Hey... You Who Has Left, {Asiyeh Amini}, Tehran: Ahang-e Digar Publishing, 1382, 106 pp, 9000 Rials.

Over the past several years many collections of poetry have been published by little-known poets. Some of these have been first books. The number of published collections are so many that it has effected their readership negatively, partially because it is not easy to sift through these collections for a worthy piece. Most of these works are either deeply committed to the Iranian classical poetic tradition or, in stark contrast, to modernist and post-modernist influences. In the traditional style, because of its rich history, the contemporary poet will have to compete with giants of this art form. The only advantage of this style is that the reader is familiar with it and has an easier time reading the pieces. Even what is known as New Poetry [which gained ground in the late 1950s with works of avant-garde poets, starting with Nima Yushij, "the father of New Poetry"], has gradually acquired the status of a classic, making it difficult for contemporary poets to innovate in this field. Innovation is of course what all artists are after, but it is a difficult for the artist to be always successful when it comes to innovation.

The important thing is that every poem is composed for a particular listener or reader, and poems that are left unattended by their potential readers will be damaging to the poet, and, of course, what I mean by a reader is not the reader of popular works but those with a degree of sophistication and familiarity with poetry.

Hey… You Who Has Left is Asiyeh Amini's first collection. It immediately establishes a relationship with its readers and is successful in doing that. The main theme of these poems is LOVE but the important thing is that it is carried through with realistic poetic strokes. The domain of love and poetry is usually the realm of imagination and dream, and little room is left to realism. With this collection, I believe that the poet has come up a rare and special combination. These poems are both delicate and candid. They are mostly short or semi-long, but several long poems can also be seen among them. Let's read some of her shorter poems together.

I have disgraced myself endlessly
which was the closest way to you.

*

Ivies have covered me entirely.
Don't be deceived!
The greenness is not mine.

*

I was born only to love.
My creator knew that
And fathers and mothers
Who because of it endured 1000-year pains.

I have only come to love.

*

No one came to the rescue.
I waded so much
That the last bubble swelled of the last wave,
And I
Became the freest pearl of the pond.