Page 2 of 2 INTERVIEW Of war, loss
and the politics of poetry Farideh
Hassanzadeh
children
know their children never leave them, never forget
them. They wait for the night to return in dreams.
They live behind the closed eyelids of their
mothers.
Tuckey: Do you
believe poetry is by its nature political?
Hassanzadeh: In Farsi the
word for poetry is sher from
shou-our, which means "wisdom". And wisdom
can't ignore political
realities. In my country the
great poets, from classic to modern, have always
been speaking in their poems of social problems
and political events. Hafez in one of his most
famous sonnets says:
Kings find good reason for the wars
in which they are stuck since truth they
cannot see, to falsehood they would flock.
And, in an excerpt from a longer
poem, our contemporary poet Forough Farrokhzad
says:
All our neighbors are planting
bombs and guns in their gardens instead
of flowers I fear the time which has
lost its heart.
Personally, in
the depth of my heart, I have a deep fear of
political poetry. My fear of political poetry as a
poet relates to my fear of producing political
mottoes rather than pure poetry. Remember the
Polish poet Czeslaw Milosz, who wrote a letter to
the New York Review of Books objecting to a
praiseworthy review by A Alvarez that called him a
"witness". In Milosz's view, the label narrowed
the meaning of his poetry and implied that his
poems were a kind of journalistic response to
events. Anyway, when you live in a country that is
always prey to superpowers, you feel guilty when
you write love poems even for your husband!
Tuckey: In the current
crisis, do you see Iran as a prey to superpowers?
I think that is interesting, because in the US we
are given an image of Iran as being powerful and
dangerous and an instigator of problems.
Hassanzadeh: Imagine a
cottage in the morning of a village. The man is
ready to go to his farm to harvest wheat. His wife
and children are full of hopes and desires. When
the man opens the door, instead of a pleasant
breeze, he finds himself surrounded by a band of
cruel invaders. This cottage is my country. After
rebelling against the shah's regime, my people
were ready to reap the benefits of their freedom
and independence, but they found themselves
involved in an imposed war by Iraq, supported by
superpowers for eight years. Now tell me, please,
who is dangerous and the instigator of problems?
Of course, I admit that my people, in
spite of all the difficulties, are very powerful
in their spirit. They surely will never accept any
foreign country to decide for them.
Tuckey: How do you feel
about US foreign policy toward Iraq and
Afghanistan? And, more recently, US policy toward
Iran? How as a poet do you deal with these
developments?
Hassanzadeh:
To know my feeling and many other Iranians'
feeling about the US big-stick policy toward
Afghanistan and Iraq, I refer you to this poem,
"You See No One, You Hear No One", a poem by my
son, 14 years old, which was published widely in
Iranian newspapers and magazines. This poem was
also selected to be published in UN Observer on
Valentine's Day.
A Letter to George W
Bush By Hossein Mostafavi
Kashani
You see no one, you hear no
one You are an important person! So
important TV shows you every night, You hold
the microphone And you talk important words,
So important even Satan listens with a
gaping mouth. Only the flies don't take you
very seriously, And while you talk They
are busy with their usual work. They search
for dirty, stinking things And then they rub
their hands together while saliva drips from
their mouths.
Flies don't have a
president but some of them are very
important, So important TV shows them every
night. But they don't have a microphone,
And unlike you they are not all dressed,
making speeches, But with dirty hands and
legs, They move on Afghani children's lips
and eyes, The same children on whom you drop
bombs And then send them food parcels.
By the way, how long has it been since
you saw a fly? How many years has it been
since you read a poem? Would you recognize
the breeze if it passes you by one day? Just
think! When you were a child, like all other
children, you saw a fresh rose whenever you
looked in the mirror. But now you see an
important person Who will die one day Even
if he is the president of America. If you
were to ask your heart It would say it
doesn't want to beat in your chest And be the
runway for all the planes that bombard cities
and towns. For God has created the
heart Only for love. So have pity on your
heart even if you can't pity anyone else. It
is an apple that will burst one day And
suddenly you will find yourself Standing
before the gate of paradise, begging the
pieces of your heart from every single person
you killed. But no one sees you No one
hears you just as you neither see nor hear any
person on TV every night. You only hold a
microphone, and say big words Because you are
the president of America And a very very very
important person!
Hassanzadeh: And as for
an attack on Iran, I am sure Bush is going to dig
his grave with his own hands. History has proved
that all fascists are successful for a short time
but final victory is with the oppressed people.
Melissa Tuckey is a poet, an
activist involved in DC Poets Against the War, and
a Foreign Policy in Focus contributor.
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