Contents

 Introduction : The Poet’s Background

 Early life

 Contributions

 Works

o The Boat

o My house is Cloudy

 Persian Poetry – The Tree Frog by Nima

Introduction : The Poet’s Background

Nimā Yushij (Persian: ‫( )نیما یوشیج‬November 12, 1895 – January 6, 1960) also called Nimā (
‫)نیما‬, born Ali Esfandiāri (‫)علی اس>فندیاری‬, was a contemporary Tabarian and Persian poet who
started the she’r-e now (‫ش >>عر نو‬, "new poetry") also known as she’r-e nimaa'i (‫ش >>عر نیم >>ایی‬,
"Nimaic poetry") trend in Iran. He is considered as the father of modern Persian poetry.

He died of pneumonia in Shemiran, in the northern part of Tehran and was buried in his
native village of Yush, Nur County, Mazandaran, as he had willed.

Early life

He was the eldest son of Ibrahim Nuri of Yush (a village in Baladeh, Nur County,
Mazandaran province of Iran). He was a Tabarian but had also Georgian roots. He grew up
in Yush, mostly helping his father with the farm and taking care of the cattle. As a boy, he
visited many local summer and winter camps and mingled with shepherds and itinerant
workers. Images of life around the campfire, especially those emerging from the shepherds'
simple and entertaining stories about village and tribal conflicts, impressed him greatly.
These images, etched in the young poet's memory waited until his power of diction
developed sufficiently to release them.

Nima's early education took place in a maktab. He was a truant student and the mullah
(teacher) often had to seek him out in the streets, drag him to school, and punish him. At
the age of twelve, Nima was taken to Tehran and registered at the St. Louis School. The
atmosphere at the Roman Catholic school did not change Nima's ways, but the instructions
of a thoughtful teacher did. Nezam Vafa, a major poet himself, took the budding poet under
his wing and nurtured his poetic talent.
Instruction at the Catholic school was in direct contrast to instruction at the maktab.
Similarly, living among the urban people was at variance with life among the tribal and
rural peoples of the north.

House of Nima

In addition, both these lifestyles differed greatly from the description of the lifestyle about
which he read in his books or listened to in class. Although it did not change his
attachment to tradition, the difference set fire to young Nima's imagination. In other words,
even though Nima continued to write poetry in the tradition of Saadi and Hafez for quite
some time his expression was being affected gradually and steadily. Eventually, the impact
of the new overpowered the tenacity of tradition and led Nima down a new path.
Consequently, Nima began to replace the familiar devices that he felt were impeding the
free flow of ideas with innovative, even though less familiar devices that enhanced a free
flow of concepts. "Ay Shab" (O Night) and "Afsaneh" (Myth) belong to this transitional
period in the poet's life (1922).
Contributions

Tomb of Nima Yushij in Yush, Mazandaran

In general, Nima manipulated rhythm and rhyme and allowed the length of the line to be
determined by the depth of the thought being expressed rather than by the conventional
Persian meters that had dictated the length of a bayt (verse) since the early days of Persian
poetry. Furthermore, he emphasized current issues, especially nuances of oppression and
suffering, at the expense of the beloved's moon face or the ever-growing conflict between
the lovers, the beloved, and the rival. In other words, Nima realized that while some readers
were enthused by the charms of the lover and the coquettish ways of the beloved, the
majority preferred heroes with whom they could identify. Furthermore, Nima enhanced his
images with personifications that were very different from the "frozen" imagery of the
moon, the rose garden, and the tavern. His unconventional poetic diction took poetry out of
the rituals of the court and placed it squarely among the masses. The natural speech of the
masses necessarily added local color and flavor to his compositions. Lastly, and by far
Nima's most dramatic element was the application of symbolism. His use of symbols was
different from the masters in that he based the structural integrity of his creations on the
steady development of the symbols incorporated. In this sense, Nima's poetry could be read
as a dialog among two or three symbolic references building up into a cohesive semantic
unit. In the past only Hafez had attempted such creations in his Sufic ghazals. The basic
device he employed, however, was thematic, rather than symbolic unity. Symbolism,
although the avenue to the resolution of the most enigmatic of his ghazals, plays a
secondary role in the structural makeup of the composition.
Works

The venues in which Nima published his works are noteworthy. In the early years when
the presses were controlled by the powers that be, Nima's poetry, deemed below the
established norm, was not allowed publication. For this reason, many of Nima's early poems
did not reach the public until the late 1930s. After the fall of Reza Shah, Nima became a
member of the editorial board of the "Music" magazine. Working with Sadeq Hedayat, he
published many of his poems in that magazine. Only on two occasions he published his
works at his own expense: "The Pale Story" and "The Soldier's Family."

The closing of "Music" coincided with the formation of the Tudeh Party and the appearance
of a number of leftist publications. Radical in nature, Nima was attracted to the new papers
and published many of his groundbreaking compositions in them.

Ahmad Zia Hashtroudy and Abul Ghasem Janati Atayi are among the first scholars to have
worked on Nima's life and works. The former included Nima's works in an anthology
entitled "Contemporary Writers and Poets" (1923). The selections presented were:
"Afsaneh," (Myth) "Ay Shab" (O Night), "Mahbass" (Prison), and four short stories.

Some of his works are :

The Boat
My face is withered
My boat is stranded.
With my stranded bark I cry:
“I am stranded in sorrow
In this dangerous seashore
And the water is far away
“Help, O friends!”
A smile of derision breaks upon their lips
But directed at me
At my askew boat
At my tumultuous words
At my infinite perturbation
At my infinite perturbation
Suddenly a cry issues from me:
I fear but danger and annihilation
The commotion of `to be or not to be'
It is but for endangered life.”
With their mistake
I buy mistakes
From their disheartening words
I suffer
Blood spurts out of my wound
How can I dry the water?
I cry.
My face is withered
My boat is stranded
My words are clear to you:
One person is alone
I extend my hand to you for help
My voice is broken in my throat
And if voice is voluble
I cry
For your salvation and mine
I cry!

My house is Cloudy

My house is overcast by clouds

Permanently weighed by a pall of cloud over the earth.
The wind, broken, desolate and intoxicated,
Whirls over the pass.
The world is laid waste by it
And my senses too!
O piper!
O you enchanted by the music of the pipe, where are you?

My house is cloudy, yet

The cloud is impregnated by rain.

Cherished by the illusion of my bright days,

I stand opposite the sun

I cast my gaze upon the sea.
And the entire world is desolated and ravaged by the wind
And the ever-playing piper progresses onto his path
In this cloudy world.

(Translated by Ismail Salami)

Persian Poetry – The Tree Frog by Nima

In some parts of Iran, especially in the north of Iran, people believe that when tree frogs
sing it will begin to rain soon. So, they know this frog as the messenger of rain! Imagine
that you are a farmer and living in a very potentially green and fertile area. Your livelihood
depends on water. Normally, you shouldn’t have breathtaking trouble to produce your
products, as your area has been green for years. Suddenly, you face a drought that is going
to destroy your life. Then, one day, you see the tree frog singing again. What will your
mood be in such a moment? You will become really happy, as you already know that this is
a positive sign and you are going to see rain soon. Now, what will happen to you if you
listen to this frog for days and find no single drop from the sky? The poet, symbolically,
briefly, and strongly explains his land and the dreadful drought. Nevertheless, he doesn’t
get angry at the frog. Instead, broken-heartedly, he begins to talk to the frog and says: ” O,
the messenger of the cloudy days! My land, adjacent to my neighbors’, has become dry. My
shack is dark with no happiness in it. The wooden walls (bamboo-made walls) of my house
are falling due to lack of water, like the hearts of friends when parted. Tell me when the
rain will come?”