Rosa Jamali

Rosa Jamali Poems

Rosa Jamali Biography

Rosa Jamali is a renowned poet in contemporary Iran; she is often considered as the most important female figure in Present-day Poetry of Iran. She studied BA Drama & Literature at the Art University of Tehran and later she receives her MA degree in English Literature from Tehran University. Her debut collection of poems, THIS DEAD BODY IS NOT AN APPLE, IT'S EITHER A PEAR OR A CUCUMBER published in 1997 and announced a major new voice in Iranian poetry.The book opened Persian poetry to new creative possibilities. Her second collection of poems MAKING A FUNNY FACE was well received by critics and established her literary career. In this collection, with its stream-of-consciousness narrative poems; she merges different types of discourse and registers and goes further more to explore the possibilities of language poetry where she adopts a kind of metric pattern from classical Persian poetry and imbues that with the natural cadence of speech, juxtaposing long and short sentences, infusing the whole with her dry sense of humour. Her third collection MAKING COFFEE TO RUN A CRIME STORY is a re-reading of male-narrative love stories in a post-modern narrative. This lengthy dramatic poem at the beginning of the book has references to the image of misogyny in Sadegh Hedayat's literature; the chopped off woman in the Blind Owl. She has taken inspirations from the life of women who have been slayed because they wanted to write or tell a story, like the life of the first female poet in Persian Rabia Balkhi who was killed by her brother for writing love poetry, crime against women is quite common in Iranian society and has been well-portrayed in this long dramatic poem. The poem contains frequent references to old testament, myths & characters. DATING NOAH'S SON, a collection with so many biblical themes comes next as an addition to this book. The book THE HOURGLASS IS FAST ASLEEP has been mentioned for combining a present-day setting with the myths and themes of Persian mystics. Like Suhrawardi she takes the philosophy of illumination to talk about life from an Eastern Perspective; a kind of cosmology in which all creation has taken an existence from the light of lights; a kind of unification with the heaven above. In this book, she writes on death and love and asks so many existential questions. The poem THE ANGELS OF THE FRAME is a revival of Omar khayyam's themes and style in which the speaker of poem takes a skeptic point of view to talk about life and its philosophy.The poems have been widely discussed in its mythological references through birth and rebirth cycle, vegetation deity and archetypal patterns. And HIGHWAYS BLOCKED is much more in the political scene of present-day Iran. HERE GRAVITY IS LESS 2019 explores some hidden psychological aspects of things in a creative mood. THIS IS NOT A PERSIAN SCRIPT, which is her recent book and coming soon contains so many references to historical events and chronicles the life of a nation throughout the time. Many of her poems have been translated into English by herself. She has written a number of poetry reviews, critical articles, and scholarly essays... In an article on Ahmad Shamlu; a Prominent Iranian Contemporary poet, she writes: ' Shamlu is a part of our cultural heritage, but we are from a different generation so we have to criticise the past: 1- Shamlou's poetry is a political speech. 2-The music he creates in his poetry comes from fragmenting the phrases which cannot be real music where else he applies the classical kind of rhythm which is not used in modern literature. 3- The archaic style he applies can't utter today's life throughout the poetry. 4- In his love poems, he describes his lover as a nurse, mother, or paragon of patience which cannot be practical in real life and the portrait of women in Shamlu's poetry is narrated from a Male-dominated point of view. 5-He applies the eloquence of the 11th-century prose which sounds obsolete and old-fashioned now.' Rosa Jamali's poems have been translated into various languages; English, French, German, Swedish, Turkish, Italian, Dutch, Spanish, Arabic, Kirdish, Hebrew, Vietnamese, Urdu, Czech & Esperanto... Among her translators are the distinguished Rumi Scholar, Franklin Lewis, and British acclaimed poet and prominent scholar of THE BOOK OF KINGS, Dick Davis. She has translated a number of world poets into Persian among which are William Butler Yeats, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Tennison, Amir Or, Dorothy Parker, Sylvia Plath, Emma Lazarus, Ted Hughes, Adrienne Rich, Allen Ginsberg, Roger Mcgough, Louise Gluck, Hilda Dolittle, Edit Sitwell, T.S.Eliot, and William Shakespeare above all. THE SHADOW is a play by Rosa Jamali. The police are looking for a murderer, a woman but he's found eleven women resembling the murderer. The setting is a room. There are two women in black, covered their hair in black headscarves confronting each other in a shelter. They were born on one day and they've got one name. They both married one man called Parviz. A challenge of identity made them kill each other. In the end, a third woman exactly like them enters the same room, finding a piece of paper: 'The police have arrested 13 women who are quite alike but two have been found dead... the play is highly regarded as a feminist play exploring issues of women in Iran. English Translation of Ghazaleh Alizadeh's novel THE HOUSE OF EDRISIS is among her other works. Jamali has participated in different poetry festivals and literary events worldwide: -In 2006 in Rotterdam The Netherlands, she was invited for a poetry recitation and talk. -She had a poetry reading and delivered a talk on IRAN IN WRITING at the British Library in February 2015 following a Panel Discussion with Ahamad Karimi Hakkak; a prominent Persian Literature Scholar and Daljit Nagra; British acclaimed Poet. -In the Gutenburg poetry festival 2013, she recited her poetry and delivered a lecture on the image of contemporary Iranian women in Literature. -She has been a guest poet in different Persian study centers in the United States like Chicago University, Colombia University, Iranica Centre, UCLA, University of Arkansas, Maryland university, George Washington University, Library of Congress, and...2013 She is recognised as an alumnus of WORLD LEARNING by State Department - Poetry reading and talk on Poetry and Ecology on Persian Poetry, invited by Green India Organization,2015 -Talk on Post-revolutionary Persian Poetry, St. Andrews University Scotland,2017 -India's Asian Biennale of poetry 2019 -Kosovo International festival,2020 -Medellin Poetry Festival of Colombia,2022 She is a poetry Judge in so many poetry awards inside the country. Rosa Jamali's works have been subject of numerous University thesis and Scholarly articles in Persian. Rosa Jamali's Works: Poetry This Dead Body is not an Apple, it's either a Cucumber or a Pear,1997 Making a Face,1978 Making Coffee to Run a Crime story,2002 The Hourglass is Fast Asleep,2011 Highways Blocked,2015 Here Gravity is Less,2019 This is not a Persian Script, coming soon Plays The Shadow, Premiered 2014 Translations into Persian EDGE, AN Anthology of Anglophone Poets Sailing to Byzantium, Selected Poems of William Butler Yeats Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow, A Selection of Best Excerpts of William Shakespeare Tulips, An Anthology of Women Poetry in English The Wild Iris, Selected Poems of Louise Gluck A Certain Lady, Selected Poems and Short Stories of Dorothy Parker Sand and Time, A selection of Amir Or's Poetry Translations into English The House of The Edrisis; Ghazaleh Alizadeh, translation from original Persian to English Essays Revelations in the Wind (A Discussion on Poetics of Persian Poetry))

The Best Poem Of Rosa Jamali

5poems From The Book: 'here Gravity Is Less'(Translated From Original Persian To English)

1


'SUPPOSE THAT I'M INEVITABLE'

Suppose that I'm inevitable
Even the veins of my right hand
Cross you from the drafts.

On my smooth nails
The breeze
Which is not from the sky
Is curving you
Either the veins of my right hand
Is running short
On my pulse.

Rolled along my fingers
Vanished
Not repeated for ever
For the second.
I'm a half
Since the first.

The veins of my neck cross you all.


If the warmth of my ten fingers
Seized on your torn pieces of breath
All is over
With the dead-end alleys
all in oblivion.

******
2

'LIKE A HANGED PITCHER'


Like a hanged pitcher,
No drink is pouring off me
It's natural to get numbed gradually.

Pig-headed seashells!
This boasting sky,
Is an anchor
which has fallen on my lap
This dizzy sky!
The moon's been cleared
A shadow's coming after me
Barefooted on my dreams
You used to run!

Enjoyed? !
Numbed? !

All my veins are connected to this land...

Like a hanged pitcher
Joyful of this sky
One day a huge whale swallowed it as a whole.

And it was over!
The Gulf was over!
You waved hands.

Like a hanged pitcher,
It's simple!
I lost the game
And gambled away...

******
3

'TEHRAN CUDDLED IN MY ARMS'
Tehran in my arms
At the agony of death
In my bosom
Is an aged bull
Which is mooing
Yet tamed and dull
Rubbing its figure on my hair.
But tomorrow,
It 'll be a dead body
And the dustman will collect it
I'm a refuge of this kicking bitch dog
And I'll leave it to God...


*****
4

'THE ONLY RESIDENT OF THIS HOUSE IS THE GLOOMY HAWK'

Me
huddled here
And my red cells flee
The game ended in nill
Never-existed memories on the road
on sale!


It was a man
Heavy
On my eyelids.

No, it won't be over
All the mirrors show me the same
A locked room
The stone's falling down
Single-handed and barefoot
The day is just the surface!

That parted memory
Tossing and turning
Sing me lullabye
Is this the memory loss
Or I'm wounded?
And nobody knows
The drizzle of salt
On that large basin.
The days are sick!
Can you feel my pulse?
And me
Is a memory joined to your veins.

Tired
Although they're playing the drums
As loudly as possible
But I'm a deaf!

The only resident of this house is the gloomy hawk.



******
5

'UNRIPE GREENGAGES'

I'm unripe greengages
It was a necessity
That I was just born to be a flavour.


(TRANSLATED BY THE Poet)

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