Afsaneh (Persian: افسانه) is a poem by
Nima Yooshij
Nima Yooshij or Nimā Yushij (; 11 November 1895 – 6 January 1960), also called Nimā (), born Ali Esfandiari (), was a prominent Iranian poet. He is famous for his style of poetry which he popularised, called ''she'r-e now'' (, lit. "new po ...
, published in December 1923 which is considered as the manifesto of
She'r-e Nimaa'i She'r-e Nimaa'i () is a school of Modernist poetry in Iran that is derived from the literary theory of Nima Yooshij, a contemporary Iranian poet. Nima Yooshij revolutionized the stagnant atmosphere of Iranian poetry with the influential poem Afsaneh ...
. Afsaneh was very new in various aspects, including the way it was expressed and the texture, and led to the emergence of a new school of poetry in Iranian poetry. Nima Yoshij dedicated this poem to his teacher, Nizam Vafa.
What divides contemporary Iranian poetry into two periods before and after Afsaneh is not the meter and new rhythm experiences nor the variety of popular literature used in it, but the kind of narrative hidden in it that expresses the superior reality.
Background
In 1910, the young Nima Yoshij, who had not yet changed his name at the time, went to study at St. Louis School in Tehran. During Yoshij's studies at that school, he learned French well and became acquainted with French romantic poets, including Lamartine. Along with French poetry, his teacher Nizam Vafa, who was also a poet, greatly influenced the intellectual development of Nima Yoshij.
In 1919 he began writing poetry based on local legends of Mazandaran and storytelling French poetry. He later named the poem Afsaneh.
He gave part of Afsaneh to his friend
Mirzadeh Eshghi
Sayed Mohammad Reza Kordestani (; December 11, 1894July 3, 1924) was an Iranian political writer and poet who used the pen name Mirzadeh Eshghi ().
Biography
He was born in Hamadan, the son of Hajj Sayed Abolghasam Kordestani; he learned Frenc ...
to publish in his newspaper, Twentieth Century. The publication of Afsaneh provoked much opposition from the traditionalists and many accusations were leveled against him. Some time later, he published the poem in its entirety. In the first week, several newspapers criticized the poem. Poets like
Mohammad Taghi Bahar
Mohammad-Taqi Bahar (; also romanised as Mohammad-Taqī Bahār; 10 December 1886 in Mashhad – 22 April 1951 in Tehran), widely known as Malek osh-Sho'arā () and Malek osh-Sho'arā Bahār ("poet laureate," literally: ''the king of poets''), w ...
immediately issued a statement against the poem.
Themes
"Afsaneh" was one of the first narrative poems of Nima Yoshij, which consisted of two complete narratives and a number of fragmentary narratives. "Afsaneh" is not a single narrative; Rather, it is an argument between two sides of the dialogue that in some discourse essays, a story is narrated by mentioning a memory. For the first time in Iranian poetry, "Afsaneh" was very far from its predecessors in terms of form and content; Especially Nima Yoshij's great innovation in how to present personal intentions.
Afsaneh is a kind of modern narrative. Unlike a work like
Shahnameh
The ''Shahnameh'' (, ), also transliterated ''Shahnama'', is a long epic poem written by the Persian literature, Persian poet Ferdowsi between and 1010 CE and is the national epic of Greater Iran. Consisting of some 50,000 distichs or couple ...
, which consists of a large number of possessions and has a definite timeline, Afsaneh lacks a timeline. The storyline sometimes goes backwards, sometimes forwards. A series of separate narrative discourses that do not constitute a narrative as a whole; Rather, they complete the dialogue between two people, which is the main structure of the poem.
Afsaneh consists of a total of twenty-two speeches that are not narrated due to lack of story or plot and remain at the same level of speech:
The second narration in Afsaneh is as follows:
Both narratives are old and frequent anecdotes. The first narrative is a successful narrative by providing a suitable space with images and without borders. In the second narrative, a childish story is told.
Nima Yoshij was a nationalist, and his nationalist views are very evident in Afsaneh. Afsaneh is inspired by Mazandaran legends and all the atmosphere is reminiscent of the nature of Mazandaran.
Legacy
Afsaneh is often referred to as the She'r-e Nimaa'i Manifesto because the foundations of She'r-e Nimaa'i were laid out in this poem.
Afsaneh was a poem that made Nima Yoshij famous and made many people familiar with his thoughts and had a great impact on poets such as
Ahmad Shamlou
Ahmad Shamlou (, ''Ahmad Šāmlū'' , also known under his pen name A. Bamdad ()) (December 12, 1925 – July 23, 2000) was an Iranian peoples, Iranian poet, writer, and journalist. Shamlou was arguably the most influential poet of modern Iran. ...
and
Mehdi Akhavan Sales.
Notes and references
{{reflist
Nima Yooshij
1923 poems
Poems in Persian