Letters by Nima to Young Poets
Nima Yushi
To my shadow-mate (1)
How would you like to have some advice from me as provisions for your journey?
The thing you search for, has long been conceived in you.
This is also the way poetry works: one should first be conceived, next become
pregnant like a woman, then be patient, and finally give birth.
Now that you hold a newborn in your arms, remember all the pain, patience, and
time that was devoted to bear him.
Do not expect your newborn poem to be ideal for everyone. Don’t join hands
with such worthless writers whose introductions proclaim: “Yes, my poetry
is first class and I am the greatest poet of my times.”
I have likely mentioned to you many times, though, and there is no harm in repeating
it: “You have come into existence by time and should be known with time.”
The people who give you support are just like you are. Disguised in friendship
or by any social grudge, your selfish character has already been transmitted
to them. No one else’s point of view is infallible, but time which proves
judgment in many generations who come and go .
Let have such a supporter. If you like to see the color of wine, you should
wait for it to turn into dregs.
In spite of all self- glorification and the need for public admiration, never
use poetry as a means for earning a livelihood.
When you are exalted above people and feel superior to all others, you have
already stained this superiority and nobility by vanishing it with your vanity.
Write poetry only for yourself. If it’s a hard task for you to do so,
let it go! It is quite useless.
To my shadow-mate (2)
Strength is not denial. It is taking others as our own self and looking through
their eyes. If we disagree with their writings, we should still be able to enjoy
it as much as the author does himself. If you are deprived of such ability,
then be sure that you are deprived of enough strength in your own work.
A poet should be able to be himself and others. He should be able to leave the
“self” temporarily. This is essential. I advise you don’t
be so self-centered, proud and self-absorbed. This is the reason you can’t
leave the self of yours. This is why you can’t enjoy works written by
others.
To my shadow-mate (3)
My dear! Do you find in your solitude the sincerity and purity that are needed?
Ask yourself the answer my dear! No one knows what you are doing and no one
can see you.
Do you see the unseen things?
Do those persons appear in front of you whom you would like to meet?
Does the corner of your room turn into a view of the sea?
Do you see the distant future, so many years after your death when (somebody
who is not yet come into the bud), later, is writing in his privacy about your
work?
Whenever all these realities come into being and your small room can hold a
world in it, then there is no doubt of the sincerity and purity of your solitude.
But if it is not this way, be sure that your solitude is superficial. It is
like the solitude of a businessman who is counting his money behind a closed
door. Your heart is not with you and you have lost yourself.
Begin to purify yourself. Begin to clarify yourself. The solitude of which we
speak is an essence of our sincerity and purity. Not anything else.
To my shadow-mate (5)
You had asked me: ”Are all the people poets ? How is it that everybody
writes poetry in our country? “
I reply in short, for in these days I am very anxious and distressed.
It will suffice to give you a simple example: in a house in which there are
too many children, and a mason is working, his tools are in children’s
hands.
In the world of art, in every field, you can see the same thing. This is why
in most of the aristocratic families, an idle piano is in one corner of the
drawing room.
Most of the young play violin and there is no mortal who doesn’t sing
.But everybody is not a pianist and everybody is not a violinist. They have
merely in their hands the instruments of the poet , the pianist and violinist.
As for the poets, their instrument is congenital, their ability in rhyming words,
which is the most simple work in our language. It seems they are born rhythm
makers.
I add only one point to this subject: there are selfish, naughty and impudent
children who will never admit their foolishness and crudity.
Edited by: Christina Pacosz
Nima Yushi - Ali Sfandiari (1896-1959), the father of modern Iran poetry, when he decided to publish his poems, choose the pen name Nima Yushij, which means: an innovator from Yush (a village in the north of Iran). A simple shepherd, the son of a farmer, started a revolution in Persian poetry: Nima Yushij ‘s solitary struggle as a true poet made possible freedom for Persian poetry that was in chains of rhyme and rhythm for long centuries.
