Statements in Meeting with a Group of Poets and Professors of Persian Language and Literature

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 Muhammad and his pure family, especially the Remaining One of God on earth.

We have missed this session and you dear friends and esteemed poets. Thanks be to God, the Almighty has bestowed His grace upon us, and we have been able to once again see this gathering here and benefit from the product of their thoughts, hearts, and souls, which is truly valuable; that is, the pleasure one derives from good poetry is among the highest pleasures.

Fortunately, the realm of poetry in the country has developed; both in terms of the increase in poets and the increase in listeners; this is an opportunity, and we must take advantage of it. Poetry is a medium; it is an influential medium. There was a time when poetry was the only influential medium in the world — at least in the Islamic world as far as we know — poetry was recited by the poet and good poetry, of course, was quickly disseminated and people heard it. Dabbal recited his famous poem in Khorasan, and then the Imam [Imam Reza (peace be upon him)] gave him a robe as a reward. He came out and reached Qom; the people of Qom said, 'We have heard that the Imam has given you a robe, give it to us.' He said no; they insisted and said, 'Just give us a piece of it.' He refused. He set out with the caravan, left Qom, and on the way, a bandit, one of those who rob caravans in the desert, reached them and stopped them, taking all their belongings. The leader of the thieves was sitting on a rock. The thieves were opening the caravan's goods one by one, taking them, and while he was watching his men, he recited this couplet:

"I see their spoils divided among others, And their hands are empty of their own spoils."

The theme of the poem is that I see my belongings and what belongs to me slipping away. [The leader of the thieves] was talking about the caravans; those who themselves are empty-handed of their own spoils; that is, their own wealth is in the hands of others. This is one couplet from that poem of [Dabbal]. Dabbal said, 'Go ask who this poem, this couplet belongs to that you recited.' One of the caravan members went and asked, 'Whose poem was this couplet you recited?' He said, 'It belongs to Dabbal.' They said, 'Dabbal is here.' They asked, 'Where is he?' They pointed out Dabbal to him. Dabbal stepped forward and said, 'Yes, this poem is mine; I am [Dabbal].' He then ordered that all that had been taken from them be returned.

I want to say this: 'Media' means this. This poem, for example, was composed in the month of Rajab in Khorasan, a thief memorized it in the month of Sha'ban and recites a couplet from it and seeks to exemplify it; this is how poetry was disseminated, this is how it spread; it was a medium. Today, of course, there are various media, but poetry has its own place; none of the media are as impactful in the specific sense as poetry. Of course, some media, like cinema, may have more impact than poetry — visual media and the like — but they come to an end, they are forgotten; you watch a film once, twice, and then it is over, but this poetry remains, it stays, this poetry lasts for a thousand years. This is the characteristic of poetry. Therefore, poetry is an influential and enduring medium.

There is a point regarding Persian poetry, and that is that one of the characteristics of Persian poetry is the production of intellectual and spiritual capital. In other poetry, as far as we know, it does not exist to this extent; that is, when we look at the peaks of Persian poetry, they are either sages — [like] Nizami or Hakim Ferdowsi; Ferdowsi is a sage, and the Shahnameh is truly a book of wisdom — or they are masters of knowledge, mysticism, and spirituality, or Hafiz is a Quranic figure, or like Saadi, whose book is full of truths and wisdom. Similarly, from the top down to Saadi, Hafiz, Jamii, and Saib, you see that they are all sages; all of their poetry is wisdom; that is, our poetry, Persian poetry, has been a carrier of wisdom over time, preserving and adding to our spiritual capital; that is, if you have a certain level of knowledge, when you read, for example, the Masnavi of Molavi, this knowledge increases; that is, they produce knowledge, they create this capital, it is not just about preserving capital; this is the characteristic of Persian poetry.

What is important is that this capital creation and preservation has occurred even in the most difficult conditions; for example, during the Mongol invasions. You see, during the Mongol invasions, we have Attar, we have Molavi, we have Saadi, we have Hafiz; all of these belong to the era of the Mongols and Timur; that is, it was a time when the country was under the hard conditions of foreign invasions, everything in the country was affected by this, but knowledge, poetry, and spirituality did not stop; this is the characteristic of Persian poetry, and we must recognize this about our poetry.

Well, our poets, the distinguished poets whom we have mentioned, such as Nasir Khusraw, Nizami Ganjavi, Khaghani, Molavi himself, and Saadi, are truly the embodiment of the verse 'Except for those who have believed and done righteous deeds and remembered God much' at the end of Surah Ash-Shu'ara; [where it says] 'And the poets are followed by the deviators. Have you not seen that they wander in every valley? And that they say what they do not do; except for those who have believed and done righteous deeds and remembered God much and sought victory after they were wronged.'; they are truly the embodiment of this; this is how it is that our great poets are the embodiment of this. This is our past.

Today, in my opinion, the invasion that occurred during the time of the Mongols is repeating itself. Of course, the type of invasion of these new Mongols, the tie-wearing, bow-tie-wearing, perfume-wearing, suit-clad Mongols, is different from those Mongols, but it is an invasion; they are invading. How is their invasion? Well, we have felt it ourselves; we do not need to read it in history. Of course, if someone reads the three or four hundred years of colonial history, they will understand what they did to the world; what the colonizers did to Asia, Africa, Latin America, and the entire continent of America! They are a different issue. These are in our time; they equipped a rabid dog like Saddam; German chemical factories were at the service of Saddam to turn Halabja and Sardasht and the battlefields opposite into centers of crime, killing thousands of people. This is what they did in Iran; this is their invasion; this invasion is diverse; it is not just one kind; one type of it is this.

Sanctions are also part of the invasion; [like] pharmaceutical sanctions. If Western countries can deprive an Islamic country like Iran, which seeks independence and resilience, of necessary foodstuffs, they will do so; just as they prohibited necessary medicines, when we needed vaccines, they took the money for it [but] did not give the vaccine — in the year 99 they took the money for the vaccine and for various excuses did not provide it — do not doubt that if they could do something to prevent food from coming into the country, they would certainly do it; that is, this is how they are. Now, that issue of the famine of the century is also reserved for itself; this is also a type of invasion. In addition to this, they have placed hundreds and thousands of media at the service of lies, rumors, and deviations and the like. Now, there is a collection of diverse attacks and invasions, from military to economic, to [hard] war, to [soft] war, all kinds exist. Well, what is the role of the poet here? This is my point. Our poets have shone in certain periods; that is, they did what they had to do.

Today, the enemy's goal is to take away our intellectual and spiritual strengths; we want independence, they want to weaken our spirit; we want to resist against Western tyranny, they want to weaken our spirit, make us hesitant; they want to weaken Islamic thoughts and Islamic knowledge in us, weaken Islamic action, weaken national unity, weaken women's piety, and women's modesty; all of these are the spiritual needs of a nation and a country; they are after these things. Now, regarding women, one of the ladies recited and it was very good; truly, there should be more of such actions, a lot should be done.

I want to say that the Westerners do not have compassion for Iranian women to say that women's rights should be respected, [rather] they have animosity towards Iranian women. Certainly, if the presence of women had not been there, the revolution would not have succeeded. I say this with certainty; I was in the midst of the revolutionary issues. That is, if women had not participated in those massive gatherings, the revolution would not have succeeded. If women had wanted to oppose this with their husbands, with their children, with their sons, everything would have turned out differently; the same goes for the war. When one reads the biographies of these mothers and wives, one is truly moved; they were the ones who revived these courage and sacrifices in the hearts of these young men and these men. They have animosity towards Iranian women! They introduce themselves as supporters of women's rights, supporters of human rights, supporters of freedom. All of this is the enemy's invasion.

Well, human rights; one is astonished; the term human rights does not suit the Westerners; just as now one of the gentlemen had a line of poetry that 'it does not suit me', truly women's rights do not suit the Westerners. Right now, women in Western countries have the most significant problems; that is, more than other countries. They are not advocates of human rights at all; they do not even come close to human rights; they are enemies of humanity! We saw their human rights in ISIS; the ISIS that burned people alive or drowned them in water before everyone's eyes; we saw it in their support for the Mojahedin; we saw it in their support for Saddam; we see it in Gaza; we see it in Palestine; we see it in the assassinations, and in the killing of young people; here in the streets of Tehran, they kill our purest young people, like these young people whose names were mentioned, Arman Ali-Vardi and Rouhollah Ajami — these were truly the purest, cleanest, and most virtuous of our youth — they torture them to death, they do not even touch them, that is, they do not care; they provoke as well; they teach; their radios, their agents teach these things; this is human rights.

I say that today everyone must recognize the enemy. Everyone must recognize the points that the enemy targets for attack; everyone must know the enemy's methods; everyone must recognize the enemy's place of presence, just like military warfare; military warfare is the same. If you do not know from where the enemy wants to attack, you will be misled; if you do not know where their target is, if they can deceive you, you will be misled. You must know. In soft warfare, it is the same; you must know what the enemy wants to do, where their target is, what their goal is, and recognize their methods; everyone must know this and confront it, but most importantly, the artistic community, the cultural community; poets, painters, storytellers, filmmakers, architects; those who are in various cultural issues must know that today we are facing this enemy's plunder and invasion; they must pay attention to themselves, correctly understand the scene, and also make others aware; they must inform everyone. They must not be passive. Fortunately, today we have many good, faithful, kind-hearted poets who believe in religion and believe in the revolution; well, one example is you here.

Fortunately, one of the good things that has been done by various organizations, including the Art Bureau and some other places, is the expansion of this work throughout the country; that is, today poets from all over the country, even from villages, from small towns, can introduce themselves, be placed in centers, and present their poetry; this opportunity exists. Well, poets are ultimately emotional, poets are flexible, they are emotional; they should not become overly emotional. In facing issues, they should not become emotional, they should think and correctly identify the scene and feel a sense of duty towards what exists, and fulfill that duty with the art they possess. If this work is not done, no matter how high the art is, one cannot assign value to it; it is said:

"A pure wine, but from the solitude of the jug, What benefit is there if you do not come to the cup?"

You must come into the cup to be a means of joy, as one of the gentlemen recited. God willing, may God grant all of you success and enable all of us to utilize the valuable and unparalleled resources of our country and our system, including art and poetry. God willing, may you all be successful. I once again thank all of you, Mr. Amiri Esfandiar and Mr. Ghazveh for executing this, even though they did not recite their poetry; God willing, we will hear their poetry in the future.

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