A Phenomenological Analysis of a Type of Image in Sohrab Sepehri's Poems

The current studies have revealed that there are some similarities between the philosophical foundations of Sohrab Sepehri's poems and some phenomenological notions. The essence of Sepehri's message as well as that of phenomenologists is that human being should discover himself or herself through his or her pure cognitive nature, and not from science or books. Following a descriptive and content analysis approach, in this study, we have dealt with the phenomenological thoughts on the creation of some innovative image in Sepehri's poems. It is assumed that some of Sepehri's images cannot be revealed just by literary analysis, and a philosophical perspective is required too. To create images like 'a mere bird' and 'the frank sunlight', Sepehri has resorted to some notions in phenomenology. Edmund Husserl has opened a novel area of thought called 'epoche'. It refers to a stage of cognition in which the mere self or the thoughtful self and observer suspends all his or her judgements on the existence of the world. When Sepehri pens; 'the mere bird sings.', his goal is not just creating a foregrounded and innovative image, but indeed he attempts to give weight to a concept like 'epoche' by his own philosophical impressions.

Sohrab Sepehri is one of the most celebrated figures of the Iranian contemporary poets. His distinct language and thought has attracted the attention of a great number of readers of poems. In this study, we have analyzed a type of his images through Edmund Husserl's phenomenology.
The current studies indicate that there are some similarities as well as matches between the philosophical foundations of Sohrab Sepehri's poems and some phenomenological notions. In effect, this study does not aim to give a thorough picture of phenomenological aspects of Sepehri's poetry. However, in some cases a brief explanation on similarities is provided. An invitation to intuitive understanding and direct, immediate wisdom about the surrounding world and the unity of subject and object, and dealing with the essence of things constitute the main teachings of Sepehri's poetry, teachings which go hand by hand with phenomenological notions. The gist of Sepehri's poetry is that human being must acquire an understanding directly from nature, and not from science or books. Following a descriptive and content analysis approach, in this study, we have dealt with the phenomenological thoughts on the creation of some innovative image in Sepehri's poems. It is assumed that there are some of Sepehri's images and rhetorical techniques are not revealed just by literary analysis, and some domains such as philosophy are also required too. To create images like 'a mere bird', 'the frank sunlight', 'the mere forehead', 'the mere instant' and 'the white event', Sepehry has resorted to some notions in Husserl's phenomenology. In effect, in creating such images, Sepehri has paid attention to the idea of 'epoche', a notion in Husserl's phenomenology. 'Epoche' is a stage of cognition where 'the mere I' or 'the thoughtful and observing I' suspends all judgements on the existence of the physical world. By saying 'The mere bird sings', Sepehri is not merely providing an innovative and foregrounded image, but also relies on philosophical notions in order to refer to a concept like 'epoche'. 'Epoche' suspends any philosophical judgment on the real world and pushes presuppositions related to a specific area to the periphery. In an expression like 'mere bird', Sepehri comprehends bird without any sort of characteristic and feature. The idea of 'seeing in a different way' maintains that the observer should leave all presuppositions and comprehends the world directly. Sepehri connects to the essence of bird, forgetting any distinctive idea about the bird. Relying on an idea similar to 'epoche' he attempts to draw the attention of the reader to the very bird, without any judgment about the bird. In the poem 'There was no lake, there was a white event and nothing else', the rest would be interpreted by the reader depending on his own life-world. Sepehri has such approach towards the world and he does not let presuppositions make us see vulture and clover flower as ugly and debased things. He recommends his readers to suspend their presuppositions on the real world. As such, sometimes philosophical perspectives provide novel images to deeply comprehend literary texts.
It is not clear whether Sepehri had been familiar with ideas of phenomenologists such as Husserl. Maybe he was exposed to such ideas while studying in Faculty of Fine Arts of Tehran, or during his trips to Europe and U.S. It would also be possible that Sepehri had acquired such ideas through Krishnamurti's thoughts. Likewise, a personal conduct is not impossible too.
The distinct wording of Sepehri has made some of his poems ambiguous in such a way that critics had to evade some images by just general remarks. Here, it is argued that the attempts made by all critics to interpret linguistic and aesthetic aspects of such images are not fully successful as Sepehri's images are the result of his philosophical insight. His motivation to create such images was philosophical rather than literary. Most of the excellence of these images lies in his philosophical framework and his novel look to the universe. Therefore, familiarity with phenomenological thoughts could help readers to understand Sepehri's abstract images. Images like 'mere bird', 'absolute forehead', 'explicit sun', 'explicit Vodka', 'pure spot', 'pure things', 'mere lands', 'clarity of pigeons', 'no-discount decisive presence', and 'persistent mournful color' are waiting for philosophical reading rather literary interpretation. It is Sepehri's philosophical thoughts and intuitive understanding of universe and life that have made him create such images, not just a tendency to bring innovation to his poems, a tendency popular among other poets.
It seems that 'look' and 'wonder' in Sepehri's poetry are poetic counterparts for phenomenological suspension, and even if they do not match together completely, these two conditions follow a phenomenological suspension. A 'look' for this poet equals 'we should wash our eyes and see in some other way' and this would be impossible unless a phenomenological suspension is occurred whereby all presuppositions are suspended. Sepehri has followed Husserl's recommendation let alone he has been familiar with the philosopher's theory or not, as firstly always his consciousness involved things in the real world; Secondly, Sepehri has always escaped the conceptual thinking. Shamisa's and Shafiei Kadkani's explanation of Sepehri's poems involve conceptual thinking. Thirdly, in Sepehri's poem, world acquires authenticity as it appears, and this world is distinct from the world made in Sepehri's mind (i.e. idealistic world), and the independent world (i.e. realistic world) which is reflected in conceptual thinking.
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