In my interview with Iranian poet
Maryam Ala Amjadi ,I received a very beautiful
answer to my question :
Who is a true poet ? Please read her answer and
enjoy it .She is only 22 years old.
Farideh Hassan Zadeh: who is a true poet?
A:I think our first true poet
was the Shahrzad of the One thousand and one nights,
although what has remained of her today is not
considered poetry but I believe her to be the
true narrator of life in the most symbolic of
ways. Her literature was the literature of necessity
and vitality. It was a matter of life and death
to her to paint out life in the wildest of fantasies,
every night. To her, literature was life itself.
The savior and the Jesus inside that each and
every person needs to get by in the darkest of
hours. The stories that flowed out of her were
bread to her life and each night of suspension
was another opportunity to delay what would exile
her to an island devoid of all meanings. Shahrzad
was a true believer in life. One who understands
and appreciates it or rather one who appreciates
the appreciation part more than the understanding.
Life is a necessity, not an addiction. Addiction
is something that keeps sticking on to you all
the time but necessity is something you run after
no matter what the ups and downs of the way do
to you. But that is just one side of the story.
Shahrzad is great in many other ways. She is also
the prophetess of the Promise Land. She narrates
the mystery, the beauty and the peace of the Promised
Land. She pats on our shoulders and says "Hey,
take it easy, there IS a brighter day!" but
how does she do this? By the end of thousandth
night shahrzad manages to make the malevolent
king Shahryar to believe in the things he has
lost confidence to trust in. Deep concepts like
beauty, peace of mind, love and etc which give
life meaning. Shahrzad regenerated all these beauties
in him by the power of her literature and her
patience.
Now as Erich Fromm wrote in his meaningful book
"The Art of Loving", the earth is always
symbolized as a woman (mother earth) and according
to the Old Testament, the Promised Land is the
land of "Milk and Honey". Here Fromm
says that any mother can feed her child with milk,
a liquid that gives life and symbolizes the acceptance
of life and growth but rarely, truly rarely can
one find a mother who feeds her child with honey
too, a substance so sweet that bequeaths love
for life. What Fromm meant was that a true mother
would give her child the ability to accept and
then above all to love life.
Shehrzad does all this by the power of her literature.
I am not talking just about didactic literature
but a literature that commits itself to revealing,
questioning, accepting and then loving life just
as it is. The mother in her feeds the forsaken
and helpless child in him with honey. She pacifies
and tames his rebelling fears by making him to
love life. Any poet can be a true depicter of
life, just like a reporter who states facts. But
not all poets question, challenge and generate
love for life.
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