Investigación de los apéndices e indicadores relacionados con el contenido
de la literatura lírica en los poemas de la santa defensa y la literatura de
resistencia
Investigating the lyrical literature’s content-related apendixes and indicators in The Holy
Defense Poems and Resistance Literature
Farzaneh Tabatabaee Ghomshe
1a
, Reza Ashrafzadeh,
2
y Majid Taghavi Behbahani
3
Islamic Azad University, Mashhad Branch, Mashhad, Iran
123
Orcid ID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7252-7296
1
Orcid ID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5392-9273
2
Orcid ID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5589-8012
3
Recibido: 05 de enero de 2020 Aceptado: 15 de agosto de 2020
Resumen
La literatura lírica de Irán y sus elementos han atraído las atenciones de los poetas literarios
iraníes desde hace mucho tiempo, de tal manera que se han manifestado en la mayoría de las
obras de arte, incluso con temas épicos y teosóficos, así como en la literatura de resistencia y
constancia. Los poemas de la defensa sagrada son las representaciones del pensamiento y el
sentimiento de Irán en una época de su historia cuyos aspectos emocionales y afectivos son de
gran importancia cultural. En este sentido, el presente estudio intenta investigar los indicadores
de la literatura lírica en los poemas de literatura de resistencia de tres poetas prominentes en
esta área, a saber, Ali Mo’allem Damghani, Qaisar Aminpour y Ali Reza Qazveh. El método
de estudio de esta investigación es descriptivo-analítico y el método de recolección de datos es
la investigación bibliográfica basada en el análisis de contenido. Los elementos líricos de los
poemas previstos son el amor, el patriotismo, la espera, la tanatopsis y el martirio, y la atención
a las emociones y sentimientos de los santos poetas de defensa en los años posteriores, entre
otros. Los resultados y hallazgos del estudio significaron que los elementos de la literatura lírica
presentan aspectos de eslogan y que se han manifestado notablemente en la literatura de defensa
sagrada en el área de las composiciones de los poetas estudiados y también que estos tres poetas
han podido exhibir muchas manifestaciones del sentimiento poético en sus poemas sobre la
guerra impuesta.
Palabras clave: literatura universal, poesía iraní, resistencia, defensa sagrada, Jamshid.
Abstract
Iran's lyrical literature and its elements have long attracted the attention of Iranian literary poets,
such that they have manifested themselves in most works of art, even on epic and theosophical
themes, as well as in literature. of resistance and constancy. The holy defense poems are
representations of the thought and feeling of Iran at a time in its history whose emotional and
affective aspects are of great cultural importance. In this sense, the present study attempts to
investigate the indicators of lyrical literature in the resistance literature poems of three
a
Correspondencia al autor
E-mail: berelyani@gmail.com
Apuntes Universitarios, 2020: 10(4), octubre-diciembre
ISSN: 2304-0335 DOI:https://doi.org/10.17162/au.v10i4.518
apuntesuniversitarios.upeu.edu.pe
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prominent poets in this area, namely, Ali Mo’allem Damghani, Qaisar Aminpour and Ali Reza
Qazveh. The study method of this research is descriptive-analytical and the data collection
method is bibliographic research based on content analysis. The lyrical elements of the
envisioned poems are love, patriotism, waiting, thanatopsis and martyrdom, and attention to
the emotions and feelings of the holy defense poets in later years, among others. The results and
findings of the study meant that the elements of the lyrical literature present aspects of the
slogan and that they have been notably manifested in the sacred defense literature in the area of
the compositions of the studied poets and also that these three poets have been able to exhibit
many manifestations of poetic sentiment in his poems about the imposed war.
Keywords: universal literature, Iranian poetry, resistance, sacred defense, Jamshid.
Introduction
When talking about the holy defense war, the poems related thereto are expected to feature a
more epical color and odor in terms of the mindset, content, affection or even the existent images;
however, in addition to the experiencing of a hard and tiring sociopolitical situation and paying
attention to the slogan and value structures, experiencing of war also features a lot of spiritual aspects
for many of the poets that led to the creation of emotional and lyrical concepts in their close bond with
the poet’s affection and spirits. In the course of its waxing and waning history, Iran has always
witnessed devotions, heroism, sacrifice and national accord. Defense of the homeland and its values
are familiar concepts for this nation. The imposed war which is the largest historical event of our
country after the victory of Islamic Revolution also influenced literature and caused the emergence of
a new phenomenon known as the “holy defense literature”. “The collection of writings and
compositions with themes and subjects referring to the issues related to eight years of holy defense
and its outcomes and consequences is termed holy defense literature” (Sangari, 2001). In general, holy
defense poetry can be divided into two main periods: the first includes an interval between the
beginning and the end of the holy defense and the second includes a span of time from the termination
of the war till now as well as the works written after the war about the war, concepts, values and/or
outcomes of this social phenomenon. In terms of structure and content, the holy defense poetry has
undergone considerable advances during the last two decades. On the other hand, it was with the
termination of the war that such characteristics of the holy defense poetry as being slogan-like and
declaratory have become paler and regret, nostalgia and expression of the personal affections and
paying more attention to the personal feelings have taken their positions as the primary indicators of
the lyrical literature (Sangari, 2002).
Study goals and necessity
Investigation of the lyrical literature’s themes with an emphasis on the holy defense poetry and
resistance literature have not been discussed and explored the way they deserve; therefore, there is a
need for more precise and more subtle criticism and analysis of them, particularly in regard of the
poems composed in the area of holy defense by three outstanding and prominent poets, namely Ali
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Reza Qazveh, Ali Mo’allem and Qaisar Aminpour, for their compositions have not been investigated
in respect to the lyrical indicators. In the research domain, many gaps have been felt in this regard and
these factors revealed the importance and necessity of research on the aforesaid poems from the
perspective of lyrical literature.
Research background
Although some of the researchers have performed brief analyses and investigations regarding
the indices of lyrical literature in the contemporary poems, none of them have criticized, analyzed
and processed the issue with an emphasis on the works by the holy defense poets in an exact and
scrutinizing manner. Accordingly, some of the most important studies related to the exploration of
the lyrical literature’s indicators are pointed out below:
In the extent of the researches on the Persian literature, it was (Kaka’ei, 2001) who wrote a
book named “lyrical poems in Persian literature” for the first time; after him, (Moshtaghmehr &
Bafekr, 2016) authored “the poetical lyrical stories” and (Ja’afari, 1999) wrote “poetical lyrical
exempla”. Amongst the other books on lyrical literature, “theory of literature” by Volk and Waren,
“lie-free poetry; mask-free poem” by Zarrinkoub, “literary types” by Shamisa, “Iran’s lyrical poems”
by Lotfali Kaka’ei and “literary types and Persian poetry” by (Shafi’ei Kadkani, 2006) can be pointed
out; in all of the aforementioned works, the lyrical literature and some of its properties have been
explored. (Sadr, 2006) dealt in an article named “investigation of the lyrical literature’s indicators in
a poem called ‘remember the dead candle, remember’ by Ali Akbar Dehkhoda” with the analysis and
investigation of the aforesaid poem from the perspective of the lyrical indicators. (Moshtaghmehr &
Bafekr, 2016) discussed and investigated and classified the most important indices of lyrical literature
in line with the recognition of this literary type from the other types in a scientific manner in an article
titled “content and form indices of the lyrical literature”. In an article called “the new types of lyrical
literature in the contemporary literature” and meanwhile discussing about the grounds of the
emergence and prevalence and expansion of lyrical literature in Iran, (Richards, 2009) has handled the
relationship between war sonnets and resistance literature with lyrical poetry. In an article entitled
“linking epic and theosophy in the poems by (Aminpour, 2009), parts of the poet’s emotional and
affective spirits that are expressive of the sorrow for the homeland, nostalgia, protest and internal
monologues as some indicators of the lyrical literature have been explored based on the collection of
the poems by the aforesaid poet.
Discussion and theoretical foundation
One of the most important categorizations in the area of the literary criticism is the classification
of the literary works based on their types. Such a classification which is attributed to Aristotle divides
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the literary works into four kinds, namely epical, lyrical, dramatic and instructional (Shafi’ei Kadkani,
2006).
Lyrical poetry accounts for a vast spectrum of poetical meanings and themes from “love and
youth to senescence and death and sorrows and joys stemming from the time’s events, human beings’
interests in God and creatures, patriotism, eulogy, burlesque, theosophy and profane words, oaths,
complaints, boasting about oneself and description of the nature and cities and so forth. Due to the
same reason, lyrical poetry is amongst the most extensive kinds of Persian poetry” (Rastegar Fasa’ei,
1993).
Resistance literature and holy defense poetry is a committed and requiring literature expressed
in an explicit language and it has emerged and appeared differently according to every period’s
conditions and expediencies. The poems by the holy defense poets have kept pace with the society
and its events; they have occasionally composed pounding and injuring poems and sometimes
impressive and painful poems. “Poems from the early years after the victory of the Islamic Revolution
as a time of the society’s space evolution from an ancient state to a new state and numerous conflicts
were more demonstrational and belligerent and slogan-like and provocative poems were composed.
These slogan-like poems were composed within the format of homeland poems in the onset of the
holy defense war in such a way that they were used in the battlefield and the war’s forefront and also
in the resistance and unity fields for instigating fight and combat and resistance against the evil
enemy’s front. These slogans were continued during the holy defense and it was in the same period
that they were mixed with epic. However, these gasconades were gradually replaced by complaints or
expression of the pains and hurts of the poets who had found their peripheral society devoid of the
war’s ideals.
“When the broken heart is the canebrake of loneliness”
“Our only lost paradise is justice”
“O’ the murderers of affection, what are you doing in this place”
“This place is the soil underneath the feet of the lonely martyrs”
“When you are buying the paradise by paying red gold”
“Your eyes are the orifice of the resurrection furnace”
“You should not make me feel indebted by doing a favor for the depth of your Salah”
“Is a yawn as deep as the altar of comfort” (Qazveh, 1990).
Analyzing the indicators of lyrical poetry in resistance poems
by Qazveh, Mo’allem Damghani and Aminpour
Affection or the outflow of the emotions
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Affection is a reaction shown by a person in respect to the internal and environmental
experiences. A poem is begun with the dominance of feeling and affection over the poet’s psyche and
this element indicates the quality of a poet’s confrontation with the events. “Affection or feeling is the
internal and intellectual ground of the poem on the account of the quality of the poet’s confrontation
with the external world and its peripheral events” (Kadkani, 2006). Although the artist’s affectional
stimulus depends on the external and environmental factors, as well, its dependency on the poet’s
inside is greater and it is directly related to the poet’s inside “because affections and emotions emerge
when an individual’s permanent or periodical tendencies are abruptly either facilitated or castrated.
Therefore, their dependency on the nature of the external stimulus is a lot lower than their dependency
on the general internal conditions of an individual’s life at the time a stimulus emerges” (Dehgan,
2009). An artwork is the arena of “expressing the feelings” and the prerequisite of an art is expressing
the feelings to the extent that affection can be sought in most of the arts and, more importantly, the
great artworks are all expressive of feelings.
In this sense, Hakemi believes that an artwork possesses three pillars: “transferring of feeling
from an artist”, “artwork” and “reception of the feeling by the addressees” (Hakemi, 2007). The thing
that independently matters in the process of feelings’ transfer is the poet’s transferring of his or her
affectional experience and stimulating its perception by the audience. On the other hand, the human
affections cannot be enumerated or at least exactly categorized (Kadkani, 2006). However, happiness,
anger, sorrow, kindness, courage and fear can be possibly realized amongst the most important aspects
of the human affection. Emotions like grief and sorrow are amongst the primary feelings of the holy
defense poets after the termination of the imposed war. Such emotion as grief often envies for
martyrdom and it is sometimes regretting the absence of the sublime thoughts for which martyrs have
fought. In a poem called “a plan for peace”, Aminpour searches for a world wherein peace and
tranquility govern and, upon losing his hope for achieving such an appropriate world and denying
cruelty, the poet sees the real victory in peace not in war:
“The martyr who was lying on the soil”
“Was putting his fingertip in blood and writing”
“Two or three letters on the stone”
“In the hope for the real victory”
“Not in war”
“But, on war” (Aminpour, 2009).
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Love
Love is amongst the most frequently used themes in the holy defense literature; it is a love that
should be proved in the arena of love. In this battlefield, claiming and quibbling are of no use rather
one should resist and sacrifice oneself:
“In love, one cannot play with words”
“One should resist and sacrifice one’s life”
“You should be ashamed of the martyr’s blood”
“Who can play with the reverence of the tulip” (Qazveh, 1990).
Lyrical poetry is a type of poem related to the mankind’s spiritual worlds and love; the
description of the poet’s individual feelings and emotions is considered as one of the most substantial
subjects of the lyrical poetry. Lyrical poetry with amorous concepts that were manifested more within
the format of sonnet started distancing away from the purely amorous themes with the victory of
Islamic Revolution in 1978 and it entered a robust bond with the sociopolitical themes under the
influence of the Islamic Revolution. During the early years of the holy defense and afterwards, poetical
themes began returning to ethereal theosophical love. The sincerity latent in love in its real sense
granted a cordial color and odor to the holy defense’s epical and slogan literature:
“O’, the most real imagery, O’ Love”
“O’ the one who has all the metaphors” (Aminpour, 2009).
“O’ love, O’ the thing the melody of whose name has given rise to songs”
“O’ the well-known beloved of all the love poems” (Aminpour, 2009).
But, the objective example of love is “martyrs” from the perspective of the holy defense poets
for they are the true inheritors of the real love:
“Upon entering, love invited everyone to suffer pains”
“And, sigh was risen up from everyone before love”
“The discussion on the meaning of love necessitates a hundred notebooks”
“And, all of them can be summarized in one phrase: love with the meaning of love” (Aminpour,
2009).
“And, what other love can be loftier than love for the martyrs of Karbala”
“Your blood in every position causes zeal to rise up”
“I am breaking into myself voicelessly every morning and every night”
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“Who is holding a beaker in hand for you O’ the child martyr of crave”
“Who is the elder servant of you? His Highness Love”
“In your thirsty vein, the nectar of martyrdom is boiling”
“The laughter of blood breaks the blade in its scabbard”
“The water-bearer lost his hand and the soil became drunken by the wine”
“The bar was set on fire and the wine was burnt and it burnt crudely” (Qazveh, 1990).
Love for all the phenomena of existence is the best shelter and refuge for a poet to soothe his or
her psychological pains to the extent that this approach most beautifully and most delicately reflects
the poet’s perspectives. Holy defense poetry started shifting from extroversion towards introversion
in the years after the imposed war; it is a vast, conservative and patient movement from the “collective
I” towards “individual I” and this same issue has made it get closer to the lyrical poetry’s domain and
its feelings. Some of the poet’s sophistication caused many of the logical intellectualities of their
poems to be replaced by emotions and feelings’ perfection. Inclinations towards superficiality and
simplicity in speaking were turned into a challenge for the holy defense poets and dragged them little
by little towards subjects entailing a subtle discretion.
“I wanted/to compose a poem for war/I found out”
“That it is not possible/the pen is no longer writing in the language of my heart”
“I told myself that the pens should be put down/for”
“The cold weapon of speech is not any more effective” (Aminpour, 2009).
Therefore, love and the general human issues accounted for a larger share of war during the
decades after war in the poems by the holy defense poets; in describing and delineating such a kind of
forgotten love, Qazveh composes the following verses:
“Is this the pure scent of unification or the odor of the apple blossoms”
“Which stranger’s smell is this version of familiarity”
“We spoke a lot and talked much in the elegy for the flowers with fallen petals”
“Today, we see but the theme of the flowers is strange”
“It is not odd for the desert’s stone to remain silent”
“It is odd for us as the one sharing the same religion to remain so”
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“The ditch of the song dried out without the night-time cries”
“This amorous melody is the grief of an impatient heart” (Qazveh, 1990).
Mo’allem, as well, expresses this kind of amorous and theosophical introversion using such
beautiful terms as “girdle” and “rosary”:
“I was staring at the fastened girdle for I had been accepted by you”
“I dropped the rosary for I was busy with you” (Mo’allem Damghani, 2012).
Negative perspectives towards the world and the time and
sad setting and complaint
The original source of the lyrical poems is the poet’s feeling and emotion and, the more a poet
enjoys higher zeal and will, the more his or her poems will become exciting. These affections and
feelings incorporate various aspects and dimensions and facets. They may occasionally emerge out of
happiness, joy and cheerfulness and accompany the poem with gladness and joyfulness and they may
occasionally mix the poem’s affectional themes in a sad and sorrowful approach in which case the
poet speaks of sorrows and pains in expressing his or her emotions and this makes the poem appear
sad. “The poets’ pleasures and joys and the pessimisms stemming from failure in accomplishing the
wishes and the pain originating from thinking about one’s existence and inability in achieving the
ideal and optimal world and freedom are amongst the subjects of lyrical poems” (Razmjou, 1993).
The special situation of the contemporary era and the post-war political, social, cultural and economic
tensions caused poets like Mo’allem, Qazveh and Qaisar Aminpour to adopt negative and dark
approaches towards their peripheral world and time. The tip of the pessimism’s arrow aims at the
people’s ignorance and negligence. When the life arena becomes so restricted to a person that s/he can
take pleasure in and become satisfied with what s/he has, s/he would be incumbently forced to seek
refuge in a deep loneliness inside him or herself and stay away from the outside world. It is in this
way that the sad setting becomes an integral part of the poetry and literature.
The life conditions of the present time and the development of its dimensions and relations
caused the emergence of various grounds and motivations in the today’s poets, especially in the norm-
inclined and committed spectrum of them for their loyalty to the life’s realities, and made them feel
loneliness and strangeness in as well as inconsistency with the peripheral world in such a way that
they could not easily cope with the improper status of their time and/or started exercising ignorance.
The various forms of this negative perspective towards the world and the peripheral environment is
actually considered as a psychological or emotional reaction to the inconsistent conditions. Meanwhile
having a sort of hidden objection latent in itself, this reaction was also somehow an excuse for soothing
the mind; in other words, essential dissatisfaction of the current life and the present world navigated a
vast spectrum of the holy defense poets towards more detestation and avoidance of the world and
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corroborated a feeling of nostalgia and strangeness in them and granted a sad atmosphere to their
poems. Creation of poem with a sad atmosphere transferred pure realities to the insightful and
conscious addressees. Meanwhile creating artistic pleasure in poetry, the sensitivity of the poets and
addressees’ perception eased the readers’ comprehension and awareness of the situation wherein they
resided and it was in this way that the poets could use their means of sorrow and portray the darkness
of the world and time to acceptably transform their intellectual and human conceptions into artistic
capitals and poetical supplies without falling into mere slogans and become motto-stricken. The
artistic and poetical quintessence that accompanies the meanings and concepts of Ali Mo’allem, Qaisar
Aminpour and Ali Reza Qazveh has been able to drive artificiality away from their words and bar the
transformation of such a sense of the world’s hatred into claim and slogan. The signs of mentally
suffering the void concerns of the mind and urban life, repetitiveness and artificiality, getting habited
to the material and earthly values and negligence of the theosophical intuition and also being attached
in heart to the “virtual flights” and “metaphorical wings” in lieu of godly zeal and mood in the past
times have all granted a disappointed visage to some of the poems by these resistance domain poets:
“I am tired of the dreams, of the mere slogan-like wishes”
“The verve for virtual flight, metaphorical wings”
“Repeating the paper moments day and night”
“Archived memories, administrative lives”
“Yellow and sad sun of the downward stairs”
“Cold and hefty roofs of the rented skies” (Aminpour, 2009).
Qazveh realizes tendencies towards modernity’s manifestations, fascination by the west,
faddishness and worshipping luxury as the main reason of his avoidance of the world and being fed
up with it:
“We have become civilized by an electrical samovar”
“And, we learnt to say ‘thanks, your highness’”
“…Sunglass/coffee glass/café glass/Cappuccino and seven-color Italian ice-creams”
“Were all at the margins of all this ignorance by us” (Qazveh, 1990).
This poets’ dislike of the world and their negative perspective towards it depict a deep pain in
their poems:
“My mother spent the last night with tea and raisins”
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“Her heart pounds for the revolution”
“But she cannot afford an electrocardiogram”
“And, I know that even the electrocardiogram”
“Cannot show all the curves of her pain”
“And, she teaches us how to sate ourselves”
“By four spoons of the votive confectionary on Friday nights”
“She washes the tombstone of the martyrs by her hands”
“When the wind was shaking her patched chador”
“The smell of poverty and loneliness”
“Gives a kiss on all the green and red flags” (Zarrinkoub, 1993).
The thing that has guided the Islamic Revolution and holy defense poets towards composing
such dirge songs is the pain of commitment. “The holy defense poet believes that a poem should have
words with materials similar to those of the time. Regarding this commitment and concernedness of
the holy defense poets, Ali Mo’allem says that “in the first letters issued by Imam Khomeini (may
Allah consecrate the honorable soil of his tomb) for encouraging the revolutionary poets, no talks had
been apparently made about the poetry itself rather the concepts were more related to the humanity,
perfection and achievement of the ultimate goal” (Mohaqqeq, 2008). It is this same commitment that
does not allow the holy defense area’s poet and artist hide anything. When exercising loyalty to the
poems’ essence and writing for the sake of their own hearts and apart from dealing with the social
commitments, the poet seems to be retelling his or her sorrow and grief through complaint or the so-
called “disclosing of the pains”. In a long poem called “Hejrat [migration]”, Ali Mo’allem re-portrays
the early Islam’s history and reminds the chivalries and braveries of Ammars and Yasers and raids on
his contemporary incompetent persons and complains about them in the following verses:
“O’ the person who does not know the way of conduct and courtesy”
“O’ the person who is far away from justice and benevolence” (Mo’allem Damghani, 2012).
And/or
“Where are Ammars and Zaids; where are Meqdads”
“Where are those just men of the night of unrests”
“You can be Maitham, the person who used to sell dates from Taha’s palm tree”
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“Where is Ashtar, that hand of Imam Ali (PBUH) on the battle day” (Mo’ein, 2003).
The uppermost and the ultimate boundary of the artists’ wishes in the area of holy defense lies
in the depiction of devotion with the weapons of piety and cognizance. Thus, having accepted such a
diligent spirit and expressing explicit criticisms and using seclusive and, occasionally, passive
properties in their poems, the poets take advantage of any vivid method and style by which the society
can be dragged to a safe zone so as to keep the “golden chain” of love, faith and courage integrated:
“Make an oblation by the golden chain for my heart tonight”
“The series of theosophy is just a chain” (Qazveh, 1990).
This objection and complaint to and about the people’s amusement by the materiality, their
forgetting of the martyrs and values and the bad situation of the war casualties and warriors and even
complaint about the economic situation and raid on the profit-seekers render the poems’ settings sad.
Repeatedly reminding the forgetting of the values, Ali Reza Qazveh sarcastically and equivocally
states that:
“Ismail made a will to write on his tomb”
“That he is a blade of straw dedicated to the divine court”
“This year, no poet”
“Echoed the voice that came out of Ismail’s throat” (Qazveh, 1990).
Patriotism and sorrow for the homeland
Homeland is one of the identity-building indicators in the resistance literature and the
homeland’s love is one of the affectional manifestations in the lyrical literature. “One of the grounds
of thinking in resistance poetry is the love for the homeland and patriotism. Land can be everything
to a poet; it can be the cradle of the childhood memories, locus of adolescence amors and the resting
place of the senescence years (Kaka’ei, 2001). Sense of patriotism and love for homeland is one of the
human beings’ affectional properties because the human beings’ attachment to a place the linking
elements of which are shared in terms of history, interests and wishes is deeply rooted. On the other
hand, one of the most substantial emotional issues that has been extensively posited in Persian
literature’s poetry is the homeland and patriotism. This concept is one of the major concerns of the
Iranian poets during eight years of holy defense and afterwards and it was by means of this concept
that they depicted their own and the other warriors’ feelings of love for the religion and homeland
within the poetical formats.
Homeland is amongst the important subjects of the war poems and almost all the poets have
dealt with it within various formats. Love for homeland, description of the homeland’s magnificence
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and splendor, the dirge songs recited about the cities occupied and destroyed during the war, feeling
nostalgia for the hometown and the homeland are amongst the subjects making the poems composed
for homeland fall under the lyrical literature’s subjects for the reason that the patriotism and love for
the homeland are directly associated with the human affections:
“I wanted/to compose a poem for war/
a poem for my own homeland, Dezful/
I found out that”
“I should use such an unpleasant word/
as missile/but it decreased the beauty of my speech/
I told myself that”
“The imperfect verse of my poem/
is no better than the city’s houses/
let my poem, as well/be like the people’s earthen houses”
“That is to say crushed and ruined and blood-stained/
one should recite earthen and bloody poem”
“I should compose a poem about wrath/
an eloquent poem on outcry/
even if an imperfect one”
(Aminpour, 2009).
Waiting
Waiting for the arrival of the promised is one of the other affectional concepts of the holy
defense poems. Based on this teaching, all the people of the world are waiting for a promised person
whose arrival annunciates the good news of peace and establishment of a just government by the
righteous individuals as also ordered in the holy Quran by the Eminent God: “Wa Laqad Katabnā Fi
Al-Zabūr Min Ba’ad Al-Zikr Anna Al-Arz Yarethohā Ebādi Al-Sālehūn” (Sūrah Al-Anbiā’a, āya 105)
meaning “And, we have written in Zabur [the book of psalms] after first mentioning it that verily the
earth will be inherited by My righteous servants”. Waiting is an annunciating and felicity-creating
hope and this same issue allows it to intensively influence the poetical affection. In the holy defense
poetry and resistance literature, a few poets are found having no demand for the reappearance of the
promised person and establishment of a universal government by him. The poets from this area are
the representatives of all the heart-burnt individuals worldwide and they have portrayed their nostalgia
and wants with a hopeful heart on the wings of imagination for putting an end to this waiting:
“When are Jacob’s eyes going to be opened?”
“When is the Joseph of heart going to come back from his journey?” (Qazveh, 1990).
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Hope in future makes the Shiites and all the sufferers and deprived persons keep their eyes on
the way of the promised person’s reappearance. Such a theme as hope in future and the reappearance
of the savior has been underlined in many poems:
“O’ brother, do not say it desperately that the color of night is fresh”
“I swear by the dawn that the morning is right behind the gate” (Mo’allem Damghani, 2012).
Pointing to the emergence of light in the land of Tur and Horeb, Mo’allem compares the coming
of the savior and his reappearance with the irradiation of light on Horeb:
“It was night and there was matthiola and it was the night of speaking and reciting sonnet”
“Moses was on the mountain exercising the rites of the shepherd”
“Those who can distinguish red wine by looking at the decanter”
“Also know that Horeb is an apex on the tip of Mount Sinai in Tur”
Mo’allem describes the human beings’ deviation from the deliverance path and their negligence
of the savior’s reappearance in the following words:
“I swear by the time that the human beings are wandering and in constant search”
“And, that the mankind is in loss on earth” (Payandeh, 1994).
Thanatopsis, elegy and dirge
In holy defense literature, thanatopsis is a part of the culture of seeking martyrdom in line with
demanding the right. Martyrdom and thanatopsis are pleasant amorous concepts in the holy defense
poetry and they are the only excuses for a devotee to show his imprudence in the unquestioned love
of the beloved and not his craze for dying. In the holy defense literature, poets have extensively spoken
about such topics and consider them sublime and delectable to the extent that such affectionate feelings
as seeking martyrdom and thanatopsis are the inseparable components of the holy defense poems.
From the perspective of the warriors, death, i.e. martyrdom, is a concept featuring a very lofty
position in the religious beliefs of the Muslims. From the perspective of the holy defense poets and
artists, the individuals who succeed to achieve martyrdom are the lovers who zealously embrace such
a cold incident as death:
“When he was closing the brinks of his exhausted eyelids”
“He looked as if he is kissing the lips of death” (Aminpour, 2009).
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The images about this type of death, i.e. martyrdom, are consciously and demandingly from the
area of the beautiful and delightful concepts and phenomena in war poems:
“We are wingless birds from another group”
“The flight of our feathers is palpitating in blood” (Shekarsari, 2002).
In the same way, when the poet is speaking about the warriors’ sacrificing of their lives, he
consciously accompanies constraints like “new year” with them and calls “martyrs” the “lovers” and
recounts this happening, i.e. martyrdom, as a “green and warm” happening:
“He fell/the way that the leaf/of that yellow incident/fell/in the way that death/that cold
incident/happens/but/he was green and war/when he fell”.
Conclusion
The occurrence of the Islamic Revolution and, after that, the Iraq’s imposed war against Iran
opened a new chapter in the history of Iran and made our literature familiar with a new space. Concepts
and subjects like devotion, martyrdom, sacrifice, defending the homeland, support of the wronged
persons and others entered the realm of the Persian poetry and prose; although the foresaid concepts
had been previously sporadically focused, they were transformed into a lofty ideal for the artists and
poets all of a sudden. One of the valuable themes of the resistance literature was entry into the lyrical
literature. It is an arena that brought the attitudes and mindsets of the poets from this arena closer to
the domain of affections and imaginations more than ever before. On the other hand, it guides them
towards an internal nicety with an introversive approach towards objects, events and incidents of war.
Islamic Revolution of Iran was a spiritual evolution and renovation in the spirit of the Revolution’s
generation. Therefore, it cannot be just realized as a political phenomenon. Besides creating all the
existent capacities in denying tyranny and oppression and encouraging the fight against the invaders,
the holy defense left behind a subtle psychological-emotional evolution amongst the poets and the
young generation and that was dealing with the indicators of the lyrical literature and pure concepts
that were no longer subjective but had a lot of objective examples like love, grief, protest, complaint,
happiness, discontent, search for humanity and ethicality, defense of the homeland, sadness of
nostalgia and so forth.
Many factors worked together to assist the holy defense literature become the manifestation locus
of accentuated themes of poetical affections and feelings. Amongst the resistance pets, Ali Mo’allem
Damghani, Ali Reza Qazveh and Qaisar Aminpour are the contemporary ritual poets who have been
able to set a proper and flexible ground through amorous expressions replete with affectionate feelings
for articulating many of the concepts and themes that came about subject to the influence of various
social, political and cultural events in post-war Iran. The concepts and indicators of lyrical literature
like love, grief and elegy and expression of feelings for complaining about Iran’s statuses after the
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termination of war have been manifested within the format of the resistance literature concepts in the
poems by Qazveh, Mo’allem and Aminpour and advantage was taken of the capacity of the holy
defense literature and its themes for expressing the elements and indicators of the lyrical literature..
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