Poetry
دیوان پروین اعتصامی
Parvin E'tesami · 1935
Synopsis
A divan of poems in the old forms, in which debates take up the greatest place: men and women of every condition, animals, flowers, trees and everyday objects speak and answer one another. An old woman watches the king's procession pass and says that a king who robs his subjects is no more than a beggar; a drunkard arrested by the morals officer answers him point for point; a tear makes its journey. Beneath these contests, justice, poverty, work and orphans keep returning.
Context
Eleven of her poems had appeared in 1921 and 1922 in Bahar, the monthly edited by her father; the divan, 156 pieces preceded by a preface by Mohammad-Taqi Bahar, came out in 1935. The preface writer wrote there that “Voyage of a Tear” alone would have sufficed to give her an eminent place. The second edition, prepared by her brother Abolfath shortly after her death, brought the whole to 209 pieces and 5,606 couplets. The poet, who is said to have burned the verses with which she was not satisfied, stayed apart from the reforms of the poetry of her time.
Who it is for
One hundred and fifty-six pieces in the original edition, in the classical metres. It should be known that many are debates: two beings answer each other, and the lesson comes at the end.
Prizes and reception
Regarded as one of the great voices of twentieth-century Persian poetry; her detractors nicknamed her the poetess of the pea and the bean.