Arduous Labor Than People Imagine

¶ … arduous labor than people imagine it to be, and yet this labor is worthwhile if one wants to gain optimum pleasure and involvement from the poem and with the author. Reading the poem can be compared to engaging in conversation with the author -- as though one were having a back-and-forth -- and just as the techniques of conversing enable one to understand the speaker and the conversation better, a poem accords a similar situation. Conversation essentially involves three tools: 1. Knowing the speaker; 2. Knowing the context of the poem; 3. Thoroughly listening.

To understand the poem better, it would be helpful to imagine as though I were in a dialogue with the author. As in real life, to engage in a dialogue with any individual, I find that the better I know the individual -- his or her personal and larger social history, environment in which he/she engages, and other aspects of personality -- the more can I accord in-depth meaning to the conversation. To elaborate: each individual sees the world from her particular perspective invariably according her articulations a unique perspective. To understand the intentions behind those words, it would be helpful to have some cognizance of her resume.

Secondly, any conversation occurs in the background of some context. For instance, negotiation occurs within the context of the individual seeking something. To better engage in this conversation, it would be helpful to understand the object of the individual's request / negotiation plea as well as the reasons for her stance, and so forth. Similarly, a poem occurs within the context of some specific situation that has caused the author to write this specific poem. It would be helpful to understand the relationship of the object of the poem to the author, the elements that impelled the author to craft her poem, underlying emotion of the subject of the poem to the author and so forth.

Thirdly, active listening is a component of any successful conversation, and poems involve a component of active listening too although in a different sense. When reading the poem, I am alive to changes in the authors' words, nuances in his language, tone, phraseology, rhyme, or meter, and am following her as closely as possible in order to gain as complete a comprehension as I can of what he is endeavoring to tell me.

As reader therefore who seeks a better grasp of this poem, I will do three things: briefly review detail of Baraheni, his life, his philosophy, and an overview of his works to see if commonalties exist. Secondly, research background information of the poem to see if a history of the poem exists and if so what it is; and thirdly to read the poem as closely and as carefully as possible so that I gain an enhanced understanding.

B. Body

Reza Baraheni

Baraheni has had an eventful life. Born in Tabriz, Iran, in 1935, past president of PEN Canada, and now living in Canada, he has written more than fifty books in Persian and English many of which recount his days in prison under the Shah of Iran.

In 1973, Baraheni was arrested and imprisoned in Teheran where he spent 102 days in solitary confinement in 1982, as well as later on (during the cultural revolution of 1980) expelled from the University of Teheran, briefly arrested twice, and deprived the right to work. Solitary confinement over even a short length of time makes an impact on a person. For 102 days - this must have made a deep and enduring impact and, accordingly, we can expect reflections of this experience to penetrate Baraheni's work. His experience is described in "God's shadow: prison poems."

Other important information to note about Baraheni is that he promoted literary criticism as an important endeavor, and was active, throughout his life, in condemning the political and social life in Iran. Many of his poems, therefore, indicate themes of his political struggle and work.

As founding member of the Writers' Association of Iran, Baraheni's focus has been on three major themes: 1. Free thought and articulation of this thought; 2. Equal rights of minorities in Iran; and 3. Equal rights for women in Iran.

Autumn in Teheran

I have been unable to find historical context to the poem. But in light of my enhanced knowledge of the author's history, I can now approach the poem with a better understanding of the author and of what he may be intending to convey. It took several readings of the poem to come to some comprehension. I was at first puzzled not sure if some underlying political motif existed here or whether the poem was a straightforward description of an 'Autumn day in Teheran'. Perhaps, just like a conversation depends on the mind of the listener who interprets it according to the specific slant that he or she gives it, so, too, poems in general and this poem in particular can be read and interpreted in either direction hinging as much on the mind of the reader as on the author. 'Autumn in Teheran' accordingly can be read in a straightforward manner as descriptive of an approaching season in Iran, whilst others may accord it implicit subversive nuances, and both can appeal to the text for corroboration.

As straightforward meaning, the text seems almost clear enough until one reaches the final stanzas. Autumn seems to approach carefully, stealthily her first signs being "sick sneezes.. from carefree street kids"; "deep tears waiting weakened eyes of retired old men, women hurrying faster in the approaching cold; and "young women in love [who] drove their shoulders into the cavities of their lovers' chests"

This is followed by the looting of the branches, rain and wind, floods of water, and the perfume of the falling leaves all brilliantly described in metaphor and allusion by Baraheni. Teheran apparently in autumn still is suffused with the sun, its radiance dazzles Baraheni ("the sun came from every side and every angle"), and the entire spectacle, water, sun, leaves overwhelms him: "I was not used to the death of so many worlds / unable to grasp the meaning of all of this."

The poem could be also granted political connotations. The themes and words of death and mourning penetrated the poem. In the context of Baraheni's social and political experiences, we could interpret the political climate starting as a "puzzling whisper" then growing incrementally louder until: " a blatant crow flew in the horizon drew its dagger t the swallows / and savaged the routes of the air with the convex dagger of its beak." This may have been the Revolution of 1980. Indeed, "the crow screamed.. I am your emperor!" See later: "the looting of the branches began in the evening" -- there were arrests and torture with trees and leaves of the former season dying. "A strange siesta gripped the world and carried it off / in the anguished hour the arrow of the haggard autumn man's stick drove into death's running stream."