Forugh Farrokhzad: The Eternal Poet of Iran

(Farsi Level: C1)

Forugh OL-Zaman Farrokhzad, known as Forugh Farrokhzad, is one of the most influential and greatest female poets in the history of Iranian literature. With her profound, emotional, and bold poetry, she left an enduring impact on Persian literature and Iranian culture and society. Forugh Farrokhzad was born on January 5, 1935, in Tehran and passed away in a car crash on February 13, 1967, at the age of 32 when she was at the peak of her artistic flourishing. Her death was a great loss to the Iranian literary community, but her poems and works remain alive and influential. Forugh Farrokhzad is recognized not only as one of the greatest female poets of Iran but also as a global figure whose poetry transcended the boundaries of language and culture. Her literary legacy lives on to this day and continues to inspire many artists and enthusiasts of poetry and literature.

Forugh’s Poetry: The Voice of Women in Iranian Literature

Forugh Farrokhzad has been fascinated by poetry and literature since childhood. The enthusiasm peaked during her adolescence. Her mentor in poetry was Nima Yooshij, and she also studied painting under the guidance of Behjat Sadr and Ali-Asghar Petgar. After publishing her first poetry collection, Asir (The Captive), in 1952, she has been recognized as a young and audacious poet. The poems in this collection, despite their simplicity and frankness, reflected her deep perspective on life, love, and freedom. Later, she published the collections Divar (The Wall) and Osyan (Rebellion), each marking a step toward her artistic maturity. However, the pinnacle of her artistry was evident in the collections tavallodi digar (Rebirth) (1962) and iman biavarim be aghaz-e fasl-e sard (Let’s Believe in the Beginning of the Cold Season) (1963). The poem Tavallodi Digar is one of her most famous works, becoming a symbol of inner transformation and the search for identity. A part of the poem Tavallodi Digar reads:

Forugh believed that poetry should distance itself from pretentious language and lofty expression to be able to represent the more realistic world. Therefore, in her poems, Forugh used every day, unpretentious language. This approach made her poetry more relatable to the lives of ordinary people, allowing them to connect with it more easily. In her poems, she expressed her emotions and experiences, believing that women should be able to speak as freely as men about their issues in poetry. She questioned why men could easily talk about love while women could not.

Forugh was a fabulous nonconformist in her poetry. The role of women in her work is so prominent that either she or other women and girls are the protagonists of her poems:

She also fiercely fought against the idea that women were seen as the cause of sin.

Innovation in Poetic Style

While the evolution of Forugh’s poetry in terms of content was remarkable, she was also innovative in terms of style, pioneering the “New Nimaic” style. She used poetic meter flexibly, adapting it to the content of her poems, and employed broken and combined meters, giving her poetry a unique rhythm and musicality. Forugh brought about the second transformation in the thousand-year-old tradition of Persian prosody.

Forugh Farrokhzad and Cinema

Forugh Farrokhzad was not limited to poetry. She also had significant achievements in cinema. In 1962, she directed the documentary “The House is Black,” which was produced by Ebrahim Golestan. The film focused on the lives of leprosy patients at the Baba Baghi asylum in Tabriz. It was not only artistically vital but also had a significant social impact, winning the award for Best Documentary at the 1963 Oberhausen International Short Film Festival. The documentary considerably contributed to raising awareness about these patients in society. Forugh was known not only for her artistic persona but also for her support and assistance to others. She used art to help others and, throughout her life, supported many young artists and poets in pursuing their artistic paths.

As a woman in a traditional society, Forugh Farrokhzad courageously and honestly wrote about love, loneliness, and female identity. Through her poetry, she broke traditional boundaries and brought the voice of Iranian women to the world. Forugh was not only a poet but also a symbol of freedom and courage who, despite her short life, left a profound impact on Iranian literature and culture.

If you are seeking to explore the world of poetry and emotion, the works of Forugh Farrokhzad are the best place to start. To familiarize yourself with the poems of Iranian poets and read them, you can connect with FarsiMonde and participate in their literature classes.