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4.1.1 Pre-Revolutionary Writers

A large part of the work of the following two writers, Abbas Yamini-Sharif and Mahmud Kianush, was completed before the revolution and therefore they have been selected as examples to illustrate the pre-revolutionary period. An interesting study would be to compare this work with the output of these writers after the revolution, but this is outside the limits of the present thesis. Moreover, as Abbas Yamini-Sharif celebrated the fiftieth anniversary of his career in 1986, it can be seen that the bulk of his work was completed in the pre-revolutionary era.

Furthermore, both Abbas Yamini-Sharif and Mahmud Kianush, although still writing until recent times, have been based outside of Iran since before the Islamic revolution, and so would not present a good example of the effects of modern Iranian culture and society on post-revolutionary writers.

4.1.1.1 Abbas Yamini-Sharif                     

Abbas Yamini-Sharif (1298-1368/1919-89), is considered the father of children’s poetry in Iran. Before his pioneering work there had been little Farsi poetry written for children. Yamini-Sharif began his career in 1317/1938, and was the most prolific children’s poet of the period, after Baghcheban.[1]  Between 1946 and 1986, he published 27 works: 11 collections of poetry, 12 volumes of prose, one play and three translations. The genre flourished in the period 1350/1971 to 1356/1977, with Mahmud Kianush also publishing seven books of poetry for children aged from five to fifteen. Yamini-Sharif and a few others occasionally wrote poems in syllabic meter and in the colloquial style of nursery rhymes, and lullabies.[2]

Many of Yamini-Sharif’s poems, on themes related to the lives and development of children, were later collected and published in book form: Feri be asman miravad­ (Tehran, 1344/1965), Avaz-e fereshtegan ya as‘ar-e kudakan (Tehran, 1345/1966), and Nim qarn dar bagh-e she‘r[3] (Tehran 1366/1987).[4] He has also produced a Farsi language instruction book for foreigners, which includes Farsi poetry, information about the Iranian people and the country itself, Farsi-English vocabulary and some conversational sentences in Farsi along with the phonetic alphabet and English translations.[5]

Yamini-Sharif was part of the group of 37 experts, teachers and educators, along with Lili Ahi, Tamina Bagcheban, Turan Mirhadi (Komarlu), that established the Children’s Book Council in 1341/1963; and which was officially registered as an NGO in 1968.[6] In 1986, the CBCI honored Abbas Yamini-Sharif with a celebration of his work.  Professor Noushine Ansari reported as follows:

 ‘On November 15 1986 CBCI celebrated the 50^th anniversary of AbbasYamini-Sharif’s career as a poet, writer and translator for children and young adults. He studied education in Iran and at Columbia University in USA and worked for many years as a distinguished teacher and school director. In 1943 he published the first Iranian magazine for children called “Children’s Games”. Since 1946 he has published 27 works – 11 collections of poetry, 12 volumes of prose, one play and three translations. Mr. Yamini-Sharif has won several national as well as international awards. He is one of the founding members of CBCI and also established its annual awards to an Iranian author, illustrator and for an unpublished manuscript.’[7]

Fereshte Sarisa, Yamini-Sharif’s niece, also a poet, attributes her vocation to having grown up in a family in which nearly all were poets:  ‘My uncle Abbas Yamini Sharif wrote poetry for children, and also my grandmother and my mother.’[8] Yamini-Sharif, himself,[9] tells how his six year-old twin grandchildren, Peyman and Sahar, liked books better than any toys, and especially the three books of Khaneh-ye Baba Ali which were written for them. He says his stories and poems are set in the village because he spent most of his youth in the village of Darband, which had yet to become a suburb of Tehran, and preferred the clean air and peacefulness, and the warmness, gentleness and innocence of country people compared to the noise and pollution of Tehran.  He wrote the Two Kadkhoda (Village Headmen) to describe life in the village and Donkey and Donkey-boy to describe urban living.[10]

Yamini-Sharif says that later, as the children were growing up, they were still read bedtime stories before they went to sleep and adds ‘When I was young, I wasn’t satisfied with fewer that two stories to send me to sleep, and would insist and be so stubborn that one night when my mother had a helper to tell stories, and had told her first story and didn’t know which story to tell next, and I was still pestering her, she gave in and told the story of Yertanyert Zertanzert; she just made up these stories.  And how enjoyable they were!  She talked about two creatures born to a stepmother who lived in a village. All they did was eat and eat and eat. They ate all the food, all the inhabitants of the village, all the trees, all the animals, even the ones in the stable. There was only one child that they were unable to eat. In the end this child destroyed them and brought everything out of their stomachs.’[11]

When Yamini-Sharif was a child, his family and relatives were fond of poetry. As well as reading Hafiz’s poetry for fâl [12] and for ecstatic enjoyment, and reading Saadi and Mowlavi for morals and sayings and folk wisdom, they also read contemporary poetry.[13] They read the press and newspapers, and whatever poem or song became popular, they also memorized it and used it. Yamini-Sharif too, under the influence of this environment, and being blessed with a good memory at the time, read and memorized all these compositions and poems. In addition, his family had become friendly with Farrokhi Yazdi[14] because, both during his membership in the parliament and after his return from exile in Germany, he lived in the Kolah Farangi section of their orchard in Darband and considered its atmosphere perfect for poetry.

Yamini-Sharif recalls: ‘Of all the factors which drew me towards poetry, were those times when professional singers were employed to bring critical and political poems to people’s attention by singing songs and proclaiming messages in that garden on the mountain next to the Darband River. On Friday and Saturday nights, many families would take a stroll up and down the valley of Darband and Sarband, or rest in the gardens taking refreshments. Farrokhi used to write poems which he wished a singer to sing for the ordinary people so that his message would reach them, but the singer was illiterate; so I, who was 10 years old and attending Maktab, and could read, would sit next to the singer in the highest part of the garden overlooking the Darband River, and from Farrokhi’s handwritten notes, I would read the texts to the singer, and he would sing the words in a loud and resonating voice which spread throughout the valley and echoed several times around the mountains, and the whole of the valley would enjoy this beautiful poetry and lovely words, which had arisen from the heart …’[15]

Yamini-Sharif was thus exposed to critical and political poetry, as well as news and classical writings of all kinds, at an early age. Yet Samad Behrangi accuses him of only writing for rich children and of having a narrow, upper class, outlook on life, saying that his poetry has no message except possibly antiquated moral codes.[16] This is strong criticism for a writer who is considered the father of children’s poetry in Iran.

An example of Yamini-Sharif’s poetry for pre-elementary and early elementary age group children (5-8yrs) follows:

I fell to the Ground (Oftadam Zamin)  

From up I fell                 down to the ground

my face became            scraped and bloody

I just laughed                      again and again

my mum said                  sweet child

you didn’t cry                   well, well, bravo![17]

                 (from Songs of Angels, 1325/1946)

The next two poems are for children at the end of elementary and in guidance (10-14yrs):

Harvest Time (Hengam-e Deru)

The fall wind is blowing                                we’re getting everything ready

get up reaper                                                   get up with jumping feet

See how the harvest has become golden            God has given us help

from each seed that we planted                        the earth has given a hundred grains

We were all fully occupied                          whether it was easy or hard

so that we could get back quickly             to fill the barn with produce.[18]

(from Talking Flowers, 1350/1971)

***

Drop and the Sea (Qetre va Darya)

It appeared from the drops of rain from the teeny weeny grains of sand

What oceans without shores             what mountains & plains without limit or end

From goodness little by little kindness            from cheerfulness and eloquence

The world goes round like heaven                  full of affection & loyalty & happiness

What value is there from time if it becomes immediate?

What will come of so much immediacy in time?

But because instant is added upon instant

Time appears eternal.[19]

(from The Garden of Melodies, 1352/1973)

***

From these examples, it can be seen that concrete issues close to the hearts and everyday lives of children are touched upon, as well as universal and philosophical themes. ‘Arrow and Song’[20] is another poem in the second group which compares the effect of an arrow with that of a song, saying that one never knows where a song that you sing goes, unlike an arrow which you can trace.  After years, the poet realized that his arrow had fallen on a tree and his song, which he thought had not affected anyone, had fallen upon the heart of his friend or soul mate. Such issues are delicate and open a way of deeper thinking for children that may not relate to everyday life and conditions. Farsi poetry traditionally deals with such issues, and children have been learning how to interpret abstract and intangible language and concepts for many centuries. Possibly it is this quality of tradition and abstraction in Yamini-Sharif’s work which Behrangi takes offence to. The next writer to be investigated, Mahmud Kianush, was strongly influenced by Yamini-Sharif and their work shares many similarities.

4.1.1.2 Mahmud Kianush                            

Mahmud Kianush, Iranian poet, writer, literary critic, and translator, was born in Mashhad, Iran in 1934. He studied at Tehran University and Teachers’ Training College, and has a BA in English language and literature. Lili Hayeri Yazdi introduces Mahmud Kianush briefly in her article ‘Active Writers/Authors in the Present-day Iran.’

‘Mahmud Kianush, poet, writer, critic and translator was born in 1934. He published his first poems and short stories at the age of 16, he was editor-in-chief of two leading Persian literary magazines and he also contributed to many magazines as a writer. After Abbas Yamini-Sharif (father of children’s poetry in Iran), he has become known as the founder of children’s poetry.’ [21]

His first poems and short stories were published when he was only 16 and still in secondary school. The Arts website, Art Arena, reports that so far, he has published 12 books of poetry, 9 books of short stories and novels, 12 books of poems and stories for children, several books of literary criticism, and more than 20 books of translations including works by John Steinbeck, D.H. Lawrence, Eugene O' Neill, Aime Cesaire, Samuel Beckett, Athol Fugard, Par Lagerkvist, Federico Garcia Lorca and others.[22]

He was editor-in-chief of the two leading Persian literary monthly magazines, Sokhan (Words), and Sadaf (Mother-of-Pearl). He also contributed, as writer and editor, to five bi-weekly magazines for children, teachers and parents, published by the Ministry of Education in Iran.

Kianush published seven books of poetry for children aged from five to fifteen in the period 1350/1971 to 1356/1977, a period when the genre of children’s poetry flourished.[23]

After eight years of writing poetry for children, he published a book entitled Children’s Poetry in Iran,[24] which explains the principles that he had discovered.  As a result of this work, he became known as the founder of children’s poetry in Iran.

Art Arena notes that after being a teacher for 5 years, Kianush worked in the civil service until 1974, when he asked for early retirement. A year later he moved to Britain with his wife and children. For the last 18 years he has been working in the Persian section of the BBC as a writer and producer. Among other things, he has written and broadcast more than 500 pieces of satirical poetry and prose.[25]

His latest works, ready for publication, include two collections of poems in English, The Fifth and the Last Nail,[26] and Of Birds and Men.[27] The Persian version of Of Birds and Men was recently published.[28]

In an interview with Art Arena,[29] Mahmud Kianush told of how he started writing children’s poetry, saying that when he was invited by the Centre for Educational Publications of the Ministry of Education to contribute to a number of bi-weeklies for children, young adults, teachers and parents more than 30 years ago, he realized that he wanted his contributions to be poetry for children.

He began to study the situation at the time and found that only a few contemporary poets, who were not really aware of what children’s poetry should be, had occasionally written some poems for children. Any other works published for children were chosen from contemporary as well as classical poets, who had not originally intended their work to be for children, but since the subjects and expressions were simple, they were thought suitable for that age group. From this Kianush concluded that in reality Iran did not have any children’s poetry.

When he thought back to his own childhood, and tried to remember which poems he liked, and what made them memorable, he found that there were only a few nursery rhymes and folk songs that had made an impression on him. So thinking like a child, and having those nursery rhymes as a source of inspiration in words and music, he started to write a number of experimental poems, and published them in the bi-weekly magazines. He says that then he was able to create poetry that he would have liked to have read when he was a child.[30] Kianush defines children’s poetry in the following terms: 

‘Poems for children are like toys, that are made of words, and these words give wings to their imagination. Children want to sing them, to dance with them, and to play with them. Therefore, the poems have to be musical, colorful and easy for children to be used as toys.’[31]

He goes on to say that since children are of an age when they are beginning to experience nature and life, subjects have to be chosen through their searching and discovering eyes. What they discover in their environment be it things, people, emotions; everything in their poems has to be in accordance with this journey in playfully knowing and understanding the world.[32]

Kianush explains that he became known as the founder of children’s poetry in Iran as a result of his work, Children’s Poetry in Iran.[33] After writing eight books of poetry for children, he explained the principles that he had discovered in this book. Today, he says, many young poets famous for writing children’s poetry, have been influenced by his work.[34] Kianush says that he stopped writing children’s poetry because, ‘There came a time when I felt that I had written what I believed to be almost all the suitable subjects for children in my poetry, and to write any more would have meant that I would be repeating myself. That was when I knew that I had to stop and let other poets give their share of words to children.’[35]

Kianush’s gift is the magical atmosphere he creates for children. His poetry is mystical, while dealing with natural subjects. Below is an example of one of his children’s poems:

Green Indian Parrot (Tuti Sabz Hindi)

Green Indian Parrot,

From the forests you come,

With sweet stories

To our city you come.

With this learning,

You must have had a hundred teachers;

Otherwise from where

Did you get these stories!

Stories of cloud and sun,

Stories of wind and rain;

Stories of forest celebration

In the joy of springtide.

But now caged

I guess you’re in a bad mood;

You say to yourself:

The heart of humans is made of stone!

With a hundred mockeries and mimicries,

With one false tongue,

Everything I say to you

You too say to me.[36]

 More examples of Kianush’s poetry can be seen online,[37] and four of his poems for children are included in Appendix 8. Although he stopped writing poetry for children, he has continued to write children’s stories until recently, an example being his 1997 story, Bathers and Water Storers[38] for 9 yrs up, which is reviewed as follows in More than 100 Persian Children’s Books:

  ‘The neighborhood is divided into two groups. One group is from the part of the neighborhood where water is stored and the other group is from the part where water is used in the baths. It is ambiguous as to who names these areas. It is only important to know that their differences start here. This is the common reason for dividing up the water. The children from the neighborhood always fight with each other and even the school cannot make them friends. Until one day the children from the water storage section form a soccer team called the Phoenix (the mythical bird in Iranian stories) and announce their readiness to compete with other teams on the neighborhood walls. The Phoenix team only has three good players so they lose rather badly. As a result of this loss they realize that if they make up their differences with the Bathers they can make a strong team. Thus, the unity of the children from the neighborhood creates a strong team. In conclusion, the opposing team loses and from now on they are united.’[39]

  The story is further described as being about enemies who have no reason to battle, a story which focuses on the necessity of those the same age to put arguments aside and make friends. No one hero predominates in the story, where different types of personalities are presented; strong characters who order people around, those that force others to do what they say, and those who do not think independently so they follow the first group. The difference between the youth of the two neighboring groups is based on a lack of understanding about poverty and social interaction.[40]

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