{"id":230,"date":"2006-12-03T11:33:58","date_gmt":"2006-12-03T11:33:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mahmag.org\/nucleus-import\/?p=230"},"modified":"2006-12-03T11:33:58","modified_gmt":"2006-12-03T11:33:58","slug":"from-zayandeh-rud-to-the-mississippi-by-mahnaz-badihian","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mahmag.org\/archive-english\/from-zayandeh-rud-to-the-mississippi-by-mahnaz-badihian\/","title":{"rendered":"From Zayandeh Rud To The Mississippi” by: Mahnaz Badihian"},"content":{"rendered":"

Read few poems from the book of”From Zayandeh Rud To The Mississippi” and book reviews by: Marvin Bell(American poet)- Ehsan YarShater-Midwest Book Review <\/b>(Oregon, WI USA)- and by Jennifer Langer<\/b><\/b><\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

\n————–
\nReviewer: Midwest Book Review<\/b> (Oregon, WI USA) – See all my reviews<\/p>\n

The verse of poet, writer and dentist Mahnaz Badihian (Oba) reflects the mystic poets of her Iranian childhood and is hallmarked by romantic, simple and philosophical qualities that resonate in the mind and heart of the reader. From Zayandeh Rud to The Mississippi: A Voice From A Road Between East And West is her debut anthology and showcases her experience and expertise in English. Modern Woman: I am a restless woman.\/A woman with strong shoulders,\/That carries life.\/With iron feet,\/That walk through fire every second.\/I am a woman with a wounded voice,\/That bleeds inside, every day.\/I am a modern woman,\/A woman of an age of ex, money, perfumes.\/I keep the pain in me, I paint the face for you!\/I am a restless woman,\/A woman of the modern age.
\n——————————————————
\nFrom Zayandeh Rud to the Mississippi by Mahnaz Badihian (OBA)
\nReviewed by Jennifer Langer<\/p>\n

This is a collection of poetry by Iranian born Mahnaz Badihian who has lived in the US for twenty-five years. Half the poems are translated from Persian and half written in English. <\/p>\n

The subtitle of the collection is \u2018A Voice form a Road between East and West\u2019 and her work aims to mediate a space between the two cultures. However, this collection represents the emotional difficulty and struggle of negotiating the loss of home regardless of the length of time spent in the country of exile. There is a sense of loneliness in an alien American environment. Identity is continually interrogated \u2013 she asks \u2018Where am I from?\u2019 and dreams are significant as they reveal her repressed consciousness, be it of the lbue of the Caspian Sea or of the mirror in Iran waiting for her return. She yearns for the sensory signifiers of her homeland \u2013 tapes of Shamloo reading, a bag of sabzi , the sound of the Copper Bazaar, her grandfather\u2019s pomegranate garden, because although she persuades herself that her life is filled with harmony, nevertheless \u2018something is missing\u2019 which leads her to perceive herself as a prisoner of memory. In the poem \u2018Mirror\u2019, despite breaking the mirrors of the present, the narrator continues to see past \u2018unshattered faces in shattered dreams\u2019 with the mirror also being an emblem of temporality and the irretrievability of time marked by \u2018the footsteps of moments\u2019. Finally, the presence of her poetic muse relieves the suffering of loneliness and the pain of memory and she experiences elation.<\/p>\n

The poetry also focuses on unrequited love with some of the love poems deploying traditional Persian poetic metaphors including, \u2018wine\u2019, \u2018flame\u2019 and \u2018moonlight\u2019 and in fact Badihian grew up with the mystic poetry of Rumi, Hafez, and Khayam. Sufism, the Islamic\/Persian form of mysticism, demanded the most intense forms of introspection and this is what Badihian does in her poetry.<\/p>\n

However, examining of the self is problematic in a culture that idealises feminine silence and restraint and interestingly the poetry is written in the safer space of exile. <\/p>\n

Jennifer Langer is the founding director of Exiled Writers Ink and editor of The Bend in the Road: Refugees Writing, Crossing the Border: Voices of Refugee and Exiled Women Writers and The Silver Throat of the Moon: Writing in Exile. She is completing an MA in Cultural Memory. <\/p>\n

—————————————-<\/p>\n

Your poems are mostly short, but they are packing a great deal of well-expressed sentiments. You are able to make a literary point, capture an aesthetic moment and express fleeting emotions with ease and elegance. I hope you will continue writing poetry.<\/p>\n

With best wishes,<\/p>\n

Sincerely,<\/p>\n

Ehsan Yarshater<\/b><\/p>\n

————————————
\n“I adore your book of poetry. Mahnaz, you have the heart and soul of a poet.!”
\nMarvin Bell<\/b><\/p>\n

\n Zayandeh rud<\/b><\/p>\n

Where am I from?
\nThat my dress smells
\nLike the tarragon from my
\nFather\u2019s garden,
\nAnd my cheeks, red
\nAs the flower of a
\nPomegranate tree.<\/p>\n

\nWhere am I from?<\/b>
\nThat my hands are the
\nStem of a delicate tomato plant,
\nAnd the taste in my mouth
\nIs a taste of pussywillows
\nIn my mother\u2019s tea.<\/p>\n

Where am I from?
\nThat all my dreams
\nAre blue, the same
\nColor as the Caspian Sea<\/p>\n

Where am I from?
\nThat in spring, the
\nApple tree buds
\nIn me.
\nYou know, you know
\nI am from that proud
\nRiver,
\nZayandeh Rud
\nFrom the tall mountain,
\nAlborz.
\nFrom the land that
\nReaches to Zoroaster:
\nThe first poet on earth.<\/p>\n

\nKiss<\/b><\/p>\n

My dear when you pour on me
\nYour kisses,
\nWatch out!
\nYou will drown in my tears!!<\/p>\n

\n
\nPermission<\/b><\/p>\n

You are my destiny
\n When
\n my dreams are
\nafter you, and
\n my hands are
\ndreaming of you.
\nLet me love you.
\nLove you
\n between
\nWater and fire,
\n Between
\ndesert and ocean,
\n Between
\ntrust and uncertainty.
\nMy hands are around
\n your waist,
\nwhen I wake up.
\nAnd my fingers are
\n caught onto
\ncurls of your hair.
\nThere is no way to escape
\nFrom this flame of dreams
\nLet me love you,
\n and travel
\ninto the circuit of
\nyour thoughts
\nLet the wave of my
\n hands
\nhave a journey
\nin your skin and
\nmake a thunder.
\nOh, you:
\nMy land in spring
\nMy sun in a time of rise
\nMy tree in a time of
\nblooming
\n and awakening
\nLet me love you.<\/p>\n

\n My story<\/b><\/p>\n

Time was short, short
\nThe distance was far\u2026
\nI wanted to tell you
\nHow I become sad
\nHow I laugh
\nThe time was short\u2026
\nAnd my story is untold.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Read few poems from the book of”From Zayandeh Rud To The Mississippi” and book reviews by: Marvin Bell(American poet)- Ehsan YarShater-Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA)- and by Jennifer Langer ————– Reviewer: Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) – See all my reviews The verse of poet, writer and dentist Mahnaz Badihian (Oba) reflects the […]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":546,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[45],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mahmag.org\/archive-english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/230"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mahmag.org\/archive-english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mahmag.org\/archive-english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mahmag.org\/archive-english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/546"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mahmag.org\/archive-english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=230"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mahmag.org\/archive-english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/230\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mahmag.org\/archive-english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=230"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mahmag.org\/archive-english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=230"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mahmag.org\/archive-english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=230"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}