Statements in Meeting with a Group of Young and Veteran Poets

In the Name of God, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful

Thanks be to God, the Lord of the worlds, and peace and blessings be upon our master and prophet, Abu al-Qasim al-Mustafa Muhammad, and upon his pure and chosen progeny, especially the Remaining One of God on the earth.

If time had not passed, I would have liked to utilize the poetry of some of the gentlemen you mentioned and others whom I see present, whose delicate spirit, abundant talent, and mature poetry I know. However, time has passed, and when one is tired—now you young people do not tire easily, but especially at our age, one gets tired quickly—the enjoyment of poetry is not as it should be.

Devoted and revolutionary poetry, thanks be to God, is on the rise. Tonight was a night of good tidings for me. The poems that were recited were generally good poems. Of course, they were not all at the same level; some were better, some were good. The quality of the recitation and attention to poetic points indicated that the poems were not composed in a rudimentary manner; they stem from a source and substance within these poets. This means that, thanks be to God, the trained poet in the country is increasing day by day. I have also been informed that in the year 403, a good examination was conducted by committed and revolutionary poets in relevant centers.

This wave of expanding poetry, especially among the youth, is very encouraging. Poetry is important. Poetry is a unique art. The existence of various media has not been able to diminish poetry from its strong and influential media presence. Poetry is truly an influential medium. Therefore, the more poetry progresses and the more good poets emerge, the more it is a cause for joy and happiness.

Quantities have certainly increased a lot—which is very good—but we also expect qualities to increase accordingly. Currently, quantity prevails over quality among our collection of good young poets; however, these talents that I see, God willing, will all become qualitative if they continue well and advance. We certainly do not lack quality poets; that is, we have good poets, strong poets, poets whom we expected to reach a good rank and they have, thanks be to God, among the collection of committed and revolutionary poets. However, I have repeatedly said that no one—both in poetry and outside of poetry—should feel sufficient upon observing their own elevation.

The fact that you see your poetry has improved and your abilities have increased, and the product of your work is a distinguished product should not satisfy you; because you still have distance from Hafez, you have distance from Saadi, you have distance from Nezami. My belief is that our era can produce Saadi; it can. Now, what are the factors that make a poet a poet and capable of employing words and sentence structures? This is a detailed discussion, and I do not want to talk about it; however, this era is one that encourages poets; this does not contradict the fact that poets always have grievances and complaints. This has always been the case; since the birth of poetry in Iran, that is, for over a thousand years, poets have always had grievances. You look at the great poets [with] all their benefits in the courts of kings, receiving money and praising them, who:

I heard that from silver they made a pot From gold they made the instruments of Anasari.

With all this, they were still complaining and always complained about life. This is; it cannot be denied and it will not end. The reason for this is that the disarray and crookedness of life does not end; however, others do not see it, the poet sees it; others do not have the language to express it, the poet has the language to express it; that is the reason; this is not a flaw. However, our poets today, thanks be to God, have their social benefits—I'm not talking about material issues—respect is preserved for them, that this is a poet, this is a person of this great art.

During the time of the tyrant, we saw great poets who were truly distinguished poets, but no one paid attention to them. For example, the late Amiri Firuzkuhi was a very great poet; in my opinion, he was the best poet of his time among ghazal poets, but no one paid attention to Amiri; that is, no one cared about him at all. If he walked in the street, no one would greet him in the street where his house was. He was never invited to a radio program, to a television program—which at that time was not very common—or even in press media. The only thing that could be done was, for example, suppose a certain newspaper, to fill its page, would print a ghazal of Rahy or suppose Amiri or others. No one paid attention to these people. Today, poets are present on television, on radio, in various programs and the like. Therefore, the ground is ready today for becoming Saadi, for becoming Hafez, for becoming Nezami, and progress can be made.

Especially the language that our poetry has today, this language is unprecedented; that is, now the language of the poems you read, this language is a unique language; this is the structure of the revolution era. Now, what its definition is, requires work and contemplation; of course, some have worked in this area. Now, it is not very clear and obvious to me, but the language is a new language; it is neither the language of the old Khorasani poems, nor the language of the Iraqi ghazals, nor the language of the Indian ghazals; it has something from each of these and an additional thing that is specific to this. Well, this is very important in itself. One can envision a great poet, great poets, peaks in our time. This work must, God willing, be accomplished.

The inner essence of the poet affects the poet's poetry; because what you say springs from your inner self; the purer and clearer your inner self is, the purer and clearer your poetry will be. That is, this must be paid attention to; we have seen examples of poets who have written poetry with their specific spirits, and their poetry reflects that spirit. My recommendation is that especially young poets, who naturally due to their taste and delicate feelings and such are exposed to certain issues, should contemplate as much as they can on piety and maintaining that adherence to the foundations of knowledge. Therefore, you see in the Quran that at the end of Surah Ash-Shu'ara, it says about poets: "Except those who believe and do righteous deeds and remember God much"; why "remember God much"? Well, everyone should say much remembrance; but the fact that it specifically says poets should "remember God much" indicates that poets need this much remembrance; that is, they must engage in much remembrance.

One of my recommendations is to utilize the treasure of Persian literature. Yes, we said that, for example, your style of poetry differs from Saadi's style, but Saadi is a vast collection of artistic experience or, in the next degree, Hafez and some others, who truly cannot be found in comparison; these are very prominent in terms of artistic reserves. From each piece and particle of their poetry, one can derive points of benefit; that is, you who are tasteful, you who are young, you who see things that we cannot see, can benefit from many good things. My request is that you refer to these.

Another point is the discussion of romantic poetry, romantic ghazal. Sometimes I see here in this session—and it has been in previous years—that, for example, romantic ghazal seems to be a crime, or a negative thing; no, after all, in the poet, feelings indicative of love and in a way, love arises, and there is no flaw in that; therefore, saying romantic poetry is not problematic. Alongside poetry that is written for sacred and lofty concepts, romantic poetry can also be written, and there is no problem; however, what is important is that romantic poetry in the tradition of Persian poetry has always been chaste and noble; do not let your romantic poetry deviate from this nobility and chastity; this is our point. The nakedness of romantic poetry and the shamelessness of romantic poetry is not correct. During the time of the tyrant, among poets, there were some who deliberately engaged in this issue. I once mentioned some of them, and I do not want to repeat that; but it is possible to write romantic poetry without any allusion to aspects of chastity and nobility and the like. This is also a point that is necessary.

Another point is the issue of themes and theme-making. Of course, in the poems that have now been recited, there were good themes that honestly one sees theme-finding and theme-making [exists], but a single matter can be expressed in several languages. You can present the same matter that a hundred other poets have said—because there is much to say; it was said: "One can speak of the beloved's curls for a lifetime"—with a new combination and a new form; this becomes a theme. The Indian poetry that is said to have themes, means this; otherwise, those things in Indian poetry are not that they do not exist in other poems; rather, they are not in the form used in Indian poetry, with those themes.

I am glad that from rivals, you have surpassed, even if our dust has been blown away.

Has anyone said this? Yes, perhaps one can find ten poems [with this theme]; but this expression of "you have surpassed" is theme-making. Now, of course, this meaning is very prevalent in the poetry of Sa'ib—meaning from the beginning to the end of Sa'ib's poetry is like this—and poets following Sa'ib, like Hazin and others, are the same, and the complex point is the late Bidel, who, well, his poetry is very difficult, and I do not think there is any insistence that we must necessarily do that kind of theme-making that requires explanation and elaboration. Of course, Bidel's rank is very high, and in poetry, both in word and meaning, he is unparalleled; however, there is no insistence that now that kind of poetry must be written. In any case, themes are necessary; language, the use of appropriate words, is necessary; the avoidance of colloquial language and common speech, especially at lower levels in poetry, is necessary. [If] you pay attention to these, poetry will elevate, poetry will become prominent. I have written here "educational themes with eloquent and sweet language and accompanied by delicate and tender poetic feelings"; if these exist, poetry will truly become prominent poetry.

Another point is the issue of the concepts present in our time. I think there has rarely been a time when there have been so many prominent social concepts that inspire enthusiasm. Now, you observe in this session, the martyr Soleimani was mentioned, martyr Raisi was mentioned, martyr Sanwar was mentioned, martyr Nasrallah was mentioned, and certainly many of the esteemed attendees were also ready [to say] or perhaps they have poems regarding these; that is, they certainly have; because I have heard very good poems in these areas from Mr. Malekian and some friends. Well, these are important topics; in fact, these are revivers of concepts that must remain alive in the minds of the people. This is the work of this time. In my opinion, this is also necessary.

And also the concepts of monotheism, knowledge, and wisdom in poetry. The fact that I said one of my friends' poetry was truly wise, is just so; some of the expressions and concepts that are said in poetry are high-level wisdom concepts, and these are very valuable. One must pursue these; and of course, it will have few audiences; undoubtedly, not everyone understands all those concepts.

I asked where you are from, you laughed and said, "I am half from Turkistan, half from Farghana."

Not many people understand what he wants to say; that is, this intoxication that he says:

O Luli, the one who plays the lute, are you more intoxicated or am I? O before you, intoxication, my enchantment is a tale.

Most of us do not understand what this means, but this concept exists and has demand and understanding; there are those who understand these themes, and if some can, they will find good audiences in these areas.

In the type of use of television, I also have another opinion; now, this is of course a personal taste; I do not want to impose anything in this regard. The fact that we bring a good poet, for example, who meets our standards, into a regular, weekly program, for an hour, in front of the viewer's eyes to hear this young poet's poetry, to hear that one’s poetry, to discuss, to talk, lowers the poet's level of credibility. The use of television for poets is not like this. Not everyone uses it; that is, I fear that such programs will commercialize poetry; that will commercialize the good poet. Of course, poetry must definitely be read on television, on radio; with good and specific methods, a good poem, with a good introduction [should be read]; a good presenter should say: yes, for example, there are poets like this, with these characteristics, who have written poetry in this area, then the poet should come with full respect and read his poetry; this is very good, but that way I described, in my opinion, lowers poetry, and it does not have many customers; that is, people do not all like this kind of poetry program. In any case, we hope that, God willing, all aspects will be considered.

One of the friends who consulted me for tonight's topics pointed out a good point, and that is that in our traditional poetic notebooks, it has been customary to start the notebook with a theistic and praising poem; "The first notebook in the name of the wise God." Even Mawlavi, who does not mention the name of God and such, in fact expresses that eternal connection and that spiritual relationship, which is also God, that is also spirituality, that is also knowledge. In my opinion, if this can be observed, it would be good; that is, the notebook you publish of your poems should start with this kind of knowledge poetry, theistic poetry, praising poetry. God willing, may God grant you all success.

Peace be upon you and God's mercy and blessings.