فهرست مطالب آمر طاهر احمد

In 1301/1922, the first section of NimāYushij’sAfsāneh appeared in MirzādehʿEshqi’s weekly journal Qarn-e bistom. It came with a preface that showcased Nimā’s elaborate reflection on the modernization of Persian poetry. In his preamble, Nimā referred to the form of Afsāneh as a “drama” (namāyesh), a term foreign to the Persian poetic lexicon of the time. Where he dissented from theclassical rules of poetic composition, the author explained, it was to bring poetry closer to the pace of “natural” language. In his preface, Nimā vows to bring Afsāneh to the stage and to further engage in “drama” composition in the future. In practice, however, Afsāneh never made it to the stage, and was never considered theatre by the public. In his later work, Nimā himself only refers to Afsāneh as a “poem” (sheʿr or manzumeh) and drops the term “drama” altogether, in spite of his pledge. The present article aims to explore the composition of Afsāneh, Nimā’s initial reference to “drama” and the theory he advocates for this “new” form. On this issue, I establish the influence of the French romantic poet Victor Hugo on Nimā’s “modern” theory of “broken verse.” As I argue, the notion of “drama” mainly served the poet of Afsāneh as a medium to introduce the technique of “broken verse” into Persian.

The early 20th century was a crucial time in the history of Persian literature. The “Literary Revolution”, which gave rise to modern poetry in Iran, was carried out by two antagonist groups of poets. The “Conservative” poets headed by Malek al-Sho‘arā Bahār and the “Progressivist” poets directed by Taqi Raf‘at, both claimed to reform the Iranian literary tradition. To do so, both parties incorporated a significant portion of the European heritage into their own. This is when the chahārpāreh was first developed: a succession of quatrains unknown to the Persian tradition. It embodied a new poetic form altogether.