Women in Persia: a face like a moon

"Behind the curtain there was a face like a moon
Like the shining sun, full of color and scent"
(Firdausi, The Book of Kings, AD 1010).

**

I've heard about Persian love poetry before. This is below, for example, the forbidden love of two lovers as told by Gurgani (s. XI), Vis and Ramin (The British Museum Press):

"Around Vis Ramin put his arm
Like a golden necklace around a tall fair cypress.
If they were seen from Paradise
No one would have been more beautiful
The bed full of flowers and precious stones
The pillows full of musk and ambers
Lips upon lips, and face turned to face
Playful like a ball in a field
The closeness, holding the beloved,
Turned their two bodies into one -
If rain had fallen on these two fair bodies
A raindrop would not have moistened their chest".
             
Of course, it is a pity that I can't read Farsi. (Well, I can only read Spanish and English, with certain limitations in both languages). And even if I could, I doubt I could read poems like this. What a pity! It is nice, though, to know that certain languages are not to be learned to be spoken, but just to be read. That makes the whole thing much simpler. If you are shy or unsocial, that will help. I am targeting at learning French and German at least, in this way. Also, Arabic, just to read... When? That's a different story.

"Modern Persian poetry has abandoned the traditional modes and moved to free verse". Among the newcomers are some women to be found, I read. Particularly, two of them, Parvin Etesami (1906 - 41) and Forough Farrokhad (1935 - 67). It is striking how young both of them died. Etsemani, from Typhus or some fevers related to it; Farrokhad, in a car wreck. Also, now, Simin Behbahani (b. 1927), the lioness of Iran, a master of ghazals (but I have not find anything after two or three times in the net... Am so ignorant). I now recall this girl from Iran in Huntsville, AL, whose name was Ghazal. I now see... Her name is the name of a  form of poem... Like Carmen, right?

                       Photo: Forough Farrokhaz, from The Poor Mouth blog, jams o donnel.

I will leave this to-day poem here, a true hymn, effective, provocative, full of hope (Parvin Jahanbani):

"I am a woman
Who has not buried love alive in her body
The desert that screams: Rain on me.
My heart is heavy
I am a woman
Banished from the abode of the gods.
Let the green-tongued ones of unknown love
Reproach Raba'a and Forugh.
Women who
Love the raw passion of love
Women who, with their pains, cannot be confined
Women who do not hide
Their feelings in the corners of their scarves or behind their veils
Or under the carpet".

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