Statements in Meeting with a Group of Poets and Cultural Figures

In the Name of God, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful Thanks be to God, the Lord of the worlds, and blessings and peace be upon our master Muhammad and his pure family, and God's curse upon all their enemies.

This was a sweet and good session; the only weakness of this session was that a few friends present - from among the brothers and sisters - wished to read their poems and we did not have the opportunity to benefit from this. Of course, time has passed; it is now past twelve and more time than usual has been spent on this session; sometimes this happens.

What man wishes, he does not attain; the winds blow as the ships do not desire.

Sometimes what a person wants does not come to pass.

Firstly, the poems tonight were truly very good; now they say "the youth"; some of the attendees reading poetry tonight were indeed young, and honestly, their poems are good and eloquent; not only in terms of the linguistic innovations that are fortunately observed in today's poetry but also in terms of addressing important and noteworthy topics, and occasionally new ones, as well as in terms of verbal arrangement and linguistic order and appropriate use of vocabulary, one sees that the poems are, thank God, very good. Sometimes in today's poetry, meaning the poetry of the revolutionary era, where good themes and new concepts abound, linguistic weaknesses are observed; I see that gradually these linguistic weaknesses are being resolved; that is to say, fortunately, this meaning existed tonight.

I would like to mention a few points regarding poetry; one point that seems to me that today we must pay attention to is that Persian poetry, from the very first time a Tabrizi emerged until today, has mostly been chaste poetry, modest poetry; I say this based on examination; not that there has not been any obscenity and indecency in poetry; yes, there has been in the past, of course, less; in recent times, there has also been - for example, consider some poems of Iraj or Khakshir and the like, which are explicit and indecent poems - but these are few; in Persian poetry from the beginning, even for example, consider in the era of Khorasani poetry, where in the prefaces of poems and the opening verses, there were some expressions of love and, as they say, poems of Tashbib - poems that are, for example, romantic and the like - that modesty and chastity were preserved in them. To clarify my point, I compare it with Arabic poetry of the same era; of course, Arabic poetry is not like that today; fortunately, today's Arabic poetry is very committed and good; even now, four Lebanese Arab poets are present here who recited their poems - a few verses - before the prayer, and they were truly good, truly outstanding; but in the past, it was not like that. For example, consider a poet who dared to flirt with a well-known woman in society, mentioning her name in poetry; this was a common practice; you do not see this in Persian poetry, such a thing does not exist. In Persian poetry, expressions of interest and affection towards the beloved are made, but it is an unknown beloved, a mostly imaginary or general beloved; it is not a specific person. In the early Arabic poems, however, it was not so; a specific person was intended; for example, consider that

And if Layla the Achillean had greeted me

Between me and her were the jundal and the plates.

"Layla the Achillean" was a specific person, a respectable lady in society; this famous poet expresses his love for this woman, and there was no problem with that. Or consider another famous poet - contemporary of Farazdaq and Jarir and the like - named Kuthayyir; this poet is in love with a poetess whose name is 'Azza; Kuthayyir became famous for his love for that poetess, becoming known as Kuthayyir 'Azza; that is to say, if you want to find the biography of Kuthayyir, you must search for "Kuthayyir 'Azza"; this was common, this was prevalent; however, in Persian poetry, you do not observe this at all; yes, in the poems of that time or later in ghazals, or Tashbib, or there is indeed flirtation and love, but they do not target a specific person by name to express their love for them. Of course, in the end, Shamloo mentions Ayda by name, but she is his wife, she is not a stranger; he expresses his love for her in his poems. Therefore, Persian poetry is chaste poetry. Well, I mentioned that there have been instances where indecency has occurred, ugly words have been spoken - that one feels ashamed to utter or even sometimes to recall - but this is very rare. We have known Persian poetry throughout history as chaste; keep this in mind; this poetic chastity must be preserved in our poetic environment. This is an important point.

The second point is this; my dear ones! Poetry is one of the impactful arts; there are certain characteristics in poetry that are not present in many other arts. Well, some arts are impactful in another section and in a different way - like cinema, like theater, and the like - but poetry impacts in a different way. Poetry must create a movement; that is to say, the collection of poets in the country must organize, produce, create, and proliferate poetry in such a way that it can discourse and create a movement around important and pressing issues of the country. For example, regarding the issue of justice, the issue of resistance, the issue of ethics; how much do we need to have ethical interactions with one another, which I emphasized in a session here with the youth a few days ago; we must refine and elevate our personal ethics, as well as our social ethics, our behaviors with people, such as forgiveness, selflessness, honesty, brotherhood, and such things. Fortunately, in the history of our poetry, there is much discourse, many excellent poems have been composed, and this discourse must continue; also in various fields that I mentioned; like resistance, like the important issues that were present in several poems tonight.

Another point regarding poetry exists; Persian poetry has played a role over time in producing thought and deepening thought. If you look, there is much wisdom in Persian poetry; we call Ferdowsi "the Wise Ferdowsi", Nezami "the Wise Nezami", Sana'i "the Wise Sana'i", and so on; Saadi is a true sage, Hafez is a true sage and mystic; that is to say, they placed their poetry as a vessel for wisdom, that too Islamic wisdom, Quranic wisdom, spiritual and prophetic wisdom. Persian poetry is filled with wisdom; this spirit and this state of wisdom and ethics must be prominent in our contemporary poetry. In the very poems that were read here tonight, I saw several verses that truly contained wisdom and were among those verses that can be retained in memory, in books, in writings, and transmitted and published. The opposite of this wisdom and ethics and deepening thought and creating thought and hope in poetry is that we lead our audience to carelessness in action, superficiality in thought and reflection, weakness in politics, and indifference in confronting the enemy; that is to say, if our poetry is such that it creates these characteristics, this is certainly contrary to the poetic wisdom that has existed in Persian poetry over time. This must be paid attention to; this is an important issue.

Poetry must be active in the realm of seriousness and diligence and discipline in action and depth in thought and firmness in identity and struggle against the enemy. And this, dear brothers and sisters - you are the elites of society; that is to say, the art of poetry typically arises from a noble mind and elite spirit - must be taken into account, and of course, you are aware that efforts are being made to divert the art of the country; that is to say, they are investing, spending money, think tanks are sitting down to design to divert our existing poetry; just as this is being done regarding our cinema, our theater, our painting, and all branches and fields of art, the same is being done; that is to say, disruptive works are being carried out. The same is true for poetry; they are truly making efforts. A number of indecent people are being elevated; I observe this now in our society; there are hands that elevate and promote a certain irrelevant and indecent poet, while their poetry is technically of low quality; now, as for content, it is nothing, and even technically, it is not poetry that we can say "this is good poetry, even if its content is bad"; no, their poetry is not good even technically, but they are being elevated.

Another very important point is the issue of songs and anthems. I have mentioned this once again here that songs and anthems are a necessary part and a necessary branch in the field of poetic art and have a great impact; songs and anthems are truly impactful. We have seen in many cases that, for example, a poem in the language of youth, adolescents, and various individuals - students, schoolchildren, and so on - is circulating, and this poem itself causes movement, causes vitality, causes direction. Now, in this regard, we have honestly fallen short; in the field of songs and anthems, good anthems are few.

The Iranian society is intertwined with poetry, and this is a great strength. The Arab society is the same; the Arabs are the same; they are also very familiar and intertwined with poetry. You observe in the events of the revolution, in these various years of the revolution, slogans that are often rhythmic and have a poetic form have emerged from the heart of the crowd; that is to say, no one knows who produced this poem, but it has emerged from the heart of the crowd, someone has said it, and others' spirits have inclined towards it, and because it is poetry and because it is rhythmic and, for example, in some cases, it is rhymed, people have followed it. In our living environments, poetry is very prevalent, and this is a great opportunity. I have noted something and wanted to say this; in one of these announcements of condolences that are in some newspapers, I saw a poem; some write poetry, and naturally, one's attention is drawn to that poem; I saw that the nature of our people is fundamentally poetic. The tone in this verse is similar to the tone of Bidel, but I do not know who the poet is:

I have lain in a hundred traps, I have gathered the hem from many cages

I have seen nothing but the wings of non-existence, the flight of freedom.

How beautiful it is! I have seen nothing but the wings of non-existence, the flight of freedom. Well, this is the spirit of our people; even in their condolence announcements, they find such a beautiful poem and present it. Of course, now you who deal with computers and the like can find out who the poet is; I did not understand who the poet is, but the language resembles that of Bidel. We must take advantage of this opportunity, of this existing desire and demand in society for poetry, and convey the concepts that people need to know or the practical methods that people need to become familiar with, in the language of poetry to the people.

God willing, may you all be successful, and we hope that for many years you will have the opportunity to move along this path.

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