Iran

1 April is Iran’s Islamic Republic Day: the country’s name is official the Islamic Republic of Iran (in Farsi I believe this is written جمهوری اسلامی ايران though I’m trusting to other people’s advice on that one, much as I would love to be able to read and write Farsi). Until 1935 the country was known as Persia. Iran is bounded by the Gulf of Oman and the Persian Gulf. The name “Iran” means “Land of Aryans.” An alternative name for the country in Persian literature—and in the Iranian media—is “Land of Kindness.” Iran is home to one of the world’s oldest continuous civilizations.

The twentieth century saw a number of changes in Iran—after an overthrow of the Qajar Dynasty in 1921, the country was then invaded during World War II (in 1941) by Britain and Russia. The Shah at this time, who had some ties to Germany, and was forced to abdicate in favour of his son. Following the 1951 election of Dr Mohammed Mossadegh as Prime Minister of Iran, and his nationalization of Iran’s oil reserves, US President Eisenhower authorized Operation Ajax, a plan to depose the Prime Minister, leading to Mossadegh’s arrest in 1953. With American support, the Shah was able to modernize the country, but he also disallowed political dissension. As a result, Khomeini became an active critic of the Shah and, following an 18 month imprisonment, was sent into exile.

1978 saw the Iranian Revolution, which is also known as the Islamic Revolution: in January of 1979, the Shah fled the country, and Ayatollah Khomeini returned from exile. On 1 April 1979, Iran officially became an Islamic Republic following a national referendum in support of the move.

The Iranian revolution led to a deterioration of Iran’s relationship with the United States, especially as a result of the Iranian hostage crisis, when in November 1979 a group of Iranian students seized US embassy personnel, an action Khomeini supported after the fact. Fifty-two of these hostages were held for 444, released on 19 January 1981 with the Algiers declaration.

During the 1980s, Iran was at war with Iraq for several years, until in 1988 Khomeini accepted a truce mediated by the United Nations, after the dead of more than 100,000 Iranians as a result of Iraq’s use of chemical weapons, and the death of several hundred thousand more as a result of the conflict.

Iran has a diverse population, made up of several ethnic groups; the country also hosts one of the world’s largest refugee populations—more than one million. This group is largely from Afghanistan and Iraq.

The country is noted for significant human rights violations, including the persecution of the religious minority Bahá'ís.

Today’s poem is by the poet Simin Behbahani, and is taken from the amazing new Norton Anthology of Asian poetries, Language for a New Century. She was born in Tehran in 1927, and was nominated for the Nobel Prize in 1997. The subject matter fits this project perfectly, I think.

Homeland, Once More, I’ll Build You

To the lady of Persian storytelling, Simin Daneshvar

Homeland, once more, I’ll build you,
If needed, with brick made from my life.
Once more, I’ll support your ceilings,
If needed, with columns made from my bones.
Once more, I’ll seek in your flowers
The perfumes of a new generation.
Once more, I’ll cleanse your body of bloodstains
If needed, with my tears.
Once more, one shining day, darkness will leave this house.
Once more, I’ll paint my poems blue,
Reflecting the colors of your sky.
Once more, he will raise me, like a glorious mountain,
The Judge and Resurrector of old bones.
Ancient I may be, but given the opportunity,
Once more, I’ll begin youth, among my children.
I’ll sing “The Love of Home” with passion,
Filling every word with vitality.
A fire still burns in my breast,
Fueled from the warmth of my people.
Once more, you will give me your strength,
Even though my poems are blood-clotted.
Once more will I build you with the substance of my life,
Though it requires powers beyond mine.

—Simin Behbahani
translated from the Persian by Farzaneh Milani and Kaveh Safa
from Language for a New Century