Freydoun Farokhzad: Another Season

Andere Jahreszeit

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Freydoun Farokhzad Another Season.indd 1 07/10/2020 09:30 Edited and Translated by Nima Mina

Freydoun Farokhzad: Another Season A Bilingual Edition with Critical Introduction, Annotations and Archival Material.

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Freydoun Farokhzad Another Season.indd 2-3 07/10/2020 09:30 CONTENTS

MEHRI PUBLICATION Poetry * 1 Another Season: 7 Freydoun Farokhzad: Another Season Freydoun Farokhzad’s early poetry

A Bilingual Edition with Critical Introduction, Annotations and Archival Material. I Thought in Persian, spoken in German 47 Edited and Translated by Nima Mina Persisch gedacht, deutsch gesagt British Library Cataloguing Publication Data: A catalogue record for this book is available from Portrait of a country 85 the British Library | ISBN: 978-1-9993747-9-2 | II |First Edition. 160.p | Price: £13.99 | Porträt eines Landes |Printed in the United Kingdom, 2019 | | Book Design: Cista Arts Studio | III Experience 105 | Cover Design: Parsua Bashi | Erfahrung Copyright © Nima Mina, 2019 © 2019 by Mehri Publication Ltd. \ London. IV All rights reserved. What I have left to say 137 No part of this book may be reproduced or Was ich noch sagen wollte transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or V About these poems 141 in any information storage or Zu diesen Gedichten retrieval system without the prior written permission By Johannes Bobrowski of Mehri Publication. From the Marbach Literary Archive The Autumn / Der Herbst www.mehripublication.com Letter and postcard from Freydoun Farokhzad [email protected] www.mehripublication.comto Johannes Bobrowski

Freydoun Farokhzad Another Season.indd 4-5 07/10/2020 09:30 Another Season: Freydoun Farokhzad’s early poetry

Nima Mina, SOAS, University of London

Those of us who remember the 1970s in Iran know Freydoun Farokhzad1 as a singer, songwriter and host of the popular Mikhak-e Noqreyi television

1. Freydoun Farokhzad was born on 7 October 1936 in Tehran and murdered on 6 August 1992 in Bonn. His father, Army Colonel Mohammad Farokhzad Araqi, was from Tafresh in Iran’s Central Province / Ostan-e markazi, and his mother, Turan Vaziri Tabar, was from the city of Kashan in the province of Isfahan. His older siblings were the writer and publisher Pouran, the physician Amir Masoud and the iconic modern poet Forough, and his younger ones were the designer Gloria and the engineers Mehran and Mehrdad, all of whom passed away before the publication of this book. The spelling adopted in this paper is the one Freydoun Farokhzad himself used in the Latin transliteration of his first and last name in his German publications during the 1960s, including the book Andere Jahreszeit www.mehripublication.com www.mehripublication.com(Another Season), Neuwied and Berlin 1964: Hermann Luchterhand Verlag GmbH. 7

Freydoun Farokhzad Another Season.indd 6-7 07/10/2020 09:30 show,2 which was broadcast for several years pre-revolution era as Ahmad Shamlou, Esmail and made Freydoun one of the most successful Khoi and Sohrab Sepehri, as well as younger talents personalities in the history of Iranian television. like Hossein Monzavi, Mohammad Zokayi and Less well known than his work as a songwriter, Seyyed Ai Salehi, who became better known after composer, recording artist and show host are winning the award. Towards the end of the 1970s Freydoun’s contributions to literature, including and with the rise of the revolutionary movement, his own poetry written in Persian, translations of the award ceremony lost its popularity and was

poetry mainly from English, French and German eventually discontinued by Freydoun himself. Another Season: Freydoun Farokhzad’s early poetry and his work as the organizer of the Forough Initially, Freydoun observed the birth of Farokhzad literary award. Freydoun founded the revolutionary movement in the autumn of this award shortly after his return to Iran in the 1977 with some degree of sympathy, and even late 1960s, and during the 1970s it evolved into participated in aid initiatives such as collections a landmark event which was taken especially of money and drugs for the wounded victims of seriously by politicized Iranian writers. Recipients street demonstrations. After the change of power of the prize included such prominent, socially and in February 1979, however, he was shocked at politically engaged writers and dissidents of the the outbreak of indiscriminate violence against those who were accused of being agents of the 2. According to the London-based Iranian poet, playwright, overthrown regime. Like many other actors, stage director and songwriter Iraj Jannati Atayi, other singers and musicians who later became prominent in the Iranian popular music singers and dancers who were celebrities in the scene – including Ebi, Sattar, Daryoush, Shahram Solati, Shohreh, pre-revolution era, he was summoned before Leyla Forouhar, Nushafarin, et al. – might never have chosen a musical career path without Freydoun Farokhzad as a role model. the revolutionary tribunal and forced to sign In most cases, their careers in Iranian popular culture were launched a statement of commitment obligating him to on Freydoun’s show Mikhak-e Noqreyi (interview with Iraj Jannati Atayi,22 March 2010). In 1971, Freydoun also played a role in the refrain from any form of public performance. feature film Delha-ye biaram (Restless Hearts) directed by Esmail Riahi, along with the actors Iraj Qaderi and Shahla Riahi. In addition The revolutionary tribunal also ruled that portions to Mikhak-e Noqreyi, Freydoun Farokhzad also hosted other shows, of his property were to be confiscated by the including The National Show, Salam Hamsayeha and Bozorgtarin Namayesh-e Hafte, and appeared frequently as a guest on the radio Islamic Republic. He distanced himself from the programme Jom’-e Bazar (written communication from Freydoun’s revolution, but stayed in Iran until 1982, when he www.mehripublication.comassistant and friend Mohammad Sadr in Tehran via the Munich www.mehripublication.com 8 based filmmaker Claus Strigel, 25 August 2014). eventually left the country by crossing the border 9

Freydoun Farokhzad Another Season.indd 8-9 07/10/2020 09:30 into Turkey with his companion Said Mohammadi.3 he actively supported the organization Derafsh-e From Turkey they were granted permission to Kaviani, founded by Manuchehr Ganji in Paris, enter France and move to Paris, the international and moderated a show on the organization’s centre of organized opposition in the 1980s. A shortwave radio programme.5 Finally, at the end wide spectrum of Iranian oppositional groups and of his life, he became one of the most prominent organizations were active in Paris during those victims of the Islamic Republic’s state terrorism, years, including royalist activists who fought for which reached a historical peak during the

the overthrow of the post-revolution regime and presidency of Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani in the Another Season: Freydoun Farokhzad’s early poetry the reinstatement of the monarchy. After 1981, 1990s under Intelligence Ministers Ali Fallahian political organizations and associations that had and Qorban Ali Dorri Najafabadi.6 On 6 August participated in the revolution of 1979 but had been 1992, Freydoun was stabbed to death and ousted by Ayatollah Khomeini and his followers beheaded by three assassins in his apartment on gradually found their way to Paris. Freydoun the outskirts of Bonn. fraternized with activists from the conservative In Europe and North America, Freydoun side of the opposition spectrum; after two years, used his popularity to draw large audiences he broke his silence and began working again as to his shows, which always had anti-regime a singer and television show host, this time with content. It is conceivable that his relentless and a distinctly counter-revolutionary agenda. During radical criticism of the Islamic Republic, of its his years in exile he lived in Paris, Los Angeles, Hamburg and Bonn. He helped underage Iranian the Austrian entry for Best Foreign Language Film at the 64th POWs, travelled to Iraq three times on behalf of Academy Awards. Freydoun played the role of “Ali Mohamed”. 5. Dr Manouchehr Ganji, a US-, Swiss- and British-educated UNICEF, and each time brought between 25 and academic and politician, was the Dean of the Faculty of Law at 30 of these children back to Europe with him. In the University of Tehran and Minister of Education. After the 1979 revolution, he relocated to Paris and founded the royalist exile the 1980s he also acted in Houshang Allahyari’s organization Derafsh-e Kaviani. feature film I Love Vienna.4 In subsequent years 6. Beginning in the Spring of 1979, systematic assassinations of exiled Iranian dissidents were carried out by post-revolution Iranian security and intelligence organizations, in particular the 3. Interview with Freydoun’s sister Pouran Farokhzad, 26 March 2010. Ministry of Intelligence (VEVAK) and the Islamic Revolutionary www.mehripublication.com4. I Love Vienna, an Austrian comedy film written and directed www.mehripublication.comGuard Corps (IRGC), or by non-Iranian operatives working outside 10 by Houshang Allahyari and released in 1991, was selected as the country on their behalf. 11

Freydoun Farokhzad Another Season.indd 10-11 07/10/2020 09:30 ideological and political foundations, and of its Interpol appeared at the crime scene only three leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, were the days after the murder and carried out extensive real reason for his assassination.7 investigations which – according to members of The German Federal Office of Criminal the Farokhzad family, who flew in from Iran and Investigation (Bundeskriminalamt) and the other parts of Germany – must have led to a clear identification of the assassins. However, no one 7. The London-based, exiled Iranian journalist Esmail Pourvali was charged on the basis of these investigations, claims that Freydoun’s name was added to the hit list of the Islamic Republic’s death squads because of his alleged involvement as a and the case never resulted in a judicial process Another Season: Freydoun Farokhzad’s early poetry mediator in a plot to kidnap the speaker of the Iranian parliament 8 and commander of the Iranian war effort, Akbar Hashemi such as the Mykonos trial in Berlin. It appears Rafsanjani, and bring him to Baghdad in a hijacked plane during that Freydoun was also the victim of the “critical the Iran-Iraq war. In the course of a trip from Germany to Iraq to visit underage Iranian POWs, Freydoun was approached by dialogue” that dominated German foreign policy members of the Iraqi Mokhaberat, who asked him to use his toward the Islamic Republic of Iran in the early friendship with young Iranian singer Said Mohammadi, whose brother Ali Akbar was a pilot in Iran. Iraqi intelligence asked 1990s. Under the pretext of “critical dialogue” Freydoun to convey the request to Ali Akbar Mohammadi through his brother Said to hijack a plane with Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani and in the interest of lucrative business relations on board. Ali Akbar Mohammadi hijacked an Iranian Falcon-2 jet which had reached unprecedented levels in the during a training flight out of a military airbase in the northern Iranian city of Rasht and flew through Turkish airspace to early 1990s, German authorities tolerated and Baghdad, but he did not kidnap Rafsanjani. One month later, he overlooked certain “misdemeanours” on the part relocated from Baghdad to Hamburg. On 13 January 1987, he was assassinated in Hamburg by two unidentified terrorists. Freydoun’s death sentence was issued by Mohammad Mohammadi Nik, 8. The so-called Mykonos trial took place after the assassination in alias Reyshahri, alias Mohammad Daroonparvar, a judge in the the Greek restaurant “Mykonos” in Berlin of four Iranian-Kurdish revolutionary tribunal system and in the judicial organization of the dissidents – Sadeq Sharafkandi, Homayoun Ardalan, Fattah Abdoli armed forces, the Islamic Republic’s first Minister of Intelligence, and Nouri Dehkordi – during the world congress of the Socialist prosecutor general, etc. The sentence was carried out by a hit International on 17 September 1992. The trial against four Iranian squad operating under the supervision of Ali Fallahian, who later and Lebanese individuals involved in the conspiracy began on 28 became Reyshahri’s successor as Minister of Intelligence. A year October 1994 and lasted approximately five years. It was the most before Freydoun Farokhzad’s assassination, former Iranian Prime expensive and laborious trial in post-WWII Germany. The court Minister Shapour Bakhtiar and one of his close political friends, recognized the assassination as an instance of state-sponsored Abdolrahman Boroumand, had been assassinated in Paris. In terrorism and named the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic November 1990, Dr Cyrus Elahi, a member of Derafsh-e Kaviani, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, had been killed as well. It is likely that Freydoun’s murder was Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Velayati, Minister of Intelligence part of the same series of assassinations. The precise details of his Ali Fallahian and other high ranking members of the Islamic murder are still unknown to the general public; Pourvali’s account Republic’s political leadership as responsible for the murders. The www.mehripublication.comhas not been confirmed by a second independent source, and the www.mehripublication.comMykonos incident had a long-term negative effect on the Islamic 12 German Bundeskriminalamt will not comment on the case. Republic’s relations with European countries. 13

Freydoun Farokhzad Another Season.indd 12-13 07/10/2020 09:30 of the Islamic Republic, as long as the personal German: the poet Cyrus Atabay,9 who had been security of German-born citizens was not directly raised and educated in Nazi Germany in the 1930s, affected. The last years of Freydoun’s life, his and Bozorg Alavi,10 who published a collection political engagement in exile and the nature of 9. Atabay (born 6 September 1929 in Tehran, died 26 January his possible interaction with his assassins are 1996 in Munich) was the son of the German-educated physician among the enigmatic parts of his legacy. The truth Hadi Atabay and Fatemeh “Hamdam-al-Saltane” Pahlavi, Reza Shah Pahlavi’s eldest daughter. In 1937 he and his brother Amir about his murder will only be reconstructed when Reza Atabay were sent to Berlin, where their father had previously

the Islamic Republic ceases to exist, when open studied. After the end of WWII, Cyrus relocated briefly to Iran but Another Season: Freydoun Farokhzad’s early poetry returned to Germany to finish high school. His German literary access to the archives of its intelligence ministry writings were first published in 1950 in the feuilleton section of the Zurich-based periodical Die Tat, edited by Max Rychner. He is granted – and, of course, when the German and began studying German literature at the Ludwig-Maximilians- international authorities disclose their findings. Universität (LMU) in Munich, but dropped out and devoted himself to his own reading and writing. Later in life he became During the eleven years of his life in exile, close friends with Erich Fried and Elias Canetti. He spent the 1960s Freydoun published two volumes of his poetry in Munich, London and Tehran; in Tehran he joined the literary circle Torfe. Bijan Elahi and Mehrdad Samadi translated selections in Persian, but seemingly never tried to write in a of his poems from the German and he became known in Iran. He himself translated works by contemporary Iranian poets, including foreign language. As a student in Germany more Forough Farokhzad, from Persian into German. Following the than 25 years earlier, however, he had written poetry 1979 revolution, Atabay moved to London and from there to Munich in 1983. He was awarded the Hugo Jacobi and Adelbert in German. These poems were highly acclaimed in von Chamisso prizes. Atabay and Freydoun Farokhzad knew each the German-speaking countries of Europe (West other as residents of the city of Munich and public figures in the Iranian community of that city during the first half of the 1960s. and East Germany, Austria and Switzerland). News 10. Bozorg Alavi (Seyyed Mojtaba Aqa Bozorg Alavi, born 3 of his success even travelled to Iran and was noted February 1904 in Tehran, died 16 February 1997 in Berlin) was an Iranian prose writer, scholar of contemporary Persian literature, primarily by people who knew his family name lexicographer, translator and professor of Iranian Studies at through his sister. In 1964 Freydoun published a the Humboldt-Universität in (East) Berlin between 1952 and his retirement in 1978. Alavi was also a founding member of book of poetry entitled Andere Jahreszeit (Another the communist Tudeh Party in 1941. After studying in Breslau and Aachen and completing his PhD in pedagogy in Munich in Season). With this book, he became the third the 1920s, he returned to Iran, worked as a teacher in a German Iranian in the history of German literature to write vocational school, published short stories and translations from German and became a member of an innovative literary circle that in German and publish widely. included Sadeq Hedayat, Masoud Farzad et al. In 1936 he was Before Freydoun, two other Iranians had incarcerated due to his alleged communist affiliation. In 1960 and www.mehripublication.com www.mehripublication.comduring exile in East Germany, his collection of short stories entitled 14 already written and published poetry and prose in Die weiße Mauer (The White Wall), originally written in German 15

Freydoun Farokhzad Another Season.indd 14-15 07/10/2020 09:30 of short stories entitled Die weiße Mauer in East helpful to gain an overview of Freydoun’s life Germany in the late 1950s. Freydoun established in Germany and his involvement with German contact with Atabay in Munich and with Alavi in language and literature. East Berlin while he was a student in Munich. After finishing school in Tehran (first Razi, later Portions of Freydoun’s book of poetry in Pirnia and Sharaf), Freydoun went to Germany in German were translated into Persian more than 40 1958 at the age of 22 in order to pursue university years later by his older sister Forough’s adoptive studies. His elder brother Amir Masoud had been

son Hossain Mansouri and by the poet Mirza Aqa in Germany since 1952 and had studied medicine Another Season: Freydoun Farokhzad’s early poetry Asgari (Mani)11 in collaboration with Daryoush at the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität (LMU) in Marzban. Apart from these translations, the Munich; he was married and established in that city. content of this book was unknown to the Iranian Following Amir, Freydoun – and later the other public, although Freydoun himself occasionally brothers and one sister – moved to Munich. Two mentioned its existence. years earlier, Forough had also spent the winter of Before discussing the book in detail, it is 1956 with Amir in Munich, learning German and translating a book of poetry into Persian. Freydoun or translated into German by his students, was published by Verlag attended a language school during the week and Rütten und Loening. His other original German publications were a literary history of 20th-century Persian literature from the worked at a farm in the village of Versmold, near Constitutional Revolution of 1906 until the early 1960s and several Bielefeld, on weekends, commuting every week historical monographs, published by the East German Academy of Sciences. His original Persian writings during the years of exile between the Bavarian capital in the south and rural remained unpublished until he visited Iran after the revolution of 1979. In the early 1960s he met Freydoun Farokhzad, who looked Lower Saxony in the north. His musical talent him up at the Humboldt-Universität. They maintained contact and contributed to the speed and thoroughness with a cordial friendship through correspondence and occasional visits by Freydoun to East Berlin. which he learned German. Already as a high school 11. Farokhzad, Freydoun: Andere Jahreszeit. Gedichte. Aus student, he had developed an interest in music and dem Deutschen übersetzt von Hossein Mansouri. Nachwort von Johannes Bobrowski. Collagen von Monica Schefold. Bremen performed as a singer in school functions. 2015 (Sujet-Verlag). See also Asgari, Mirza Aqa (Mani), ed.: Having met the language entry requirements, he Khonyagar dar khun. Dar shenakht va bozorgdasht-e Freydoun Farokhzad. Bochum 2005 (Human-Verlag). See also Mirza Aqa was accepted to study Social Sciences at the LMU Asgari’s novel Terror dar Bonn, published in Munich in 2016 by in Munich. Ever since his first encounter with the www.mehripublication.comSturnus-Verlag, a documentary novel about Freydoun Farokhzad’s www.mehripublication.com 16 life in exile and the events leading to his assassination in Bonn. German language, he had been reading 19th and 17

Freydoun Farokhzad Another Season.indd 16-17 07/10/2020 09:30 20th-century poetry, and while studying political his poems in the Vorzeichen 2 yearbook.13 He science at the Geschwister Scholl Institute he finally reached an agreement with Hermann- began establishing contacts with artists and writers Luchterhand-Verlag in Neuwied and Berlin; the in Munich. In 1962, while visiting a Munich-based afterword of this edition was written by Johannes American author, he met the writer and actress Anja Bobrowski,14 one of the most significant writers of Buczkowski. They married in 1962 and remained poetry and prose in post-WWII German literature. together for 12 years. Anja, who was a few years While he was a student at the LMU in Munich,

older than Freydoun, had studied German literature Freydoun travelled often and attended lectures at Another Season: Freydoun Farokhzad’s early poetry and recited poetry for a literary programme on the University of Vienna and the Free University Bavarian radio. The couple moved into a large of Berlin. apartment on Hohenzollernstraβe in Munich, The political situation in divided Germany and Anja helped Freydoun cultivate his interest fascinated him, and he travelled repeatedly from in German poetry. Freydoun began publishing Munich to West Berlin, visiting East Berlin samples of his work in the literary supplement of frequently and contrasting his experience of the the Süddeutsche Zeitung and the German section 13. Vorzeichen 2. Neun neue deutsche Autoren. Eingeführt von of the Persian cultural magazine Kaveh.12 In 1963, Martin Walser. Hans Frick. Hans Christoph Buch. Michael Wulff. Henning Harms. Bernd Peschken. Chris Bezzel. Henning Boetius. German author and literary critic Martin Walser Peter Hamm. Freydoun Farokhzad. Frankfurt 1963: Suhrkamp. selected 11 poems by Freydoun for the literary 14. Johannes Bobrowski, born in 1917 in Tilsit (East Prussia), was a member of the Protestant Bekennende Kirche (Confessing Church) yearbook Vorzeichen 2, where major voices in and was in contact with the clandestine resistance movement contemporary German literature were presented. against the Nazis during the 1930s. He spent all 6 years of the war fighting on the western front in France and on the eastern front in In 1963, Freydoun compiled a selection of Poland and Russia, where he was captured in 1945. In October his poems into a book-length manuscript and 1949, Germany was officially divided into two states, one based in the Soviet-occupied eastern zone and the other in the British, began searching for a German publisher. He only French and American zones of the west. Bobrowski was released from a Soviet labour camp in 1949 and chose to settle in East approached established and prestigious companies Berlin, the capital of the GDR, although he was not a communist. such as Suhrkamp, which had already published In East Berlin he worked as an editor for publishing houses that belonged to the East German Christian Democratic Union, one of the five non-communist “bloc parties”. He published his books in 12. Kaveh was founded by Mohammad Assemi in Munich in 1961. both West and East Germany, travelled freely between the two parts www.mehripublication.comA selection of Freydoun’s poems was published in issues 4 and 5 www.mehripublication.comof the divided nation, and always insisted that the separation of the 18 of Kaveh in 1963. two states would not bring about two different German literatures. 19

Freydoun Farokhzad Another Season.indd 18-19 07/10/2020 09:30 two contradictory socio-economic orders in the linked with the Tudeh Party’s leadership in Leipzig, two parts of the city. His preoccupation with and founding members of the Confederation of the “German-German question” was reflected Iranian Students such as Mohsen Rezvani16 and in his book of poetry Andere Jahreszeit, one of Kurosh Lashai17 were among his close friends.18 whose chapters was dedicated to this theme. In and was part of the independent leftist movement. In 1981 he was East Berlin he visited Johannes Bobrowski, who forced into exile again, and has been living in Frankfurt ever since. read his work with interest. Bobrowski’s socialist Khanbaba Tehrani was a close friend of all the Farokhzad siblings in Munich and maintained personal contact with Freydoun, despite the views had a strong impact on Freydoun, who very different paths their lives took. Another Season: Freydoun Farokhzad’s early poetry himself had radical Marxist affinities. 16. Mohsen Rezvani was born on 7 August 1937 in Kermanshah and was a graduate of the Alborz School in Tehran. A former member At the time of the American and British of the Tudeh youth organization and later a student at the LMU coup against the government of Dr Mohammad in Munich, he became a founding member of the Confederation of Iranian Students and a leader of the Maoist split-off from the Mosaddeq on 19 August 1953, Freydoun was a Tudeh Party in the 1960s. Rezvani became the first secretary of the Revolutionary Tudeh Organization, and after the 1979 revolution, member of the clandestine youth organisation of of the Maoist Ranjbaran Party. Following the crackdown of the the Tudeh Party, which had been banned as early Islamic Republic against the Ranjbaran Party in 1981, Rezvani went into hiding and lived in Kurdistan, Iran and Iraq. He subsequently as February 1949. Without the knowledge of his emigrated to western Europe and Canada (Toronto). father, who was a colonel in the Imperial Armed 17. Kurosh Lashai, born in 1936 in Langarud (Gilan province), relocated to Munich to study medicine in 1955, slightly later than Forces of Iran, he had hidden several comrades the eldest Farokhzad sibling Amir Masoud, who was a student in the from the Tudeh youth organisation at the family same department of the LMU. Lashai was a member of the Tudeh Youth Organization and a founding member of the Confederation home. Later, in Munich, exiled student activists of Iranian Students and the Maoist Revolutionary Tudeh 15 Organization together with Parviz Nikkhah, Mehdi Khanbaba such as Mehdi Khanbaba Tehrani, who were Tehrani and Mohsen Rezvani. In 1969, he secretly travelled to Iran through Iraqi Kurdistan and participated in the armed uprising of 15. Mehdi Khanbaba Tehrani, born in May 1934 in Tehran, joined Sharifzadeh, Molla Avare and Moini in Iranian Kurdistan. Upon the Tudeh youth organization in the late 1940s, was arrested and his return to Iran in 1971 as a member of the Revolutionary imprisoned twice after the coup of 19 August 1953 and subsequently Organization’s clandestine network, he was identified by SAVAK left Iran to study law at the LMU in Munich. A founding member and arrested. In 1972 he appeared before journalists and renounced of the Confederation of Iranian Students and a communist activist, Marxism and his past with the Revolutionary Organization. He Mehdi Khanbaba Tehrani was arrested by the West German police was later pardoned by the Shah, and after being released from on 2 November 1962 on suspicion of membership in a secret society prison took over the leadership of the League of Human Rights (“Geheimbündelei”) and spent four months in Munich’s Stadelheim (Servants). During the revolution of 1979 he went into hiding, left prison. He later joined the Maoist split-off from the Tudeh Party Iran and moved to southern California where he died in 2002. www.mehripublication.comand spent some years during the Chinese Cultural Revolution as a www.mehripublication.com18. Interview with Mehdi Khanbaba Tehrani in Frankfurt am Main 20 journalist in Beijing. After the 1979 revolution he returned to Iran on 15 March 2010. 21

Freydoun Farokhzad Another Season.indd 20-21 07/10/2020 09:30 Most likely under the influence of his dialogue and an unpublished poem entitled Herbst (Autumn) with Bobrowski, Freydoun chose to write his were found in the German Literary Archive master’s thesis in political science on the relation (Deutsches Literaturarchiv) in the special collection between the state and the Protestant church in the of Johannes Bobrowski’s unpublished works and GDR. After finishing his master’s degree cum laude, correspondence. The text of the poem is included in he immediately started working on a PhD thesis this book, as are reproductions of the handwritten entitled “Marx, Engels, Lenin, Rosa Luxemburg letter, of the postcard and of the typed manuscript

and the Polish Question”. After Forough’s death in of the poem. The letter and postcard indicate that Another Season: Freydoun Farokhzad’s early poetry February 1967, he decided to return to Iran together there must have been a two-way communication with Anja and their son Rostam (born in 1966), and between Freydoun Farokhzad and Johannes never finished the PhD thesis. Bobrowski; however, Bobrowski’s response to Years later, when Anja and Rostam had Freydoun could not be found by Freydoun’s sister returned to Germany and Freydoun was living Pouran among his personal effects in Iran. In the alone in his home in the Amir Abad district of note on the postcard dated 24 April 1964, Freydoun Tehran, a large picture of Rosa Luxemburg hung expresses his love for the city of Berlin, stating that in his living room, as most people recall who he had been able to meet like-minded people there. visited him during that time. At the time the postcard was written, the Wall had Five months after the publication of his book already been erected and Berlin was a divided city; of poetry, Freydoun received the literary award Bobrowski’s address, Ahornallee 26, was on the of the city of Berlin. On this occasion Johannes outskirts of the Soviet sector in the eastern borough Bobrowski came from East Berlin and gave a of Friedrichshagen. In a three-page letter dated speech in his honour during the ceremony in the 26 April 1964, Freydoun uses the polite form of western part of the city. address “Sie” for Bobrowski, although he states Freydoun Farokhzad and Johannes Bobrowski that he would rather use the informal “du”, since maintained their friendship through the exchange from the very beginning of their encounter he had of postcards and letters between East Berlin and felt as if they had known each other for a long time. www.mehripublication.comMunich until Bobrowski’s sudden death on 2 www.mehripublication.comHe seems to have received books of Bobrowski’s 22 September 1965. A three-page letter, a postcard poems, and says he is going to read them again, now 23

Freydoun Farokhzad Another Season.indd 22-23 07/10/2020 09:30 that he knows the person behind them. The two men German, that is, “in a language he has learned must have become personally acquainted in early and which he wields as such”, he does not feel the 1964. It appears that just before the postcard was burden of the history and literary traditions of this written, Freydoun had met Johannes Bobrowski language. “... [T]he naturalness we notice in the somewhere outside of East Germany, possibly in language extends all the way to the metaphors, the West Berlin. In the letter he asks whether Bobrowski imagery; they immediately gain life and energy had already written the “afterword”, referring to the from the initial situation so that they evolve into

text included in this book. Freydoun seems to have actions and are able to grow, to walk, to fly”. He Another Season: Freydoun Farokhzad’s early poetry sent Bobrowski a bundle of poems as a manuscript. believes in Freydoun as a German poet and invites He asks Bobrowski to discard a poem with the his readers to “greet him warmly”. title Zwecklos (Pointless), because he is unhappy

with it and it is an early work. The letter contains references to Freydoun’s communication with the The book Andere Jahreszeit is only 63 pages long, publisher Suhrkamp-Verlag (Frankfurt), with a including Bobrowski’s three-page afterword. It copy editor and literary critic only identified by her begins with a dedication to Anja, curiously written first name, Elisabeth, and with the editorial board in the present perfect tense: Für Anja – ich habe of the East German magazine Sinn und Form.19 sie sehr geliebt (For Anja – I have loved her very In his afterword to the book, Bobrowski much). describes Freydoun as “a man with clear-cut, Following the dedication is a tanka by Sasaki 20 confident movements”, who “comes from a land Nobutsuna : of great poetic traditions”. When he writes in Whether or not

19. Sinn und Form was a bimonthly magazine founded in 1949 by a trace remains Johannes R. Becher and Paul Wiegler in East Berlin, published by on the road – the Academy of Fine Arts (Akademie der Künste) and endorsed by prominent figures including Bertolt Brecht, who was a resident of cautiously East Berlin. The editorial policy of Sinn und Form was considered rather liberal during all the historical periods of the German will I go my way Democratic Republic. Sinn und Form was distributed in both parts of Germany while the country was divided and, in exceptional 20. Nobutsuna (8 July 1872 – 2 December 1963) was a tanka poet www.mehripublication.comcases, also published works by philosophical and political essayists www.mehripublication.comand a scholar of Nara- and Heian-period Japanese literature. He 24 and poets based in West Germany. was active during the Showa period of Japanese history. 25

Freydoun Farokhzad Another Season.indd 24-25 07/10/2020 09:30 The book is divided into four chapters. The does not relate to the social realities of the new first chapter, Persisch gedacht - deutsch gesagt world; Germany is not mentioned by name at all. (Persian thought - German spoken), consists of The naturalistic character of the whole chapter is 18 texts; the second chapter, Porträt eines Landes apparent in the titles of the texts. (Portrait of a country), contains nine; the third Night is the predominant motif in at least six one, Erfahrung (Experience), has 13, and the last texts in the first and second chapters.21 The colour chapter, Was ich noch sagen wollte (Something black is mentioned 13 times throughout the book,

else I wanted to say), includes only one. The texts more than any other colour. Red occurs eight Another Season: Freydoun Farokhzad’s early poetry vary in length, from the five lines of Bekenntnis times in the third chapter with a symbolic political (Avowal) in Chapter 2 to the 29 lines of Diesseits meaning, blue is mentioned six times and green and und jenseits (This side and that side) in Chapter 3. yellow/gold five times, while white, brown, pink The first and second chapters primarily consist and purple do not appear anywhere in the book. of imagistic texts, while the texts in the third and The detached attitude of the lyrical I is reflected in 22 fourth chapters are more abstract and convey the motif of sleep in combination with the colour ideas and views on political and historical events. black, with night and other related motifs such as the The texts in the first chapter have no specific, cicada.23 This distant, observant attitude is reflected named local references. They express the sensory in the frequent use of motifs such as silence24

perceptions of a detached, lyrical “I” who is 21. Nacht occurs as a motif in Erwartung, Die Nacht, Nachtbeginn, confronted with a new environment. The lyrical Land im Schatten, Die Perserinnen, Tag in Persien. 22. Schlaf in Erwartung (“flattert der Schlaf / wie eine schwarze I does not perceive this new environment as Taube”), in Nacht (“Während ich schlafe / preßt sie ihr Gesicht”), foreign or intimidating; it tries to get closer to it Wahrnehmung (“Nun aber kann man / ruhig schlafen gehen”), Ungehört (“die ausgeschlafenen Uniformen”). and to develop a homelike feeling, enjoying the 23. Zikade in Die Nacht (“Im Gesang der Zikaden”), Nachtbeginn gradual approximation and familiarity. It senses (“wie eine Zikade vom Baum fällt und zu singen beginnt”). 24. Schweigen in Erwartung (“In der Stadt meines Schweigens / that in this environment, light, darkness, natural flattert der Schlaf”), Schweigen in Der Wind “Sie – die Taubfahnen – colour combinations, the air’s consistency, scents verschweigen ihre Quellen”), Die Stimme (“zwischen schweigsamen Wimpern”), Herbst in Persien (“die schweigsamen Korngarben”), and tastes are all different. These new sensations Die Perserinnen (“flüchtige Vögel / von Schweigen gestreichelt”), are translated into minimalistic and intimate Krieg (“Zeit der zerstampften / Finger / die zwischen dem alten www.mehripublication.com www.mehripublication.comPfalster / sterben”), Ungehört (“Ich will nicht / daß die schönen 26 images. The lyrical I seeks refuge in nature and schweigenden Tiere / aus der Welt verschwinden”). See also die Stille. 27

Freydoun Farokhzad Another Season.indd 26-27 07/10/2020 09:30 (7x) and the eyes25 (11x). Flying26 (5x), sky27 (5x), birds32 are related motifs that evoke the sensation clouds28 (3x), wind29 (3x), air30 (5x), scent31 (6x) and of height, width, overview and volatility. Other conceptual networks revolve around the 25. Auge(n)(-blick) in Erwartung (“Ob sie den Weg finden wird, time season33 tenderness34 der zu meinen Augen führt”), Kindermarkt (“Die sehnsüchtigen words / and (Zärtlichkeit), Augen”, “leuchtende Augenblicke”), Sonnenuntergang (“Wenn to mention a few. das Licht / in den Augen der Frauen / schwer wird”), Nachtbeginn (“der Unglückskater / in den persischen Augen”), Sommer (“als er The second chapter is a yearning reflection sich / einen Augenblick vergaß”), Die Stimme (“Alter Schatten der on the home country which the lyrical I has left in den Augenschatten liegt”), Brise (“Sonne und Licht spiegeln in ihren Augen”), Stele für A. (“Kühl war das Grün / in geschlossenen behind. In this chapter, Iran – or rather Persien/ Another Season: Freydoun Farokhzad’s early poetry Augen”), Die Welt (“Denn der Augenblick kommt / in dem die Schwermut ihre Farben zählt”), Land im Schatten (“und erleuchten Persia – is mentioned by name several times. die Augen / von tausendundeiner Nacht”), Die Perserinnen Naturalist-lyrical elements are complemented (“zeigen uns / ihre Kohleaugen / in der lyrischen Landschaft”). by subtle political allusions. Visually and 26. Fliegen in Der Wind (“mit fliegenden Haaren”),Frühling (“Ehe die Träume zu fliegen beginnen”), Illusion (“Vögel / sind schwer acoustically, Persia is associated with vastness, / zu halten / sie fliegen gern”), Illusion (“ist ein toter Vogel / er kann nicht fliegen”), Nachtbeginn (“mit so viel Erinnerung / an rain showers, the scent of raspberries, garlands fliegenden Staubfahnen”). of light, clouds of dust, wheat fields, the sound 27. Himmel in Friede (“Ich liebe diesen Himmel dessen blaues Glas”), of crickets, the blue enamel of the sky, turquoise Sommer (“Immer zärtlicher / waren die Namen / die er an den Himmel malte”), Herbst in Persien (“die die blauen Emaillen des Himmel / minarets, larks flying and swinging in the wind. weiß färben”), Land im Schatten (“getötete Tauben / zerrissener Himmel”), Orientalische Tage (“Der Himmel eine Weise”). 32. Taube in Erwartung (“landet die Nacht / wie eine schwarze 28.Wolke in Herbst in Persien (“Die Wolken / die die blauen Taube”); Land im Schatten (“Verwirrt von sichtbarer / Gewalt Emaillen”), Aquarell (“Wolken aus Trübsinn”), Orientalische Tage / begleiten mich / getötete Tauben / zerrissener Himmel”); (“Die Wolken gewobene Lieder”). similarly, Sperling in Die Welt (“Die Welt ist ein Sperling / der sich 29. Wind in Der Wind (“Der Wind / mit fliegenden Haaren”), Die widerstandslose / töten läßt”). In Rassentrennung the white dove Stimme (“Eine Windrose in deinem Gesicht”), Hinterlassenschaft is a symbol for peace and the black dove a symbol for uncertainty, (“Der Wind / seine Wiege”). pessimism and annihilation. 30. Luft in Die Liebe (“Anfangsbuchtaben fielen durch die Luft”), 33. Zeit in Kindermarkt (“Zeit der Papierdrachen”), Die Stille Nachtbeginn (“in zerbrechlicher Luft”), Andere Jahreszeit (“die (“die tote Jahreszeit”), Stele für A. (“zu den anderen Jahreszeiten an den Luftspiegelungen starb”), Die Stille (“Sie strauchelt ohne führten”), Herbst in Persien (“der kühlen Jahreszeit entgegen”), Lärm / in der Luft”), Meine Landschaft (“Überall Luft / mit Das Vierte Reich (“Hier geht man mit der Zeit / Zeit der Himbeergeschmack”). Unbehüteten”) as well as the entire text Andere Jahreszeit. The 31. Duft in Friede (“deren grüner Duft / nach oben rudert”), Brise word “Frühling” (spring) occurs throughout the book. (“kühler Duft”), Herbst in Persien (“duften nach Regen”), Die 34. Zärtlich in Erwartung (“Ich höre sie gurren / zärtlich wie sie Perserinnen (“und Silberduft im Laub”), Berlin (“teilt man die ist”), Die Nacht (“Am Tag versteckt sie sich / in der Zärtlichkeit der www.mehripublication.comAkazie / so teilt man nicht ihren Duft”), Hinterlassenschaft (“die www.mehripublication.comWiesen”), Sommer (“Immer zärtlicher waren / die Namen“), Die 28 Rosen / ihren Duft”). Perserinnen (“Und wiederholen ihre Zärtlichkeit in den Hausfluren”). 29

Freydoun Farokhzad Another Season.indd 28-29 07/10/2020 09:30 The key colour is grey (as in the “coal eyes” of gesture on Freydoun’s part. Persian women and in “curtains of dust”). The third chapter deals with the realities of Expressions of homesickness and longing are post-WWII Germany. Here Freydoun addresses connected with sounds and images of sobbing, historically and politically charged topics such tears, the feeling of thirst and the mood of as denazification after 1945, the division of dejection, desolation and abandonment. The Germany, the Cold War and the position of the image of the old home country is not idyllic. In two German republics within it, the arms race,

Bekenntnis (Avowal), the old country is “the land the rearmament of Germany, the Berlin Wall and Another Season: Freydoun Farokhzad’s early poetry of shrivelled roses and mute nightingales”. the ways in which both German republics came Interestingly, the poem Die Perserinnen35 is to terms with their Nazi past. In the decades dedicated to Bozorg Alavi. Unlike most other that followed, all these themes would become leaders of the Tudeh Party, Alavi lived in the canonical and repetitive in German literature GDR under his own name. During his visits to until the reunification of Germany in the 1990s; West Berlin, Freydoun established regular contact however, when Freydoun wrote about them they with Bozorg Alavi in East Berlin, visited him, still had novelty value. and exchanged letters with him. Throughout the The poem Wahrnehmung (Perception) is 25 years between August 1953 and February an ironic and cryptic commentary, published 1979, Alavi was persona non grata in Iran; hence three years after the facts, on the erection of dedicating a poem to him was a meaningful border installations and the deployment of East German border guards along the demarcation line

35. Persian Women (Die Perserinnen) is the only text Freydoun between the two German republics. Although the translated himself, some twenty years ago during his exile after factual references are not immediately obvious, the revolution: the historical background is as follows: in the early morning of 13 August 1961, members زنان سرزمین من / وقتی که شب میآید / و آواز زنجرهها / میان گیسوان دخترکان/ شعلهور میشود / با ذغال چشمهایشان / تصویر کشتزارهای از یاد رفته را / روی of the Betriebskampfgruppen (paramilitary زمین پهناور کشورم نقاشی میکنند / زنان ایرانی / پرندگانی که عطر نقرهای صبح / و groups of East Berlin factory workers), the لطافت گلهای اطلسی را به یاد میآورند / پرندگانی که رنگ سکوت دارند / و پیش National People’s Army and the People’s Police از حرکت چشم / در مسیر دیگری اوج میگیرند / و همواره مهربانی یکدست / میان www.mehripublication.com پرهاشان خواب میبیند / زنان ایرانی / پرندگانی که گل دستهها از ظرافت تصویرشان/ www.mehripublication.com secured” the demarcation line between the 31“ فرو میریزند / و گنبدها از تصور تصویرشان / دو برابر میشوند. 30

Freydoun Farokhzad Another Season.indd 30-31 07/10/2020 09:30 Soviet-occupied socialist sector of Berlin and the Essentially, the Wall prevents the outbreak of capitalist British, American and French sectors. war, even though it upsets some “neighbours”. While some troops stood guard, others brought The poem debunks Western religious values like in construction materials and within a few hours “brotherly love” and declares them hypocrisy. had built what became known as the Berlin Wall – The references to “shop windows” and “blue or in East German jargon, the “antifaschistischer jeans merchants” allude to West Berlin, the Schutzwall” (“the anti-fascist protection wall”). colourful shop window of Western capitalism,

From the East German ruling party’s point of where American-style consumer goods inundated Another Season: Freydoun Farokhzad’s early poetry view, its function was to protect the GDR against the market. The latent anti-consumerist discourse the revival of Fascism in the West. in this poem became prominent only a few years In the imagery of the poem, the “red sentinels” later in the 1968 student movement in Germany. are the East German border guards. The German Radical groups set fire to the KaDeWe department original uses the compound noun “Schildwache”, store (“Kaufhaus des Westens”). Some activists which is etymologically related to the Middle on the extreme fringes of this movement (such High German Schiltwache or Schiltwaht (Fr. as Andreas Baader and Ulrike Meinhof) took the sentinelle, factionnaire). A Schildwache is a guard same political agenda even further and formed positioned in front of a checkpoint and empowered terrorist organizations. to fire on anyone refusing to abide by the state’s By 1968, Freydoun’s leftist sympathies had order and authority. A Schildwache does not have weakened. In June 1967, when the Shah of permission to let go of his weapon, leave his post, Iran visited Berlin, a large number of Iranian speak, eat or drink unless ordered to do so. In the and German students were mobilized by the eponymous poem, the Schildwachen “grow out Confederation of Iranian Students and the of the vertices”, i.e. appear out of nowhere along Socialist Student Association of Germany (SDS) the demarcation line. Their intimidating image is to demonstrate against him. In clashes with sarcastically contrasted with the affectionate ways members of Iranian security forces, who had of the West. The poem seems to characterize the arrived in a separate airplane, and the West Berlin www.mehripublication.combuilding of the Berlin Wall as a necessary measure www.mehripublication.compolice, one German student, Benno Ohnesorg, 32 to contain the escalating East-West conflict. was shot and killed. While the majority of Iranian 33

Freydoun Farokhzad Another Season.indd 32-33 07/10/2020 09:30 students were sympathetic to the demonstrators, known as Iran Art Workshop (Kargah-e Honar-e Freydoun was one of the very few who actually Iran). Instead of speaking to him, a member of went to the airport and welcomed the Shah and the organization asked the security guards to Farah Diba with a bouquet of flowers. In other throw the “decadent bastard” out of the building. words, his political views had changed drastically In addition to Freydoun’s public image as a pop between 1964 and 1967. singer and TV show host in the pre-revolution There are some indications, however, that he era, there were also rumours about his “deviant

returned to his old leftist views in the mid-1970s sexual orientation”. In the eyes of the leftist Another Season: Freydoun Farokhzad’s early poetry and maintained them throughout the revolution. revolutionaries, Freydoun was the embodiment Iranian journalist and literary critic Faraj Sarkoohi of pre-revolution decadence and corruption: any claims that following the death of Hamid Ashraf36 involvement with him would have damaged the in June 1976, Freydoun visited Ashraf’s mother revolutionary profile of the organization. with a bouquet of flowers. Since the Ashraf family In the poem Diesseits und Jenseits (On this was under surveillance, this visit did not escape side and beyond), the phrase “Republic made to the notice of the security establishment. Freydoun the old measure” refers to both successor states was subsequently fired from Iranian state of the German Reich, who were using “whips and television, although his later comeback with other caresses” to come to terms with their common shows until 1978 indicates that he must have been past. The GDR “caressed” the “antifascist reinstated. Sarkoohi also claims that in the days heritage” of the communist and social democrat after the transition of power on 11 February 1979, movement, but also claimed the humanistic Freydoun walked into the headquarters of a leftist tradition of German history all the way back to the urban guerrilla organization in Tehran and offered 15th century. It treated the militaristic, racist and to work in the organization’s music ensemble, chauvinist tradition in Germany’s history with

36. See Faraj Sarkoohi’s article for the BBC Persian Service at http:// a “whip”. The West German republic saw itself www.bbc.com/persian/arts/2012/10/121007_l44_farrokhzad_ as the continuation of the liberal tradition of the fereidun.shtml (accessed 1 August 2018). Hamid Ashraf (born 31 December 1946) was a leader of a Marxist underground urban Weimar Republic, which was being destroyed by guerrilla group. He was killed on 29 June 1976 in a clash with extremists from both the left and right. The poem www.mehripublication.commembers of the pre-revolution security and intelligence service www.mehripublication.com 34 SAVAK and the police force in Tehran. mentions only the East German flag emblem 35

Freydoun Farokhzad Another Season.indd 34-35 07/10/2020 09:30 (hammer and sickle); the “federal eagle” of the poetic technique is imagism. All the poems are West (the Bundesadler) is absent. However, to the unrhymed, with irregular rhythms. Perhaps the very end of the text the implied narrator refuses most important stylistic feature of the book is to take sides. An implied “du” (you) is addressed: the simplicity of images and words, the clarity of “Do not believe / your republic is better / than his / the syntax and the resulting fluidity of the texts. believe only / every other word.” The reference to Freydoun’s ability to contain deep thoughts and “the old hairstyle” on this side and beyond implies complex, intimate life experiences within sober,

that both emerging states – despite their present unostentatious words and images is indicative of Another Season: Freydoun Farokhzad’s early poetry differences – share the burden of a common a certain degree of maturity which he attained inglorious past. at an early stage in his creative life. This The poet himself is part of the Western political development occurred in him within a few years texture. Texts like Atombombe (Atom Bomb) in of his arrival in Germany and surprised even his the third chapter reflect the pacifist discourse of sister Forough, with whom he always remained the Western peace movement from the 1950s until in close contact. the end of the Cold War. Freydoun regularly sent Forough samples of In the last stanza of the last poem in the his writings in German and in draft translations book, Ungehört (Unheard), Freydoun Farokhzad into Persian. Very early on, he discovered the evokes an image of his own death, which was to aesthetics of simplicity that Forough sought in occur 28 years later. He speaks of “songs coming her later works after Tavallodi digar (Rebirth) out of the headless bodies of birds”. Freydoun and strived to attain it through writing in German. himself was a singing bird who was beheaded In her letters to Freydoun, Forough suggested by his assassins. Incidentally, the very last poem that he apply the same aesthetic concept and written by Forough Farokhzad, only two days write Persian poems without worrying about the before her death in February 1967, was Tanha formalities of rhyme and metre. The main issue sedast ke mimanad. In the last two lines Forough, was the originality of his conception of the world: too, uses the motif of the mortal bird (parvaz ra be “14 March 1959 – ... Your letter with the new www.mehripublication.comkhater bespar, parande mordanist). www.mehripublication.compoems arrived a few days ago and made me very 36 Throughout the book the predominant happy. My dear Ferry, I read your poems. You 37

Freydoun Farokhzad Another Season.indd 36-37 07/10/2020 09:30 were always talented. I am not surprised at all. She also spoke of the necessity to sacrifice With regard to their themes, the feel and the oneself to the cause of poetry: intricacy of sensations, your poems are totally “21 April 1959 – ... Your poems, especially delightful and very good. But I don’t know what these last ones, were excellent, really outstanding. place they might have in the German language and I am astonished and ask myself from where how their structure is in respect to language and you have got this vigilance, apprehension and rhythm, although these problems are of secondary perception. It does not fit you, my silly Ferry.

importance. The most important issue is the You were just a kid. I don’t know, maybe you Another Season: Freydoun Farokhzad’s early poetry perception and worldview of the poet. I enjoyed have grown up, understood how rotten and at the your last poem very much because behind the same time sensational life is. In any case, you are images and their outer layer there is an ancient and achieving the first rank in the Farokhzad family. I frightened human sensation, a mystical form of suggest you should also write poems in Persian. capitulation. One has to mature in his sensual and It is not necessary to observe the rules of prosody intellectual experiences and reach a certain shape in and rhyme. Try to create a generic movement order to be capable of expressing problems in this with the rhythm of words that are agreeable and manner. You must continue, and I am certain that listenable, so that they turn into a sort of rhythm you will be excellent…. Send me your poems and in one’s ears. By all means you are a poet and this try to publish them. More importantly, try to think is important. If you can improve this quality in more. I don’t know whether you can think at all, or yourself you have won the game…. If you want have you changed entirely, as your poems show.”37 to be a poet you have to sacrifice yourself for the cause of poetry. Forget about a lot of things and calculations. Throw away easy satisfaction and 37. ۲۶ اسفند ۱۳۳۷ - »... چند روز پیش نامهات رسید با شعرهای تازهات که کلی happiness. Build a wall around yourself and in the خوشحال شدم... فریجان، شعرهایت را خواندم، تو از اول استعداد داشتی و من هیچ space within the wall, start from scratch. Be born تعجب نمیکنم. شعرهایت از نظر موضوع و حس و ظرافت حسها کامالً بهدل مینشیند و خیلی خوب هستند. اما نمیدانم در زبان آلمانی چه حالتی ممکن است داشته باشند و فرم ساختمان آنها از نظر زبان و ریتم چگونه است. هرچند این مسائل به این صورت ابراز کند. تو باید ادامه بدهی و من مطمئن هستم که تو عالی و خوب در درجۀ دوم اهمیت قرار دارند. اصل موضوع نوع برداشت و جهان بینی شاعر است. خواهی شد... شعرهایت را برایم بفرست و سعی کن آنها را چاپ کنی و مهمتر از تمام از آخرین شعرت خیلی لذت بردم چون در پشت تصاویر و سطح خارجی آنها یک حس اینها سعی کن بیشتر فکر کنی. نمیدانم اصالً میتوانی فکر کنی و یا اینکه آنطور که www.mehripublication.com قدیمی و وحشتزدۀ انسان وجود داشت و یک حالت میستیک و تسلیمآمیز داشت که www.mehripublication.com 39 شعرهایت نشان میدهد کامالً عوض شدهای.« آدم تا در تجربیات حسی و فکریش پخته نشود و شکل نگیرد نمیتواند این مسائل را 38

Freydoun Farokhzad Another Season.indd 38-39 07/10/2020 09:30 again, take shape, think, discover new meanings In the years after the publication of Andere and concepts.”38 Jahreszeit, Freydoun explored his other talents: She reminded him how lucky he was to be disregarding his sister’s advice, he did not sacrifice living in the healthy intellectual and artistic himself to the cause of poetry. From 1965 onwards, environment of Munich and warned him against he spent more and more time writing songs and returning to Iran. composing music, even receiving first prize in the Freydoun did not follow Forough’s advice: music festival of Innsbruck in Austria, the country

in his later Persian poems, published after the of Mozart and Schubert. Under the name Ferry Another Season: Freydoun Farokhzad’s early poetry revolution and in exile, he returned to more Harun, he recorded at least one LP and pursued a rigid classical forms and wrote mathnawies and career as a stage artist, performing in live events ghazals. His interest in classical Persian literature and on German radio and television. Two of his and particularly in Mowlana (Rumi) may be German songs, recorded in the mid-1960s, were explained in light of his view, often expressed, that released in Iran in the 1970s on an album entitled these aspects of the culture and soul of Iran were Freydoun Farokhzad va Khatereha. While he was timeless and bound to survive what he regarded as still a student at the LMU in Munich, he produced the disgraceful chapter of the Islamic Republic in a documentary film series for Bavarian television Iran’s history. He regarded Hafez and Mowlana as on the mountain roads of the Alps. By the end of allies in his personal cultural war against theocracy. the 1960s, he had become such a colourful and glamorous personality that Hollywood filmmaker ,Tracy Albon made a documentary film about him 38. ۳۱ فروردین ۱۳۳۸- »... شعرهایت، بهخصوص این آخریها، عالی بودند، جداً عالی. من تعجب میکنم و از خود میپرسم تو این هوشیاری، و ادراک و حس را از کجا showing his life in Germany and in Iran. From آوردهای. به تو نمیآید، فری خر من، تو خیلی بچه بودی، نمیدانم، شاید حاال بزرگ today’s perspective, the poetry book Andere شدهای و زندگی را فهمیدهای که چهچیز گند و در عینحال معرکهای است. بههرحال Jahreszeit seems to have completed a certain تو داری مقام اول را در خانوادۀ فرخزاد بهدست میآوری. من به تو پیشنهاد میکنم episode in Freydoun’s life. Writing poetry in به فارسی هم شعر بگو. الزم نیست وزن و قافیه را رعایت کنی. سعی کن با ریتم کلمات یک حرکت کلی بهوجود بیاوری که شنیدنی باشد، یعنی در گوش تبدیل به German was his way of grasping the new world یک نوع وزن شود. بههرحال تو شاعر هستی، و این مهم است، و تو اگربتوانی این را he had entered and of searching for his place in در خودت پرورش بدهی بازی را بردهای.« )...( »...اگر بخواهی شاعر باشی خودت را .that world قربانی شعرکن. از خیلی حرفها و حسابها بگذر، خوشبختیهای ساده و راضیکننده www.mehripublication.com را کنار بگذار. دور خودت را دیواری بساز و در داخل محیط این دیوار از نو شروع کن به www.mehripublication.com 41 دنیا آمدن و شکل گرفتن و فکر کردن و کشف کردن معانی مختلف مفاهیم مختلف.« 40

Freydoun Farokhzad Another Season.indd 40-41 07/10/2020 09:30 For Anja I have loved her very much

Für Anja Ich habe sie sehr geliebt

www.mehripublication.com www.mehripublication.com

Freydoun Farokhzad Another Season.indd 42-43 07/10/2020 09:30 Whether or not a trace remains on the road - cautiously I will go my way

Sasaki Nobutsuna

Ob auf dem Weg eine Spur bleiben wird oder nicht – bedachtsam will meinen Weg ich gehn

Sasaki Nobutsuna

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Freydoun Farokhzad Another Season.indd 44-45 07/10/2020 09:30 I

Thought in Persian, spoken in German

Persisch gedacht, deutsch gesagt

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Freydoun Farokhzad Another Season.indd 46-47 07/10/2020 09:30 Expectation Erwartung

On the hot tin roof Auf dem heiβen Blechdach night lands landet die Nacht like a black dove wie eine schwarze Taube I hear her coo ich höre sie gurren tender as she is zärtlich wie sie ist

in the city of my silence in der Stadt meines Schweigens sleep flutters flattert der Schlaf like a black dove – wie eine schwarze Taube – will it find the way ob sie den Weg finden wird to my eyes. der zu meinen Augen führt.

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Freydoun Farokhzad Another Season.indd 48-49 07/10/2020 09:30 Children's market Kindermarkt

Noise of the balloons. Lärm der Luftballons.

The yearning eyes Die sehnsüchtigen Augen letting themselves get caught lassen sich in ihm in it. fangen.

Drummers and flute players Trommler und Flötenspieler show off their brilliant zeigen ihre leuchtenden moments. Augenblicke.

Wishes rise slowly Langsam steigen die Wünsche from the ground aus dem Boden and set sail und setzen ihre Segel above the hearts. über den Herzen.

It is time for the paper kites Zeit der Papierdrachen, growing smaller die auf ihrer Reise zum Zenit on their trip to the zenith. immer kleiner werden.

Die Welt ist ein Bilderbuch The world is a picture book ohne Wolken und Verbotstafeln. without clouds or prohibition signs.

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Freydoun Farokhzad Another Season.indd 50-51 07/10/2020 09:30 The wind Der Wind

The wind Der Wind with flying hair mit fliegenden Haaren has neither estuary der weder Mündung nor age. noch Alter hat

It rides without the company der ohne Gesellschaft of feet. von Füβen reitet.

Those searching for its horses Wer nach seinen Pferden sucht discover them as smoke entdeckt sie als Rauch or clouds of dust oder Staubfahnen

They keep their source sie verschweigen hidden. ihren Quell.

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Freydoun Farokhzad Another Season.indd 52-53 07/10/2020 09:30 Sunset Sonnenuntergang

There is no point in Es hat keinen Zweck climbing on a chair einen Stuhl zu besteigen to run into the rainbow um in den Regenbogen The day with its blue fingers zu laufen is borne away. Der Tag mit den blauen Fingern wird weggetragen. In the distance the landscape hides its smile in its hands In der Ferne die Landschaft when the light birgt ihr Lächeln in women’s eyes in den Händen grows heavy. wenn das Licht in den Augen der Frauen Unnoticed schwer wird. we endow the horizon with oblivion Unbemerkt to devote beschenkt man den Horizont attention mit Vergessenheit to the red on its forehead. um dem Rot auf seiner Stirn die Aufmerksamkeit zu widmen.

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Freydoun Farokhzad Another Season.indd 54-55 07/10/2020 09:30 Night Die Nacht

During the day Am Tag it hides versteckt sie sich in the caress in der Zärtlichkeit of the meadows der Wiesen in the song im Gesang der Zikaden. of the cicadas. Während ich schlafe As I lie asleep preβt sie ihr Gesicht it presses its face an die Fensterscheibe against the windowpane und beobachtet and watches meinen Schlaf. my sleep.

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Freydoun Farokhzad Another Season.indd 56-57 07/10/2020 09:30 Love Die Liebe

It started at that time: Damals begann es: when children’s kites als die Kinderdrachen first got to know one another. sich kennenlernten.

Sunday roses Sonntagsrosen and letters written und heimlich geschriebene in secret: Briefe: a breath of emotion. ein Hauch von Gefühl.

Hearts Die mit dem Messer carved with knives geritzten Herzen shone on the trees. leuchteten an den Bäumen. Initials Anfangsbuchstaben tumbled through the air. fielen durch die Luft.

But gradually Allmählich aber the songs of breath sind die Atemlieder are extinguished erloschen and the diaries die Tagebücher erased. verwischt.

No more keys Man schenkt are given away keine Schlüssel mehr because strangers are welcome da jede Tür at every door. den Fremden offen steht. www.mehripublication.com www.mehripublication.com 58 59

Freydoun Farokhzad Another Season.indd 58-59 07/10/2020 09:30 Spring Frühling

Spring Der Frühling is a green beetle ist ein grüner Käfer all its feet der mit allen Füβen hanging in dreams in den Träumen hängt

It tiptoes Er läuft along auf Zehenspitzen with the bitter scent und begleitet of the grass. den bitteren Geruch des Grases One can bend down and keep the butterfly net Man kann sich neigen ready und das Schmetterlingsnetz before the dreams bereit halten start ehe die Träume to fly. zu fliegen beginnen.

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Freydoun Farokhzad Another Season.indd 60-61 07/10/2020 09:30 Peace Friede

I love this sky Ich liebe diesen Himmel its blue glass dessen blaues Glas breaking unter dem Gewicht der Sonne under the sun’s weight. zusammenbricht

I love this earth ich liebe diese Erde its green fragrance deren grüner Duft rowing upwards ohne Überlegung without reflection. nach oben rudert

I love these rivers ich liebe diese Flüsse that fearfully die sich furchtsam wrap themselves in den Geruch in the scent of der Wasserpflanzen water plants einhüllen

these fish diese Fische that carry grey silver coins die graue Silbermünzen in their pupils. in den Pupillen tragen.

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Freydoun Farokhzad Another Season.indd 62-63 07/10/2020 09:30 Illusion Illusion

A feather Eine Feder in your hand in deiner Hand is a bird ist ein Vogel

Birds Vögel are hard sind schwer to hold zu halten they like sie fliegen flying gern

The feather Die Feder in your hand in deiner Hand is a dead bird ist ein toter Vogel it doesn’t fly. er kann nicht fliegen.

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Freydoun Farokhzad Another Season.indd 64-65 07/10/2020 09:30 Nightfall Nachtbeginn

The death Der Tod of these sashes of blue light der blauen Lichtschärpen so reminiscent of mit so viel Erinnerung flying clouds of dust an fliegenden Staubfahnen in fragile air in zerbrechlicher Luft is dark ist dunkel

like: wie: oil slithering on the ground, das Öl auf dem Boden, the unfortunate tomcat, der Unglückskater, the Persian eyes. die persischen Augen.

You can overlook it Man kann ihn übersehen and laugh und darüber lachen

but not aber nicht when night falls wenn die Nacht from the tree wie eine Zikade like a cicada vom Baum fällt and starts und zu singen to sing. beginnt.

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Freydoun Farokhzad Another Season.indd 66-67 07/10/2020 09:30 Summer Sommer

For Heide Luft Für Heide Luft

The names Immer zärtlicher waren he wrote across the sky die Namen grew ever more tender die er an den Himmel malte and the shadows ever smaller immer winziger die Schatten as he carried the sun da er die Sonne on his shoulders. auf den Schultern trug.

June, July, August. Juni, Juli, August. And he fled. Und er flog.

There were tears and handkerchiefs Es gab Tränen und Taschentücher for the minutes für Minuten that had to bid die sich von ihm farewell to him verabschieden muβten there were whispers, there was pain. es gab Flüstern und Schmerzen.

When he forgot himself Als er sich for an instant einen Augenblick vergaβ the dead anchors came kamen die toten Anker and forced their way und drangen ihm ins Herz. into his heart. Er blieb eine Weile lebend For a while he remained alive in jeder Erinnerung. www.mehripublication.comin every memory. www.mehripublication.com 68 69

Freydoun Farokhzad Another Season.indd 68-69 07/10/2020 09:30 The back yards Die Hinterhöfe

The poor back yards Die armen Hinterhöfe lingering to look at us blicken uns for a long time lange nach

when we wenn wir pass an ihnen them by vorbeigehen without ohne sie greeting. zu grüβen.

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Freydoun Farokhzad Another Season.indd 70-71 07/10/2020 09:30 The voice Die Stimme

For Bele Bachem Für Bele Bachem

Old hangover Alter Kater nesting like a cat in the dark shadows under the eyes der in den Augenschatten liegt illuminating thoughts und die Gedanken erleuchtet

Coloured lanterns Bunte Lampions between silent eyelashes zwischen schweigenden Wimpern

The voice. Die Stimme.

You follow it without meaning to. Ungewollt gehst du ihr nach. Searching for its footsteps Suchst du ihre Fuβspuren on your moist tongue, auf deiner feuchten Zunge, you lay fishing lines streust du Angeln for its gleaming trout für ihre leuchtenden Forellen until its last sound bis ihr letzter Klang verstummt. fades. Und plötzlich ist sie wieder da: And suddenly it is there again: Eine Windrose in deinem Gesicht. a windrose in your face.

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Freydoun Farokhzad Another Season.indd 72-73 07/10/2020 09:30 Another season Andere Jahreszeit

Summer was Der Sommer war a thirsty swallow eine durstige Schwalbe that died die an den Luftspiegelungen of mirages starb

autumn der Herbst a melancholy chapter ein melancholisches Kapitel that I read to the end das ich zu Ende las

shall we now wollen wir nun walk durch die tote Landschaft through the dead landscape gehen and ask about und nach den müβigen the idle scythes Sensen fragen or put on oder schwarze Handschuhe black gloves anziehen to carry um dem Winter a little warmth ein biβchen Wärme entgegen towards winter. zu tragen.

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Freydoun Farokhzad Another Season.indd 74-75 07/10/2020 09:30 Silence Die Stille

The minute Die Minute that rests on die sich the shadow of the eyelashes an die Schattenwimpern is silence lehnt ist die Stille invisible shape passing through all doors unsichtbare Gestalt reminiscent die durch alle Türen geht of the dead season und an die tote Jahreszeit or oder of the frozen fresh water. an das gefrorene Süβwasser erinnert. Not a sound when it enters. Kein Ton mehr bei ihrem Eintritt. A small movement to left or right Eine kleine Bewegung suffices zwischen Links und Rechts to kill it. genügt um sie zu töten. Silently it stumbles in the air Sie strauchelt ohne Lärm leaving behind in der Luft dreams and wellsprings. und hinterläβt Träume und Quellen. www.mehripublication.com www.mehripublication.com 76 77

Freydoun Farokhzad Another Season.indd 76-77 07/10/2020 09:30 Breeze Brise

The breeze Die Brise that carries to you die dir den blauen the day’s blue haze Dunst des Tages is a woman entgegenbringt sun and light ist eine Frau are mirrored Sonne und Licht in her eyes spiegeln or in ihren Augen a girl oder adorned with the flowers ein Mädchen of Persian carpets. geschmückt mit den Blumen der Perserteppiche The cool aura of September Kühler Duft leaves its traces des Septembers on her breast legt seine Spuren while she auf ihre Brust trembles während sie between your eyelashes. zwiswchen deinen Wimpern zittert.

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Freydoun Farokhzad Another Season.indd 78-79 07/10/2020 09:30 Stele for A. Stele für A.

While the hour of spring Während die Frühling-Stunde perched in their hair wie ein Vogel in ihrem Haar saβ like a bird suchte sie Hornrufe she listened for the call of horns die zu anderen Jahreszeiten leading führten. to other seasons. Kühl war das Grün The green was cool in geschlossenen Augen. in closed eyes. Sie behielt es She kept it hinter ihren Lidern behind her lids und malte mit Kreiden and drew all colours in allen Farben: in chalk: Grün, rot, gelb. green, red, yellow. Winter. Winter. Sie wollte den Blumen She wanted to give flowers unrechte Namen geben the wrong names Juni mit Dezember verwechseln. confuse June with December. Am Ziel ihrer Wünsche Once she’d succeeded, vermiβte sie she missed den Vogel the bird in ihrem Haar. in her hair. www.mehripublication.com www.mehripublication.com 80 81

Freydoun Farokhzad Another Season.indd 80-81 07/10/2020 09:30 The world Die Welt

The world Die Welt is a sparrow ist ein Sperling that lets itself be killed der sich widerstandslos without resistance töten läβt

Clothed Bekleidet in serene letters mit heiteren Buchstaben of levity. des Leichtsinns.

Whoever captures it Wer ihn gefangen nimmt ends his stroll endet seinen Spaziergang in darkness im Dunkel

For the moment will come Denn der Augenblick kommt when sorrow in dem die Schwermut counts its colours. ihre Farben zählt.

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Freydoun Farokhzad Another Season.indd 82-83 07/10/2020 09:30 II

Portrait of a country

Porträt eines Landes

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Freydoun Farokhzad Another Season.indd 84-85 07/10/2020 09:30 My landscape Meine Landschaft

Persian landscape Persische Landschaft and its irresistible und ihre unwiderstehliche expanse Weite

Coloured paper Buntes Papier on which the smell auf dem sich der Geruch of brief rain des kurzen Regens settles niederläβt

Air tasting of raspberries Überall Luft everywhere mit Himbeergeschmack

Abundance Überfluβ of scarecrows an Vogelscheuchen and garlands of light und Lichtgirlanden

A landscape Landschaft like beautiful weather, wie schönes Wetter, green veils of haze, grüne Gasschleier, on which to paint darauf zu malen wheat and crickets. Weizen und Grillen.

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Freydoun Farokhzad Another Season.indd 86-87 07/10/2020 09:30 Avowal Bekenntnis

My fatherland Mein Vaterland the land of roses das Land der Rosen and nightingales und der Nachtigallen

wilted roses Verwelkte Rosen mute nightingales stumme Nachtigallen.

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Freydoun Farokhzad Another Season.indd 88-89 07/10/2020 09:30 Autumn in Persia Herbst in Persien

The clouds Die Wolken and the blue enamel die die blauen Emaillen of the sky des Himmels coloured in white weiβ färben smell of rain duften nach Regen

Evaporated rivers Verdunstete Flüsse heading fahren towards der kühlen Jahreszeit the cooler season. entgegen

Carrying man trägt silent sheaves of grain die schweigenden Korngarben on one’s head auf dem Kopf waving und winkt to October. dem Oktober zu

Turquoise minarets die Türkisminarette grow wachsen out of dust bowls aus den Staubwannen and beg und bitten for alms. um Almosen.

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Freydoun Farokhzad Another Season.indd 90-91 07/10/2020 09:30 Persian carpet Perserteppich

Colours Farben interweaving die sich ineinander and expanding ausbreiten the better um die Augenringe to overwhelm des Tages the dark shadows below the eyes besser überwältigen of the day. zu können

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Freydoun Farokhzad Another Season.indd 92-93 07/10/2020 09:30 Land in shade Land im Schatten

Confused by visible Verwirrt von sichtbarer violence Gewalt I am accompanied begleiten mich by slain pigeons, getötete Tauben ruptured sky zerrissener Himmel

thus I leave that I’ll no longer so gehe ich fort have to enchain um meine Worte my words nicht mehr fesseln zu müssen waterfalls of light all around überall blühen illuminating the eyes Wasserfälle aus Licht of a thousand and one nights und erleuchten die Augen von tausendundeiner Nacht only in my country do grapes turn nur in meinem Land into raisins werden die Trauben and soldiers zu Rosinen into judges. die Soldaten zu Richtern.

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Freydoun Farokhzad Another Season.indd 94-95 07/10/2020 09:30 Persian women Die Perserinnen

For Bozorg Alavi Für Bozorg Alavi

When night comes Wenn die Nacht kommt and the calls of the cicadas und die Zikadenrufe catch fire sich in Frauenhaar in their hair entzünden the women show zeigen sie their coal eyes ihre Kohlenaugen in the lyrical landscape. in der lyrischen Landschaft.

Women with snares Frauen, mit Fallen and the silver scent in the leaves und Silberduft im Laub, fleeting birds, flüchtige Vögel, caressed by silence. von Schweigen gestreichelt.

Minarets shatter Die Minarette zerbrechen from the brightness of their sight. vom Licht ihres Anblicks.

Turning for no reason Ohne Grund into larks werden sie zu Lerchen or wind swings. oder Windschaukeln.

They bewitch the ear Sie verhexen das Ohr repeating their caress und wiederholen ihre Zärtlichkeit in the hallways. In den Hausfluren. www.mehripublication.com www.mehripublication.com 96 97

Freydoun Farokhzad Another Season.indd 96-97 07/10/2020 09:30 Aquarelle Aquarell

I paint Ich male a house ein Haus out of desire aus Sehnsucht a garden einen Garten out of homesickness aus Heimweh birds Vögel out of sobbing sounds aus schluchzenden Lauten rivers Flüsse out of dew aus Tau seas Meere out of tears aus Tränen narrow alleys enge Gassen out of sorrow aus Schwermut broad squares weite Plätze out of fog aus Nebel rains Regen out of thirst aus Durst clouds Wolken out of gloom aus Trübsinn corn fields Kornfelder out of sun dust aus Sonnenstaub pastures Weiden out of solitude aus Verlassenheit I paint Ich male with all the colours mit allen Farben of my soul meiner Seele www.mehripublication.comI paint www.mehripublication.comich male 98 my fatherland. mein Vaterland. 99

Freydoun Farokhzad Another Season.indd 98-99 07/10/2020 09:30 Oriental days Orientalische Tage

The sky Der Himmel a blue pasture eine blaue Weide

The clouds Die Wolken woven songs gewobene Lieder

The algae of light Die Lichtalgen in the eyes in den Augen the echo of feelings das Echo der Empfindungen

The beaks of birds Rote Knospen are red buds sind die Vögelschnäbel bursting die in Gesängen into song. aufblühen.

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Freydoun Farokhzad Another Season.indd 100-101 07/10/2020 09:30 Persian Day Tag in Persien

On country roads Auf den ländlichen Straβen it carries its leaves of light trägt er den Nachtgarben towards seine Lichtblätter the sheaves of nights entgegen

In the guise of a bird Der Muezzinengesang folgt, the song of the muezzin follows der in Gestalt eines Vogels speaking to many roofs mit vielen Dächern spricht. Day, with a thousand and one doors through which you are Tag, mit tausendundeiner Tür eased durch die man sich by banknotes ohne Gemetzel without slaughter. von Banknoten gleiten läβt.

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Freydoun Farokhzad Another Season.indd 102-103 07/10/2020 09:30 III

Experience

Erfahrung

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Freydoun Farokhzad Another Season.indd 104-105 07/10/2020 09:30 On this side and beyond

For Hans Mayer

1 4. Republic made to the old measure. Your republic his republic. It cherishes its past 5. with whips and caresses. Don’t believe that your republic is better 2 than his, Black believe only Red every other word. Gold without hammer or compasses 6. entirely black. Everywhere the republic One can wear wears the old haircut: black shirts again. On this side 3 and that side Black of its parting. Red Gold with hammer and compasses entirely red. www.mehripublication.com www.mehripublication.com 106 107

Freydoun Farokhzad Another Season.indd 106-107 07/10/2020 09:30 Diesseits and jenseits

Für Hans Mayer

1 4 Republik nach dem alten Maβ. Deine Republik seine Republik. Sie pfelgt ihre Vergangenheit 5 mit Peitschen und Liebkosen. Glaube nicht deine Republik sei besser 2 als seine, Schwarz glaube nur Rot jedem zweiten Wort. Gold ohne Hammer und Zirkel 6 ganz schwarz. Die Republik trägt überall Man kann wieder den alten Haarschnitt: schwarze Hemden tragen.

3 Diesseits Schwarz und jenseits Rot ihres Scheitels. Gold mit Hammer und Zirkel ganz rot. www.mehripublication.com www.mehripublication.com 108 109

Freydoun Farokhzad Another Season.indd 108-109 07/10/2020 09:30 Racial segregation Rassentrennung

The white dove Die weiβe Taube is no dove ist keine Taube it is much more sie ist viel mehr

it is hailed Sie wird gefeiert as a prophet als Prophet cheered bejubelt as a saviour als Retter painted gemalt as peace als Friede

it is a dove sie ist eine Taube and equally und gleich Peace Peace Paix Paix Pace Pace

The black dove Die schwarze Taube is no dove ist keine Taube she is also no more sie ist auch nicht mehr than a dove als eine Taube she is just sie ist nur black. schwarz. www.mehripublication.com www.mehripublication.com 110 111

Freydoun Farokhzad Another Season.indd 110-111 07/10/2020 09:30 The Fourth Reich Das Vierte Reich

Here one moves Hier geht man with the times: mit der Zeit: time of the untended Zeit der Unbehüteten and of poverty, und der Armut, time of resurrection Zeit der Wiederbelebung and of the tall hats of cardinals. und der groβen Kardinalshüte. And when it is Und wenn es wieder time again so weit ist everyone will wear trägt jeder a helmet. einen Helm.

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Freydoun Farokhzad Another Season.indd 112-113 07/10/2020 09:30 War Krieg

The watch sits Die Uhr sitzt like a glow worm wie ein Glühwurm on a hand an einer Hand and does not know und weiβ nicht it belongs daβ sie niemandem to no one. gehört.

Time of crushed Zeit der zerstampften fingers Finger dying like silence die als Schweigen between old cobbles. zwischen dem alten Pfalster sterben. The survivors rub their eyes Die Überlebenden and mumble quietly: reiben sich die Augen never again. und murmeln leise: nie mehr wieder.

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Freydoun Farokhzad Another Season.indd 114-115 07/10/2020 09:30 Resignation Resignation

It is so good to be a worm. Es ist so gut, Wurm zu sein. To see nothing Nichts sehen but the dead. To feel nothing but als Tote. Nichts fӥhlen als the grave. To hear nothing Grab. Nichts hören but naked sickles als nackte Sicheln flat over the ground. flach ӥber der Erde.

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Freydoun Farokhzad Another Season.indd 116-117 07/10/2020 09:30 Atom Bomb Atombombe

They want to convince us Sie wollen uns überzeugen that it’s just daβ es bloβ a white mushroom ein weiβer Pilz ist whispering der mit den Pappeln with the poplars flüstert or a peacock about to oder ein Pfau der gerade spread its tail sein Rad schlägt

but the white mushroom aber der weiβe Pilz has black shadows hat schwarze Schatten and the young peacock und der junge Pfau carries poisonous arrows trägt giftige Pfeile

you can hold a book man kann ein Buch above your head über den Kopf halten and believe in miracles und an Wunder glauben

you can also man kann auch creep under a table wie ein kranker Hund like a sick dog unter den Tisch kriechen and wish for a better death. und sich einen besseren Tod wünschen.

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Freydoun Farokhzad Another Season.indd 118-119 07/10/2020 09:30 Berlin Berlin

Splitting Teilt man the waters die Gewässer does not eliminate so trennt man nicht the pike die Hechte

Splitting teilt man die Akazie an acacia so teilt man nicht does not split ihren Duft its scent geht aber but when something etwas in zwei breaks in two so geht alles everything breaks in two entzwei

me on this side ich diese Seite you on that. du jene

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Freydoun Farokhzad Another Season.indd 120-121 07/10/2020 09:30 What For? Wozu?

The grey tin soldiers Die grauen Zinnsoldaten mute and proud stumm und stolz baptized in blood getauft in Blut and iron und Eisen

Endless history Endlose Geschichte of this country dieses Landes

People Menschen filled with mit dem Haβ the devil’s hatred des Teufels to win um längst verlorene long lost Spiele games. zu gewinnen.

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Freydoun Farokhzad Another Season.indd 122-123 07/10/2020 09:30 Legacy Hinterlassenschaft

Landscapes Die Landschaften leave behind hinterlassen their postcards ihre Postkarten roses die Rosen their scent ihren Duft the wind der Wind its cradle seine Wiege the river der Fluβ its mirror seinen Spiegel waterfalls die Wasserfälle their roaring ihr Tosen voices die Stimmen their slaughter ihr Gemetzel fortune das Glück its forgetfulness seine Vergeβlichkeit soldiers die Soldaten their graves ihre Gräber war der Krieg its hatred seinen Haβ peace der Friede its boredom. seine Langeweile.

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Freydoun Farokhzad Another Season.indd 124-125 07/10/2020 09:30 Not all are blind Nicht alle sind blind

There are people Es gibt Leute with white pupils mit weiβen Pupillen the better to read um die schwarzen Schriftzüge the black writing einer Brise of a breeze besser lesen zu können

perhaps they think sie meinen vielleicht black on black schwarz auf schwarz is illegible wäre unlesbar or oder white on white weiβ auf weiβ incomprehensible unbegreiflich

but I ich aber write in red schreibe rot on red auf rot legibly lesbar and comprehensibly. und begreiflich.

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Freydoun Farokhzad Another Season.indd 126-127 07/10/2020 09:30 Soldiers Soldaten

Without land Ohne Land without peace ohne Frieden breaking zerbrechen and freezing und erfrieren in the hands of God in Gottes Hand who is rushing der von Glocke from bell zu Glocke eilt to bell um dem Krieg to give his seinen Segen blessing zu geben. to the war.

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Freydoun Farokhzad Another Season.indd 128-129 07/10/2020 09:30 Dictatorship Diktatur

Grey reaching down under the hearts Grau bis unter die Herzen under the tongues unter die Zungen that unlearn their self-deception. die sich zu wiegen verlernen. Each sound leaves lips lined up against the wall. Jeder Laut läβt Lippen an die Wand stellen. There is always a shortage of boots. der Vorrat an Stiefeln reicht nie aus. Those who do not change their colour in time Wer nicht rechtzeitig are lost. seine Farbe wechselt ist verloren.

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Freydoun Farokhzad Another Season.indd 130-131 07/10/2020 09:30 Recently, I was in Berlin and unintentionally Vor kurzem war ich in Berlin und kam ungewollt came into contact with the wall: mit der Mauer in Berührung: it also separated me from a person. Sie hat auch mich von einem Menschen getrennt. And yet I believe that even a wall Trotzdem bin ich der Meinung, daβ auch eine Mauer can be of use. Useless are those von Nutzen sein kann. Nutzlos sind diejenigen, whose policies have brought things this far. die es durch ihre Politik so weit gebracht haben.

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Freydoun Farokhzad Another Season.indd 132-133 07/10/2020 09:30 Perception Wahrnehmung

For Reinhard Ramshorn Für Reinhard Ramshorn

Before red sentinels Bevor aus den Scheiteln grew out of vertices rote Schildwachen wuchsen everything was different. ist alles anders gewesen.

shop-window dealers Schaufensterhändler, blue jeans dealers Bluejeanshändler:

Tenderness came Die Zärtlichkeit kam from the west. aus dem Westen.

Some carried it Manche trugen sie like fresh placards wie frische Plakate and courted the feet und umwarben die Füβe some sold it manche verkauften sie as brotherly love. als Nächstenliebe.

But now one can Nun aber kann man go to sleep quietly ruhig schlafen gehn even if the whispering wenn auch das Flüstern of the bricks der Ziegelsteine troubles einige Nachbarn some neighbours. beunruhigt. www.mehripublication.com www.mehripublication.com 134 135

Freydoun Farokhzad Another Season.indd 134-135 07/10/2020 09:30 IV

What I have left to say

Was ich noch sagen wollte

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Freydoun Farokhzad Another Season.indd 136-137 07/10/2020 09:30 Unheard Ungehört

I do not want priests Ich will nicht, daβ die Priester to bless airplanes, consecrate cannons, Flugzeuge segnen, Kanonen einweihen the blood of the defenceless daβ das Blut der Wehrlosen to drench the Bible die Bibel durchtränkt to flood the crucifix. das Kreuz überschwemmt

I do not want ruins ich will nicht, daβ die Ruinen to spread on our chest sich auf unserer Brust ausbreiten well-rested uniforms daβ die ausgeschlafenen Uniformen to stamp on our future über unsere Zukunft stampfen

I do not want flowers will nicht, daβ die Blumen to seek refuge in the salt desert in der Salzwüste Zuflucht suchen beautiful, silent animals daβ die schönen, schweigenden Tiere to vanish from the face of the earth aus der Welt verschwinden

I do not want a sun that is a thousand suns will keine Sonne, die tausend Sonnen ist a white mushroom that flourishes in hell Keinen weiβen Pilz, der in der Hölle blüht

I do not want any salvation will kein Heil through awful calamity durch das schreckliche Unheil or any song will kein Gesang from the bodies of headless birds. aus kopflosen Vogelleibern.

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Freydoun Farokhzad Another Season.indd 138-139 07/10/2020 09:30 V

About these poems

Zu diesen Gedichten

By Johannes Bobrowski

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Freydoun Farokhzad Another Season.indd 140-141 07/10/2020 09:30 About these poems

Johannes Bobrowski

Freydoun Farokhzad, born in 1936, a man with clear-cut, confident movements, comes from a land of great poetic traditions, a land of which we have in the meantime heard quite different and seldom good things – things that present themselves as very oriental, in a very European way: as if the days of roses and nightingales were over. He has been living in Germany for six years now and is not the only Persian here, as we know. He writes in German, that is, in a language he has learned and which he wields as such. But that is one’s first impression of him. He has confidence in this language, he uses the vocabulary, the terms, without much doubt or worry about their www.mehripublication.com www.mehripublication.comsuitability, without the paralyzing indecision that wants to present our own language to us as 143

Freydoun Farokhzad Another Season.indd 142-143 07/10/2020 09:30 a museum of developmental series, influences, without clouds or prohibition signs changes of meaning, etc., which moreover is still replenishing itself with new inventory from not This is beautiful, and leads us to the desires fully comprehensible arsenals. And so he takes from which his poem has arisen, and thus to the what he can get, and that’s not meagre, as we can constellations that could define his relationship see. An approach, I think, whose advantage – for with his country of origin – which by no means us, at least – is obvious. For him too, but that is justifies his host country in commending itself open to discussion. as an alternative. Here the chapter entitled Language as a medium of thought – an all too Experience says enough: situations we have simple formula. One that is not much use, not become accustomed to, seen by someone who much more than experience of the distinctions steps into them and nonetheless does not forget between language and thought: old Hamann the view they offered from a distance. spoke about this, turning against his Herder. I think that with these poems something new But language seized by desires – here, it has happened, something we should not allow approaches poetry. quickly identifiable influences to disguise: the naturalness we notice in the language extends Wishes rise slowly all the way to the metaphors, the imagery; they from the ground immediately gain life and energy from the initial and set sail situation so that they evolve into actions and are above the hearts. able to grow, to walk, to fly: The spring – a green writes Farokhzad in his Children’s Market. We beetle, hanging in dreams, tiptoes along with the see confidence in the work: ground, sails and heart scent of the grass. The butterfly net is ready for are set, their power of evocation is not questioned; the catch (spring). Which is not to say that what consequently, at the end of the poem the world is we called confidence or naturalness is simply called a picture book. While certainly not a child blank and fresh, relaxed, or, historically speaking, who mistrusts his picture book, Freydoun adds as in an early stage. Contemplating these poems, one www.mehripublication.comhis last line: www.mehripublication.comrecognizes a number of basic patterns that link the 144 Persian Farokhzad inextricably with his country 145

Freydoun Farokhzad Another Season.indd 144-145 07/10/2020 09:30 of origin. Poems like Nightfall or The Wind should be viewed accordingly. Or lines like

The clouds and the blue enamel of the sky coloured in white

in Autumn in Persia. Another strong point for the poems is the Zu diesen Gedichten melancholy of one who by his own admission lives in two countries and between them, on Johannes Bobrowski a curving arch whose span betrays itself in a Freydoun Farokhzad, 36 geboren, ein Mann mit trembling beneath the feet. klaren, sicheren Bewegungen, kommt aus einem Here I have paid less attention to the poems in Land großer dichterischer Traditionen, von dem the second chapter, beautiful as they are. They invite wir indessen seit langem durchaus anderes und us to look back while their sensual abundance and selten Gutes hören -, Dinge, die sich auf sehr vividness lives as narrated time: we do not leave europäische Weise sehr orientalisch gerieren: als the arch of the bridge, but only the point of highest sei es aus mit den Rosen und Nachtigallen. tension – and only for a few steps. Seit sechs Jahren lebt er in Deutschland, nicht Of course that is essential for the volume: it der einzige Perser hier, wie man weiß. Er schreibt signifies its openly autobiographical character. deutsch, in einer Sprache also, die er erlernt hat Which we can accept – as the experience of und als eine erlernte handhabt. Aber, das ist der a serious man, whom we believe and who erste Eindruck, den man bei ihm bekommt, er approaches us with firm, clear-cut movements. hat Vertrauen zu dieser Sprache, also setzt er We greet him warmly. die Vokabel, den Begriff ohne große Zweifel www.mehripublication.com www.mehripublication.comoder Bedenken an der Verfügbarkeit, ohne das 146 lähmende Zaudern, das einem die eigne Sprache 147

Freydoun Farokhzad Another Season.indd 146-147 07/10/2020 09:30 als ein Museum von Entwicklungsreihen, kein Kind, das seinem Bilderbuch mißtraute, aber Einflüssen, Bedeutungswandel etc. vorstellen Farokhzad fügt, als letzte Zeile hinzu: will, das sich dazu nun eben noch aus nicht ohne Wolken und Verbotstafeln, völlig übersichtlichen Arsenalen mit neuen Beständen anfüllt. Er nimmt also, was er in die und das ist schön und führt uns auf die Hand bekommen kann, es ist nicht wenig, wie wir Wünsche, aus denen sein Gedicht aufgestiegen sehen. Ein Vorgehen, denke ich, dessen Nutzen ist, und also auf die Konstellationen, die sein - für uns jedenfalls - auf der Hand liegt. Für ihn Verhältnis zu seinem Herkunftsland bestimmen auch, doch darüber ist nun zu reden. könnten. Was gar keine Berechtigung für sein Sprache als Medium des Gedankens - Gastland bedeuten kann, sich als eine Alternative eine allzu vereinfachte Formel. Die nicht viel zu empfehlen. Hier sagt die Erfahrung betitelte einträgt, nicht viel mehr als Erfahrungen mit den Abteilung genug: uns gewöhnlich gewordene Distinktionen zwischen Sprache und Denken; der Situationen, gesehen von einem, der in sie eintritt alte Hamann hat darüber geredet, gegen seinen und gleichwohl den Anblick nicht vergißt, den sie Herder gewandt. aus der Entfernung boten. Aber Sprache, derer sich die Wünsche Ich meine, es liegt mit diesen Gedichten bemächtigen: hier geht es auf das Gedicht zu. etwas Neues vor, worüber schnell feststellbare Beeinflussungen nicht hinwegtäuschen sollten: Langsam steigen die Wünsche Die Unbefangenheit, die wir an der Sprache aus dem Boden konstatierten, erstreckt sich völlig auf die und setzen ihre Segel Metaphern, auf die Bildvorstellungen, sie über dem Herzen gewinnen aus der Anfangssituation sofort Leben heißt es in Farokhzads Kindermarkt. Wir und Spannung, daß sie sich zu Handlungen sehen Zutrauen am Werk, Boden, Segel, Herz fortzuentwickeln, daß sie zu wachsen, zu laufen, zu werden gesetzt, ihre Evokationskraft ist nicht fliegen vermögen: der Frühling, der - ein grüner angezweifelt, folgerichtig heißt die Welt am Käfer - in den Träumen hängt, auf Zehenspitzen www.mehripublication.comSchluß des Gedichts ein Bilderbuch. Nun gewiß: www.mehripublication.comläuft, den Geruch des Grases zu begleiten. Das 148 149

Freydoun Farokhzad Another Season.indd 148-149 07/10/2020 09:30 Schmetterlingsnetz ist schon bereit, für den Fang für ein paar Schritte. (Der Frühling). Das heißt nicht, daß das, was Freilich, das ist für den Band unerläßlich, es wir Zutrauen oder Unbefangenheit nannten, bezeichnet seinen offen selbstbiographischen einfach blank und frisch, ausgeruht, historisch zu Zug. Den wir entgegennehmen können - als die reden: in einer Anfangssituation wäre. Man wird Erfahrungen eines ernsten Mannes, dem wir bei der Betrachtung dieser Gedichte manches glauben, der mit festen, klaren Bewegungen auf Grundmuster erkennen, das den Perser Farokhzad uns zu kommt. Den wir herzlich begrüßen. unlösbar seinem Herkunftland verbindet. Gedichte wie Nachtbeginn oder Der Wind wollen auch daraufhin angesehen werden. Oder Zeilen wie

Die Wolken die die blauen Emaillen des Himmels weiß färben

in Herbst in Persien.

Auch das kommt diesen Gedichten zugute: die Melancholie dessen, der erklärtermaßen in zwei Ländern lebt und zwischen diesen zwei Ländern auf einem geschwungenen Bogen, dessen Spannweite sich in einem Zittern unter den Füßen verrät. Ich habe hier weniger die Gedichte der zweiten Abteilung herangezogen, so schön sie sind. Sie verweisen zurück, ihre sinnliche Fülle und Anschaulichkeit lebt als erzählte Zeit, der Brückenbogen ist nicht verlassen, nur der www.mehripublication.comScheitelpunkt der äußersten Spannung - und nur www.mehripublication.com 150 151

Freydoun Farokhzad Another Season.indd 150-151 07/10/2020 09:30 The Autumn Der Herbst

The autumn has its melancholy Der Herbst hat seine Melancholie when we leave it. wenn wir ihn verlassen. Its monuments Schon wandeln sich already changing seine Denkmäler under the sky unter einem Himmel that adorned us. mit dem wir geschmückt waren. And the lines of its hands Und die Linien seiner Hände decomposing with ripeness. verfaulen an Reife. Pale red, the birds drag Blassrot ziehen die Vögel over shadowy colours. über die Schattenfarben. The memory Die Erinnerung of green love couples an grüne Liebespaare hides verbirgt sich under the leaves. unterm Laub. Soon dust clouds rise Bald steigen die Staubwolken and tear up the flags. und zerfetzen die Fahnen. While an undefined scent Während ein ungewisser Geruch Stirs memories. an die Gedächtnisse rührt.

Handwritten note on the typed manuscript by Freydoun Farokhzad to Johannes Bobrowski: Notiz von Freydoun Farokhzad an Johannes Bobrowski: “Is this beautiful? “Ist das schön? Too bad you were not in Berlin!” www.mehripublication.comPoem with the reference number 91.2.212/6 at the Marbach www.mehripublication.comSchade dass Du nicht in Berlin warst!” 152 Literary Archive Gedicht mit der Archiv-Signatur 91.2.212/6 153

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Freydoun Farokhzad Another Season.indd 158-159 07/10/2020 09:30 Also By Mehri Publication

Novels Dog and The Long Winter Written by Shahrnush Parsipur, Translated by Shokufeh Kavani Tales of Iran Feridon Rashidi Sharia Law Shakespeare Feridon Rashidi The Mice and the Cat and other stories Feridon Rashidi The Outcast Feridon Rashidi Half Eaten Biscuit Banafsheh Hajazi The Individuals Revolution Amir Heidari Uneducated Diary By A Minded Man Matin Zoormad

Research - History The Forgotten Conquerors (Tales From The Castle Of The Moat) George Sfougaras Kings, Whores And Children: Passing Notes On Ancient Iran And The World That We Live In Touraj Daryaee

Children’s Books The Padlock Ana Luisa Tejeda\ Illustrated by Nazli Tahvili Who is the Strongest? Feridon Rashidi\ Illustrated by Sahar Haghgoo Charli In The Forest Rasheell Barikzai www.mehripublication.comBaby Grandma Shiva Karimi www.mehripublication.com Namaki and the Giant Ellie I. Beykzadeh

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