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A Nightingale's Lament. Selections From The Poems And Fables Of Parvin E`tesami

A. Margaret Arent Madelung, Heshmat Moayyad (1927-2018)

Availability: In stock
Published: 2018
Page #: xxxviii + 231
Size: 5.5 x 8.5
ISBN: 978-0939214204
appendix

 
$25.00

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Quick Overview

Parvin E'tesami may be called the greatest Iranian poetess in classical style. She witnessed Iran's social, economic, and educational changes which followed the termination of the Qajar dynasty and the beginning of the reign of Reza Shah, the first Pahlavi. Parvin grew up under the loving care of a father who was an accomplished scholar. When he died in 1938, Parvin was bereft of the sole support she possessed. Her marriage had lasted only ten weeks. Loneliness and seclusion from social activities―the lot of almost all Iranian women at the time―added to the sad experiences of a sensitive and tender soul and made Parvin the most sincere voice of an op-pressed and suffering people. She observed the prevailing injustice and cruelty of the rulers and wealthy landlords. She knew of the corruption of the leading authorities in the judiciary and in the clergy. Her work, about 210 poems of different lengths, became the mirror of her inner world, reflecting both the reality of life in her day and the moral solution she offered. The strikingly typical characteristic of her poems lies in the narrative, fabulating, figurative-anecdotal element. She presents us with a colorful world of objects and natural creatures who reveal a wealth and diversity of thought with-out equal in the post-classical poetry of Iran. A wide-ranging array of animals, birds, flowers, trees, cosmic and natural elements, objects and gadgetry of everyday life, and many concrete and abstract concepts appear in Parvin's strife poems. The present selection offers the most appealing and fascinating of the poems. They are faithfully translated without imposing stylistic features of an alien literature on the structure of English language and thought.
NOTE: First published in 1985. This is the second printing.

A. Margaret Arent Madelung

author

Heshmat Moayyad (1927-2018)

Heshmat Moayyad, who established the Persian program at UChicago, passed away on June 25 at the age of 90. During more than four decades at UChicago, Moayyad trained two generations of scholars who teach at more than a half-dozen universities. His scholarly contributions to the literature and religions of Iran cover a score of books, including critical editions, edited volumes and translations, and more than 100 articles and reviews, written in four languages. Among his many accomplishments, Moayyad translated modern Persian literature into English and German. He organized major international conferences at UChicago on the Indo-Persian poet Amir Khosrow (died 1325) and on the Iranian poet Parvin Etesâmi (died 1941), as well as the first academic conference about “The Baha'i Faith and Islam” in 1984 at McGill University in Montreal. Although Moayyad could not travel to his native Iran after 1978 because of the persecution of the Baha'i community, in the 1980s he hosted a series of “Persian Poetry Evenings” at U Chicago. For more than a decade, Moayyad’s lectures drew many Persian scholars, writers, poets and musicians from Iran, Afghanistan, and India to campus. Born on November 27, 1929, in Hamadan, Iran, he earned his bachelor’s degree in Persian and Arabic literature from the University of Tehran in 1949. After a year traveling throughout Iran, Moayyad left for Germany to continue his studies in Persian, Islamic Studies, and German at the University of Frankfurt am Main, where he earned his doctorate degree under Hellmut Ritter in 1958. His teaching career began in Frankfurt as a lecturer, moving in 1960 to the Istituto Universitario Orientale in Naples, where he became professore incaricato. Moayyad first came to the United States as a visiting lecturer at Harvard University from 1962 to 1963. During this time, U.S. universities usually did not teach Persian literature. However, when he became an assistant professor in 1966 at UChicago, Moayyad became a pioneer in setting up a rigorous Persian literature program in the Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations Department. Moayyad became a full professor in 1974. Additionally, he served as a visiting professor at University of California at Los Angeles and the University of Damascus. He retired from UChicago in 2010.

PREFACE: PARVIN’S PERSONALITY AND POETRY.
BY HESHMAT MOAYYAD

MY GIFT
BODY AND SOUL
THE PURE SOUL
THE FALLEN SOUL
WISHES
A MOTHER’S HOPES
A RUINED NEST
THE COMB AND THE MIRROR
THE WITHERED ROSE
THE VALUE OF A PEARL
AN ORPHAN’S TEARS
TODAY AND TOMORROW
HOPE AND DESPAIR
GRIEF OF POVERTY
LABORER!
O MY CAT!
THE LENTIL AND THE VETCH
A NEST
THE NIGHTINGALE AND THE ANT
THE PANSY
THE LESSON OF THE DIRHAM
THE ORPHAN
THE ANT AND THE ELEPHANT
THE FLOWING RIVER
THE MESSENGER OF OLD AGE
THE SAPLING AND THE SERE TREE
THE NEEDLE AND THE THREAD
THE RED DRESS
GOD’S WEAVER
A MOTHER’S SWEET TROUBLE
THE NIGHTINGALE AND THE ROSE
THE CAT AND THE DOG
THE HEART’S BLOOD
THE ASPEN’S COMPLAINT
THE SEA OF LIGHT
THE THIEF AND THE QAZI
THE FOX AND THE HEN
THE GOLDEN CAGE
THE DUCK AND THE FISH
THE EYELASH AND THE PUPIL
A MADMAN AND HIS CHAIN
A DUST PARTICLE AND A BAT
A CHILD’S FIRST STEPS
THE DISGRUNTLED YOUTH
DIVIDED LABOR
IRANIAN WOMEN
BLACK AND WHITE
THE MADMAN AND THE QAZI
THE JOURNEY OF A TEAR
THE POT AND THE PAN
KING QOBAD AND THE OLD WOMAN
THE THUNDERBOLT
THE PARROT’S LOVE OF SUGAR
THE FALCON AND THE HEN
A WOMAN’S PLACE
CAT AND MOUSE
THE BEAN AND THE PEA
THE BROKEN-HEARTED CHILD
THE SNAIL AND THE SILKWORM
THE DIAMOND AND THE PURSE
THE CANDLE AND THE MOTH
THE SHEPHERD THE WOLF
THE RIDDLE-SOLVER
THE LESSON OF A ROSE
THE ROSE AND THE DEWDROP
THE WOLF AND THE DOG
THE KING’S CROWN
A TEAR DROP AND A GEM
THE DRUNK AND THE SOBER
TWO DROPS OF BLOOD
THE SNAKE AND THE ANT
THE QAZI OF BAGHDAD
BOZORGMEHR AND ANUSHIRVAN
THE NEEDLE AND THE SHIRT
THE SONG OF THE GRAIN COLLECTOR
THE GARLIC AND THE ONION
THE HELPLESS HENS
CHARCOAL AND THE BEETLE
THE TREE OF HOPE
O MUMMY!
TO MY FATHER
MY EPITAPH

COMMENTARY, BY A. MARGARET ARENT MADELUNG
APPENDIX

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