documentary about Forough Farrokhzad, by Mansooreh Saboori, Irandukht Productions 1998.
• Moon Sun Flower Game, German documentary about Forough Farrokhzad's adopted son Hossein Mansouri, by Claus Strigel, Denkmal-Film 2007.
• The Bride of Acacias, a play about Forough Farrokhzad by Ezzat Goushegir.
• Song of a Captive Bird, a novel about Forough Farrokhzad by Jasmin Darznik.