Essential Voices: Poetry of Iran and Its Diaspora: February 12, 2022

Armen Davoudian begins with “Good Faith” by Hasan Alizadeh (translated by Kayvan Tahmasebian and Rebecca Ruth Gould) and then reads his own poem, “Wake-up Call.” Farnez Fatemi reads an untitled poem ("Of the house the roof remained...") by Fereshteh Sari (translated by Parisa Saranj), and her own poem, “Sister.” Gary Gach shares from Alireza Roshan’s The Book of Absence (translated by Erfan Mojib and Gach) alongside a brief recorded video of Roshan reading the original Farsi. Zara Houshmand reads her poem “Mama and Baba” and Sohrab Sepehri’s “The Sound of an Encounter” (translated by Kazim Ali and Mohammad Jafar Mahallati). Persis Karim reads “Border” by Garous Abdolmalekian (Ahmad Nadalizadeh and Idra Novey), and “The Two Maryams,” her own poem written after the January 6, 2021 right wing riot at the US Capitol. Mojdeh Marashi reads “Exiled” by H.E. Sayeh (translated by Chad Sweeney and Mojdeh Marashi) in both the English and Farsi. Lastly, Sholeh Wolpé reads “Ghazal 2” by Nader Naderpur (translated by Wolpé and Sahba Shayani) and “This Coffin,” from her own book Abacus of Loss.

The editor of the anthology, Christopher Nelson, joins the poets and translators for conversation and questions from the audience, with Steve Dickison moderating. They discuss translation from Farsi into English; the present Iranian diasporic context; the impact of the anthology on awareness of Persian literary culture; Persian poetic forms, and cultural identity. Nelson remarks on the subsequent anthology planned in the Essential Voices series, dedicated to work by queer US American poets.