1. Shamlu has published fourteen original poetry collections to date: Ahaneha-ye Faramush-shodeh [Forgotten Songs] (1947), Bist-o Sen [Twenty-three] (1951), Qat'nameh [Manifesto] (1951), Ahanha va Ehsas [Irons and Emotion] (1953), Hava-ye Tazeh [Fresh Air] (1957), Bagh-e Ayeneh [Garden of Mirrors] (1960), Ayda dar Ayeneh [Ayda in the Mirror] (1964), Ayda: Derakht-o Khanjar-o Khatereh [Ayda: the Tree, the Dagger, and a Memory] (1965), Qoanus dar Baran [Phoenix in the Rain] (1966), Marsiyeh'ha-ye Khak [Elegies of the Earth] (1969), Shekoftan dar Meh [Blossoming in the Mist] (1970), Ebrahim dar Atash [Abraham in the Fire] (1973), Deshneh dar Pis [Dagger in the Dish] (1977), and Taraneh'ha-ye Kuchak-e Ghorbat [Small Songs of Exile] (1980). In addition to these, five selections of Shamlu's poems, three collections of various poems translated by him, two collections of original short stories, seventeen volumes of translated fiction, four volumes of translated plays, four collections of translated fairy tales, three new editions of the works of three classical Persian poets, a volume of original articles, and five volumes of his dictionary of colloquial Persian have been published. In short, Shamlu is, as Baraheni stated in "Yek Javaher dar Miyan-e Jowhar-daran," Ferdowsi, No. 1108 (27 Farvardin 1973): 17, "the only writer in Iran who has managed to make a living by writing." All of Shamlu's poetry collections since 1957, with the sole exception of his most recent book (for political reasons), have gone through a minimum of two and a maximum of six editions. The first edition of Dagger in the Dish, for example, was sold out in less than a month and the second was printed in 20,000 copies.

2. On Shamlu's accomplishments and his influence in the areas of language, structural form and imagery, on different "schools" and generations of Persian poets, see Leonardo P. Alishan, "Trends in Modernist Persian Poetry" (Ph.D. dissertation, The University of Texas at Austin, 1981): 94-97. On Nima's'evolutionary poetics, see ibid., pp. 1-36.

3. Baraheni, "Ahmad Shamlu: Namayandeh-ye Vaqe'i-ye She'r-e Emruz-e Iran," Tala dar Mes (Tehran: Zaman, 1968), p. 3l3.

4. Shamlu, "A. Bamdad Goft," Ferdowsi, No. 905 (17 Farvardin 1969): 22.

5. Idem, "Chenin Zadeh Shodam dar Bisheh-ye Janevaran va Sang," Keyhan, No. 8853 (1972): 6-8. Nevertheless, Shamlu has managed to gradually acquire a good collection of Western classical music.

6. Idem, as quoted by Dastgheyb, Naqd-e Asar-e Ahmad Shamlu, p. 20.

7. Glicksberg, Charles I., The Literature of Commitment (London: Associated University Presses, 1976), p. 18Google Scholar.

8. Shamlu, "Tudeh'iha be Daryuzegi-ye Kafi Nan Mosalman Shodeh-and," Tehran Mosavvar 18, No. 18 (1979): 30-35, 40. Also, in a personal letter to the author dated February 28, 1985, Shamlu states that the Tudeh party has consistently formed "the fifth column" of the Soviet Union in Iran.

9. Idem, "Telayehha-ye Ahmad Shamlu az Enqelab...," Omid-e Iran 1, No. 29 (1979): 14.

10. Gass, William H., Fiction and the Figures of Life (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1970), p. 287Google Scholar.

11. Shamlu, "Tudehiha be Daryuzegi-ye Kafi Nan Mosalman Shodeh-and," p. 33.

12. Idem, "Ahmad Shamlu, Khafaqan va Takbir," Iran Express 2, No. 15 (April 14, 1979): 6. Though, in a personal letter to the author dated September 9, 1985, Shamlu states that this statement should be viewed in the context of the 1979 elections in Iran and should in no way be construed as a claim to anarchism or to having anachronistic political ideologies.

13. Koestler, Arthur, Arrow in the Blue (New York: Macmillan, 1952), p. 272Google Scholar.

14. Glicksberg, The Literature of Commitment, p. 244.

15. Ibid., p. 237.

16. Shamlu, Kashefan-e Forutan-e Showkaran (Tehran: Sazman-e Entesharati, Farhangi-ye Ebtekar, 1980)Google Scholar. The majority of the poems ' in this collection have either been written for or dedicated to militant "martyrs" who were executed by the PahIavi's regime.

17. Shamlu, "She'ri keh Zendegi-st," Hava-ye Tazeh, pp. 87-99. "Someone's greenhouse" refers to the classical period when the majority of the Persian poets belonged to the court.

18. Ibid., "Sarcheshmeh" [Fountainhead] (1955/56), pp. 211-15, is the earliest poem wherein Shamlu gives his very explicit definitions of "night" and "day."

19. Ibid., "Shabaneh," pp. 141-43.

20. Ibid., '"Eshq-e "Omumi," pp. 198-201.

21. Ibid., "Barun," pp. 163-71.

22. Ibid., "Ofoq-e Rowshan," pp. 189-91.

23. Ibid., "Digar Tanha Nistam," pp. 208-10.

24. Ibid., pp. 252-59.

25. Ibid., "Sorud-e Mardi keh lanha be Rah Miravad," pp. 323-28.

26. Ibid., pp. 221-24.

27. Ibid., "Harf-e Akhar," pp. 311-18.

28. Quoted in Masterson, Patrick, Atheism and Alienation (Notre Dame: Notre Dame University Press, 1971), p. 179Google Scholar.

29. Shamlu, Hava-ye Tazeh, p. 337.

30. Ibid., p. 291.

31. Cf. footnote 14.

32. Cf. footnote 23.

33. Idem. "Dadkhast," Baeh-e Ayeneh, pp. 103-5.

34. Ibid., "Az Nefrati Labriz," pp. 75-76.

35. Ibid., "Bar Sangfarsh," pp. 37-42.

36. Ibid., "Keyfar," pp. 43-46. it

37. Ibid., pp. 143-56.

38. Idem, Hava-ye Tazeh, pp. 172-82. For an excellent rendition of this poem into English, see Ghanoonparvar, Mohammad R. and Wilcox's, Diane L. "The Fairies" in Hillmann, Michael, comp. and ed., Major Voices in Persian Literature: Literature East and West 20 (1976): 180-85Google Scholar. For a discussion of "The Fairies," see Karimi- Hakkak, "Ahmad Shamlu: A Well Amid a Waste," pp. 203-205.

39. Idem, "Mahi," Baeh-e Ayeneh, pp. 47-50.

40. Ibid., "Bagh-e Ayeneh," pp. 123-26.

41. Ibid., p. 9.

42. Ibid., pp. 115-18.

43. Idem, "Sorud-e Panjom (3)," Ayda dar Ayeneh, p. 75.

44. Ibid., p. 83.

45. Ibid., p. 90.

46. Ibid., p. 48.

47. Glicksberg, The Literature of Commitment, p. 38.

48. Shamlu, "Tekrar," Ayda dar Ayeneh, p. 47.

49. Venable, Vernon, Human Nature: The Marxian View (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1964), p. 163Google Scholar.

50. For a translation of SAVAK's public statement and a review of the events which followed, see Zonis, Marvin, The Political Elite of Iran (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1971), pp. 44-47Google Scholar.

51. In "Book Review: Major Voices in Contemporary Persian Literature," Iranian Studies 14 (1981): 125, Richard Cottam says, writers such as Shamlu

"saw little reason to question the longevity of the [Pahlavi] regime and what they write bears the tenor of mildly despairing acquiescence...there is nowhere even a slight hint of the explosion in the potential for mass political participation in Iran. Nor is there apparent any recognition of the depth of religious appeal to the Iranian mass...just as they failed to see regime vulnerability, Iran's most engagéd literary figures failed to see the basis of mass anger and of mass hope."

Insofar as Shamlu is concerned, Cottam is mistaken on both accounts. First, he knows that the Pahlavi regime will fall. In my discussion of Fresh Air in the present study, I have shown that at the beginning of his career the poet firmly believes that "dawn" will come. Though this period is followed by one of despair, nevertheless in a 1969 poem. "Shamgahi" [Dusk Poem], he again states, "there is still hope/that I and the sun will meet...." Also, in as late as a 1977 poem called "Paridan" [Flight], Deshneh dar Pis, pp. 67-68, Shamlu says the issue is "to deserve freedom," "or else, there's no problem:/the fledgling will/eventually/spread its wings/in the long sky." As for the second, "the recognition of the depth of religious appeal to the Iranian mass," all one has to do is to carefully read "The Tablet," or "Shabaneh 7," written during the same period, where Shamlu, referring to the "Mahdi," the Shi'ite Twelfth Imam and "messiah," tells the people:

(Ayda: Derakht-o Khanjar-o Khatereh, p. 46.) Also, in 1964, after seeing the people "return" to their traditional religious values (which they probably had never left!) and to their ayatollah, Shamlu angrily states: "And the escaped slaves,/frightened of the storm,/are back, banging again/at the heavy gates of their Master's prison." (Ibid., p. 12.) In short, Shamlu is indeed aware of the appeal that religion has among the mass of the Iranian people and regrets with anger and disappointment this aspect of the Iranian populace from as early on as 1964.

52. Ibid., pp. 125-137. For a complete translation of this poem see Karimi-Hakkak, An Anthology of Modern Persian Poetry (Boulder, Colorado: Westview Press, 1978): 56-59Google Scholar, or Alishan, "Trends in Modernist Persian Poetry," pp. 101-104. As mentioned earlier, influences from a variety of engagé European poets on Shamlu's poetry have been mentioned by various critics, however, a most interesting comparison which could be made and has not been to date, would be between Shamlu's poem, "The Tablet," and Mayakovsky's Mystery--Bouffe (1918) where also there is a "Christ" who "confides to his listeners the liberating truth that there is no heaven."

53. Shamlu, "Dar Jedal-e Ayeneh va Tasvir," Ayda: Derakht-o Khanjar-o Khatereh, pp. 109-122; specifically, p. 112.

54. Ibid., "Shabaneh (1)," p. 11.

55. Ibid., "Shabaneh," p. 70.

56. Ibid., "Dar Jedal-e Ayeneh va Tasvir," p. 115.

57. Ibid., "Shabaneh," p. 13.

58. Ibid., "Shabaneh (6)," p. 39.

59. Ibid., p. 41.

60. Ibid., "Shabaneh (5)," p. 36.

61. Ibid., "Shabaneh (6)," p. 43.

62. Idem, Ayda dar Ayeneh, p. 79. Xo varying degrees but yet unanimously, Shamlu was criticized for this aspect of his poetry. See, for example, Baraheni, Tala dar Mes, pp. 339-41, or Dastgheyb, Naqd-e Asar-e Ahmad Shamlu, pp. 167-79. Some other critics tried to "explain away" these unignorable attacks. For a relatively recent example of this group, see Taqipur Namdaryan, Ta'ammoli dar She'r-e Ahmad Shamlu (Tehran: Aban, 1978), pp. 63-64.

63. Idem, "Bahsi ba A. Bamdad," Andisheh va Honar (vizheh-ye A. Bamdad) 5 (1964): 147, 140, and 145.

64. Idem, Bargozideh-ye She'rha-ye Ahmad Shamlu (Tehran: Sazman-e Nashr-e Ketab, 1969), pp. 3-4.

65. Idem, "Bahsi ba A. Bamdad," p. 147.

66. Idem, Bargozideh-ye She'rha-ye Ahmad Shamlu, p. 4.

67. Yushij, Nima, Harfha-ye Hamsayeh (Tehran: Donya, 1972), p. 100Google Scholar.

68. Bentley, Eric, The Theatre of Commitment and Other Essays on Drama in Our Society (New York: Antheneum, 1967), p. 153Google Scholar.

69. Glicksberg, The Literature of Commitment, pp. 16 and 19.

70. Shamlu, Bargozideh—ve She'rha-ye Ahmad Shaolu, p. 4.

71. Auden, W. H., "The Real World," The New Republic 47 (December 7, 1967): 26Google Scholar.

72. As Marx put it in his Eleven Theses on Feuerback, "Philosophers have only interpreted the world, but the real task is to alter it." Quoted by Glicksberg, The Literature of Commitment, p. 56.

73. Adereth, M., Commitment in Modern French Literature: Politics and Society in Peguy, Araeon, and Sartre (New York: Schocken Books, 1968), p. 17Google Scholar.

74. Shamlu, , "Marg-e Naseri," Qoqnus dar Baran (Tehran: Nil, 1966): 45-48Google Scholar. For a complete translation of this poem, see Karimi-Hakkak, An Anthology of Modern Persian Poetry, or Alishan, "Trends in Modernist Persian Poetry," pp. 105-106.

75. In 1979, referring to the Fresh Air period, Shamlu said, "In those days language was merely a 'means' for me; some consumable thing that one could thoroughly abuse for writing a poem." "Goft-o Gu'i dar bareh-ye She'r ba Ahmad Shamlu," Bamdad 1 (1979): 7.

76. For various aspects of language-in Shamlu's poetry, see Namdaryan, Ta'ammoli dar She'r-e Ahmad Shamlu, pp. 200-280. Also Hoquqi, She'r-e Zaman-e Ma 1: Ahmad Shamlu, pp. 21-23.

77. For example, in "The Death of the Nazarene," Shamlu uses "saff-e tamasha'ian" [the queue of onlookers] for describing the people who are watching the crucifixion. He could have used, as Hoquqi indicates in She'r-e Zaman-e Ma 1: Ahmad Shamlu, p. 323, "tamashagaran" or a number of other derivations which would seemingly mean the same--onlookers." However, Shamlu's choice of "tamasha'ian" is based on the double meaning of the word as a result of "tamasha'i" which means, not "onlooker, but something ridiculous that needs to be looked at! Hence, by his choice, Shamlu not only describes a group of viewers, but also comments on the ridiculous nature of that group.

78. Ibid., p. 20.

79. Rosenberg, Harold, The Tradition of the New (New York: Arno Press, 1969), p. 88Google Scholar.

80. Quoted by Jean Cocteau, Journals, translated by Wallace Fowlie (New York: Criterion Books, 1956).

81. Shamlu, Qoqnus dar Baran, pp. 59-62. This poem was later published in Kashefan-e Forutan-e Showkaran, pp. 24-26, under the title of "Marsiyeh" [Elegy].

82. Ibid., p. 75.

83. Idem, "Moqaddameh," Marsiyeh'ha-ye Khak (Tehran: Amir Kabir, 1969), p. 5.

84. Ibid,., pp. 40-45. For a translation of this poem, see Alishan, "Trends in Modernist Persian Poetry," pp. 106-107.

85. Ibid., "Shamgahi," p. 39.

86. Ibid., "Tarnsil," pp. 61-61.

87. Idem, Shekoftan dar Men (Tehran: Zaman, 1970), pp. 29-32.

88. Idem, "Shabaneh," Ebrahim dar Atash (Tehran: Zaman, 1973), pp. 5-6.

89. Ibid., "Barkhastan," pp. 11-12.

90. Ibid., "Taraneh-ye Tarik," pp. 36-37.

91. Ibid., "Dar Meydan" [In the Square], pp. 13-14, and "Milad-e Ankeh 'Asheqaneh bar Khak Mord" [The Birth of the One Who Died Lovingly on the Earth], pp. 53-55.

92. Idem, "Khatabeh-ye Tadfin," Deshneh dar Dis (Tehran: Morvarid, 1977), pp. 45-47.

93. Idem, "Shabaneh 4," Ayda; Derakht-o Khanjar-o Khatereh, p. 25.

94. Ibid., "Shekaf," pp. 48-50.

95. Ibid., pp. 64-66.

96. Ibid., "Gofti keh Bad Mord'ast," pp. 31-35.

97. Ibid., "Paridan," pp. 67-68.

98. Cf. footnotes 8, 9, 12, 99, and Shamlu, "Rabeteh-ye Amrika'iyan-e Khub va Fahim ba Doktor Yazdi," Tehran Mosawar 37, No. 21 (1979): 10-13.

99. Idem, "Barnameh-ye Tolu'-e Khorshid Laghv Shodeh'ast," Tehran-e Mosavvar 37, No. 22 (1979): 35-37.

100. Idem, "Avval-e Daftar," Ketab-e Jom'eh 1, No. 7 (1979): 3.

101. I am personally aware of two such opportunities. One occurred when his friend and prominent writer Gholamhosayn Sa'edi (b. 1935) left Iran for Paris, and the other, when Ahmad Karimi-Hakkak, a mutual friend and scholar, offered Shamlu a way out in 1983. Undoubtedly, there have been numerous other such occasions.

102. Shamlu, Taraneh'ha-ye Kuchak-e Ghorbat (Tehran: Maziyar, 1980), p. 16. It should be noted that both Shamlu and his friend and critic 'E. Pasha'i disagree with these interpretations and claim that the function of the exiles in both of these "nostalgic" poems should be construed as totally positive (personal letters, September 9, 1985).

103. Ibid., pp. 17-18.

104. Ibid., pp. 13-14.

105. Ibid., pp. 33-34.

106. Ibid.. pp. 30-32. For a complete translation of this poem, see Alishan, "Trends in Modernist Persian Poetry," pp. 109-110.

107. Ibid., pp. 26-27. For an excellent discussion of this poem, see 'E. Pasha'i, "Abdaneh'ha-ye Cherki-ye Baran-e Tabestani," Ketab-e Jom'eh 1, No. 1 (1979): 73-77.

108. Idem, Qoqnus dar Baran, p. 33.

109. Idem, Taraneh'ha-ye Kuchak-e Ghorbat, pp. 35-40.

110. Ibid., pp. 50-51.

111. Idem, "Ahmad Shamlu dar Barabar-e Chand Porsesh," Ketab-e Jom'eh 1, No. 31 (1980): 15.

112. Eliot, T. S., "Preface" to St. John Perse's Anabasis (New York: Harcourt, Brace, Jovanovich, 1949), p. 10Google Scholar.

113. Roland Barthes distinguishes between two kinds of texts: the "readerly" and the "writerly." The first kind, which he identifies with "classical texts," requires of its reader the mere act of reading followed by a rejection or an acceptance of what he has read. The writerly text, on the other hand, which Barthes identifies with modernist texts, requires a participation from its reader in the very creation of the work of art. Roland Barthes, S/Z, trans. Richard Miller (New York: Hill and Wang, 1974), as quoted and discussed by Ghanoonparvar, in Prophets of Doom, p. 122.

114. For symbolism in Nina's poetry, see Alishan, "Trends in Modernist Persian Poetry," pp. 14-15; also Baraheni, in Tala dar Mes, pp. 247-250, discusses the differences between Nina's engagé symbolism and Mallarme's "aesthetic" symbolism. Of course there were many non-engagé Iranian poets also, such as Sohrab Sepehri (1928-1980), who employed symbols in their poetry for reasons other than avoiding censorship.

115. Kahler, Eric, discussing it in its Western context in Man the Measure: A New Approach to History (New York: Pantheon Books, 1943), p. 493Google Scholar.

116. Saffarzadeh (b. 1936) is perhaps the only major Persian poet who opposed the Pahlavi regime by espousing Shi'i Islam as opposed to a secular ideology such as socialism. For a discussion of her poetry and beliefs, see Alishan, , "Tahereh Saffarzadeh: From the Wasteland to the Imam," Iranian Studies 15 (1982): 181-210CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

117. Shamlu, "Va Tabahi Aghaz Yaft," Ayda: Derakht-o Khanjar-o Khatereh, pp. 63-65.

118. I have discussed this issue extensively in a forthcoming article, "Marx vs. the Mahdi in Modernist Persian Poetry and Iranian Society." However, it should ba noted at this point that, in this context, the "committed" Iranian intelligentsia was far more gharbzadeh [weststruck], in the words of Jalal Al-e Ahmad, than the people who had remained faithful to their traditional world view. The very concepts of "freedom," "democracy," "socialism," and "nationalism," had their roots in the West and had been imported into Iran from the late nineteenth century onwards. The shah's "Great Civilization" was also, like Marx's First International, pointing to a temporal tomorrow in this linear and secular context of history. For a study of what the anti-establishment literati and the establishment held in common vis-à-vis the religious believers, see Hillmann", "The Modernist Trend in Persian Literature and Its Social Impact."

119. Redfern, N. D., Nizah, Paul: Committed Literature in a Conspirational World (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1972), p. 119Google Scholar.

120. E.g., Shafi'i Kadkani, M. A., Advar-e She'r-e Farsi as Mashrutiyat ta Soqut-e Saltanat (Tehran: Tus, 1980): 162-164Google Scholar, argues that if illiteracy were the issue, the public would have been equally ignorant of such popular traditional poets as Sa'di, Hafez, and Ferdowsi. Whether quoting a few lines of a traditional Persian poem, or admiring it with a "bah bah" or a nod implies an "understanding" of traditional Persian poetry, still needs to be proven.

121. Shamlu, "Shabaneh (6)," Ayda: Derakht-o Khanjar-o Khatereh, p. 37.

122. Stendhal (Marie Henri Beyle), The Charterhouse of Parma, trans. C. K. Scott Moncrieff (New York: Liveright Publishing Corporation, 1944), 2: 209.

123. Sartre, Jean Paul, What Is Literature, trans. Frechtman, Bernard (New York: Philosophical Library, 1949), p. 82Google Scholar.

124. Shamlu, Ketab-e Kucheh ("A") 1 (Tehran: Maziyar, 1979): vi.

125. See, for example, Hoquqi, She'r-e Zaman-e Ma: Ahmad Shamlu, p. 22, or Namdaryan, Ta'ammoli dar She'r-e Ahmad Shamlu, pp. 209-216.

126. Forugh acknowledged the influence of Shamlu's language on her own in, Forugh Farrokhzad, "Goft-o Shonud-e Forugh Farrokhzad ba M. Azad," Daftarha-ye Zamaneh, ed. Sirus Xahbaz (Tehran: Daftarha-ye Zamaneh, 1967), p. 80.

127. Shamlu, "Bahsi ba A. Bamdad," p. 143.

128. Idem, "Harfha'i az A. Bamdad," p. 135.

129. Idem, Ketab-e Jom'eh 1, No. 19 (1979): 65-74. For Shamlu's concern in matters pertaining to "language" see, also, Shamlu, "Dar Jostejuy-e Zaban-e Me'yar," or "Dar Bareh-ye Noqteh-Gozari," and "Ziyadeh-ravi Akidan Mamnu'," Az Mahtabi be Kucheh (Tehran; Tus, 1975).

130. Amir Taheri, "The Islamic Attack on Iranian Culture," Index on Censorship 12, No. 3 (1983): 26. In December of 1979, Shamlu stated that "Henceforth, by necessity, our [the intelligentsia's] struggle has to be a cultural one" ("Dar Barabar-e Chand Porsesh," p. 14.)

131. The most recent text published under Shamlu's name is a well-known folkloric tale, "Qesseh-ye Bakht" [The Tale of Fortune], Cheraeh, No. 5 (1984): 89-97, as "retold" by Shamlu which was supposed to have been published under the letter "B" of Ketab-e Kucheh.

132. Cf. footnote 68. Also, Iran Times 13, No. 31 (October 14, 1983): 5, reports that Shamlu was one of the candidates for the nobel prize in literature which was awarded to William Golding.

133. Shamlu, "Da'vat-e 'Am: A. Bamdad," Ferdowsi, No. 907 (1 Ordibehesht, 1969): 20.

134. Quoted in Monroe Spears, Dionysus and the City (New York: Oxford University Press, 1971), p. 87.