By Dr. Domenico Ingenito

 

Forugh Farrokhzad (1934-1967) is the first female Iranian poet who playfully renegotiated the formal rules and dominant imagery of classical Persian poetry and wrote about sex and desire from the perspective of women. After publishing four collections of poetry and working on a number of short films and documentaries, she received international acclaim at film festivals in Germany and Italy. It was only after Farrokhzad’s untimely death and, most notably, following the publication of her posthumous poetry collection (Let’s Believe in the Beginning of the Cold Season, 1974), that her voice gained global recognition, thanks to the contributions of scholars and translators from around the world.

This talk presents the first critical edition and Italian translation of Forugh Farrokhzad’s collected poems: من از نهایت شب حرف می‌زنم / Io parlo dai confini della notte/ I speak from the edges of the night (Bompiani 2023, edited and translated by Domenico Ingenito, 800 pp.). The book features the Persian text of all the original collections of poetry published by Farrokhzad during her lifetime, along with pieces published posthumously. We will discuss the context in which a major European publisher like Bompiani decided to dedicate so much space to a modern Iranian poet, as well as the impact of Farrokzad’s poetry in today’s vibrant Italian literary scene.

Moreover, the presentation of this bilingual volume will offer the opportunity to highlight Farrokhzad’s love for Italy, which transpires from her poetry (some of her most beautiful pieces from Rebellion were composed in Rome), her travelogue (In Another Land) and private letters to relatives, and friends, as well as her experience as an actor in an Italian play.

Dr. Ingenito is Associate Professor of Iranian Studies and premodern Persian Literature at the University of California, Los Angeles, Bahari Fellow in the Persian Arts of the Book (Bodleian Libraries, University of Oxford), core faculty member of the Pourdavoud Center for the Study of the Iranian World, and former director of the UCLA Program on Central Asia (2016-2021). His research interests center on ancient and medieval Iran, Persian poetry, visual culture of Iran and Central Asia, gender and translations studies, and premodern manuscript culture. His most recent articles are: “Hafez’s ‘Shirāzi Turk’: A Geopoetical Approach (Iranian Studies)” and “‘A Marvelous Painting’: The Erotic Dimension of Saʿdi’s Praise Poetry” (Journal of Persianate Studies). His most recent book is Beholding Beauty: Saʿdi of Shiraz and the Aesthetics of Desire in Medieval Persian Poetry (Brill, 2020, reviews appeared in Iranian Studies, International Journal of Middle East Studies, Middle Eastern Literatures, Oxford Journal of Islamic Studies). His Italian translation of Forugh Farrokhzad’s collected poems, along with all original texts, will be published in 2023 by Bompiani. He is currently working on an English translation of a selection of Saʿdi’s poems (University of California Press) and a monograph on ancient Iranian kingship, poetic creativity, and homoeroticism in the context of late antique epic cycles and court poetry. Professor ingenito co-leads the UCLA Afghan Scholars at Risk program, which aims to bring to campus scholars and writers who face repression in Afghanistan.