Recognition of the Position of Resistance Literature in Kaiser Aminpoor Poems

Abstract

In Persian mystical literature which is based on Quran teachings, real mysticism is actually enlivening, reviving and epic idealism. In searching among epic poems and Persian mystical literature, we encounter with numerous intellectual and conceptual commonalities which demonstrate the similar attitudes and interests, existent among Iranian epic poets and Gnostic-heresy speakers, while seeking facts and recognizing the heavenly life of a perfect man. This shows the fact that Iranian nation is to achieve human values and intellectual maturity and has fulfilled precious successes. Though some of these commonalities have changed or evolved during the civilization history of Iran or emerged in a new face, it should be mentioned that real mysticism is the source of epic and each unfeigned and sophisticated epic derives from the mysticism stream and human’s truth-seeking spirit. In this article, it is tried to recognize the epic and mystical themes of Kaiser Aminpoor works by analyzing them.

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Masjedi, M. , Ghasemi, F. , Ghalesari, A. and Kordkhaili, A. (2015) Recognition of the Position of Resistance Literature in Kaiser Aminpoor Poems. Open Access Library Journal, 2, 1-5. doi: 10.4236/oalib.1101637.

Subject Areas: Education, Linguistics

1. Introduction

Kaiser Aminpoor [1] is one of those poets whose evolution and poetical shining were simultaneous with the victory of revolution and the beginning of the war (1984). Consequently, most of his poems are composed around the ideals of war and Islamic revolution. The occurrence of Islamic revolution makes dramatic changes among the majority of poets who have not been familiar with the poetical alphabet. Sudden war, imposed on Iran by Iraq, changes the country’s condition and the social status has been affected, too. Thought forms, applying new themes, words, and expressions of war, martyrdom… are derived from his believes. Moreover, a valuable part of Islamic culture and literature is owed to this kind poet. Aminpoor is recognized as one of the supporters and founders of poems of commitment in Islamic revolution ( [1] , p. 45]).

2. Statement of the Problem

It can be seen in Kaiser’s life and characteristic, he’s an introvert person who is concerned about his society and the people and takes notice to the surrounding situation, especially the war. Naturally, this feature reflects war in Kaiser’s ideas and impressions which is obvious in his works. His poems turn around mysticism and epic and his belief about mysticism is that: “Speech which derives from mysticism is inevitably cryptic and revealing this crypt requires a key which is actually the mystical language and expressions. Also, “epic aims to think about justice, humanity and human society perfection and is not limited to the desires or sensual wishes of a particular group or the epic-maker person” ( [2] , p. 88]). But the point is that considering Kaiser’s knowledge about the literature, i.e. epic and mysticism, whether war of Iraq against Iran is the reason of epic and mystical reflections of his poems or not?

3. Methodology

The goal of this article is to become familiar with the effect of Iraq war against Iran on Kaiser’s epic and mystic poems which had been conducted by the application of descriptive method. The required data were collected through the library method, fiche, data bases and internet which had been analyzed by inferential method.

3.1. War and Its Consequences

War consequences on Kaiser were so much that hurt his poetic feelings. Also, he analyzed the war and its individual and social events in his mind, compares the behavior of war people with those of people in seeking to defend their identity, and meanwhile mysticism and epic appear in a new pattern in his expressions and poetic discourse. In order to investigate more this issue, some of his poems are presented here. War was an important factor in the creation of bloody epics in the fronts and other fields of an Islamic country. These epics, in turn, made extensive reflections in this era’s poems and the poet tried to introduce different aspects of the nation’s sacrifices in fronts in the various poetic frameworks and many of these works are numerated as the most significant forms of literature, poetry resistance ( [3] , p. 182]).

A poem for war: pens should be put down/speaking weapon doesn’t work anymore/a sharper weapon is needed/for war/I should read from barrel/by the word “cartridge”/I want to compose a poem for war/a poem for my city “Dezfool”/I understood that the sick word “missile”/should be used ( [4] , p. 10]). This example is undoubting one of the best war poems. Here, the poet speaks of a poem which should be suitable for war, but he realizes that writing such a poem is a demanding task. Thus, the poem tries to invite the reader to the war instead of composing a war poem and actually, tries to depict the war rather than describing the poem. At the beginning, Aminpoor [5] like other war poets know his duty to create passion and motivation for youth to attack the front line and paved his way in this direction by exact recognition of rhythm of the words.

Unfinished road: the day you opened your wings/and went to the blood valley/you said: /I’ll never return home/today I went with my own will/tomorrow/may bring me to the city/on their hands/but/they don’t even bring you to the city/they said/he has nothing left/except an unfinished road ( [4] , p. 16]). In this poem, he speaks of the fighters’ resistance which was common among the people as a sacred sense during war. Fitness in the words head, feet and wings demonstrate the martyr’s desire and the words on the hand and return, in addition to the poet’s sense of compassion, reveals the stability of the martyr. Also, transferring the martyr’s blood message and the concern about remaining the mission of the martyrs are felt completely in the poem. Epic cannot be deleted from Kaiser’s poems. In his poems, there is a different kind of epic, in comparison with Ferdowsi’s epic and other ongoing epics in the Persian literature. His epics are mixed with love and thought; hence, make you ponder.

3.2. It Seems of You

Lava fire is the heart of love/the incident is the new color of love/this drunk and the swiftness and boldness/it seems that you allow the love ( [5] , p. 45]). In the admiration of the fighters, Kaiser believes that though love is the highest symbol of bringing grace, it borrows boldness and courage from the fighters and in order to do something bold and daring, fist they should permit the love [7] .

A look: Just take a look out of the corner of the eye/fire up in the enemies’ harvest/adversary will desist itself/or we will stop it ( [5] , p. 62]). It’s obvious in this quatrain that Kaiser states the fighters’ courage, boldness, ability and possibility in the form of bragging. Lest: lest forsake ourselves/leave our imam/tulips grow of every martyr’s blood/lest we stepped on Tulips ( [5] , p. 96]). The revolutionary poet, Kaiser Aminpoor, who recalls the importance of following Imam in his poet and knows being away of Imam as wasting the martyrs’ blood, actually defeated the tears of lyrics ( [7] , p. 25]).

One of the main aspects of the war in Kaiser’s poem is the admiration of martyrdom and this moral and mystical behavior is crystal clear in his poems. Emotional load intensity of the transmission of such themes in his poem and the simplicity and intimacy of this transmission language put his poem in a remarkable position which has not ever been taken by other poets.

Question: Drinking pure light, it is surprising/Answer this question, it is surprising/you kissed the cheek of a martyr?/Kissing sun is something wonderful ( [5] , p. 41]). The great concepts, which are more evident in the war, are those mystical moments of the martyrs chants and closeness to God. Praising the truth seekers (fighters who wear the martyrdom dress) who are like sun is impossible let alone kissing them. The poems shows the picture of a person who has kissed a martyr’s face and in the poet’s view, kissing such a martyr, who is shining and great like sun, is a wonderful task.

Meteor across the night, you do not need/you do not need the presence of the sun/the color of grass is full selected/choose not to pick flowers/where is your place to ask sun/we do not have to answer the question ( [4] , p. 81]). Mysticism has an evolutionary journey in Kaiser’s poem. The lyric “throat enthusiastically” meteor is the irony of a guider and leader for the beginner mystics and seekers. In fact, in this bit, those fighters who seek the truth and step left with full recognition to donate their lives and connect to God are considered as a perfect example of a mystic who don’t need anyone to make the way clear for them [8] . Because they are themselves full of recognition, wisdom and light. Moreover, in the next hemistich, he emphasizes again on this point by using sun and reminds that fighters and filed to the right don’t have any supremacy over each other because they are all selected and are among those mystics who have no weakness or imperfection.

Reason of the way: This flower should be cut for the heart/head should be ignited for the love/love is the motivation of the brave men/the course work must be the heart ( [4] , p. 50]). To reach to the right, witness is required which is just possible through the heart. The mystics, whom the poet sees, are actually very young people that made the ultimate sacrifice and were shot by bullets in order to reach God. It’s impossible that they had conducted long mystic trips. In his view, in order to achieve to such a phase, you should trust your heart not the mind, because in the mind stream, it’s necessary to reach the right by stage and exact understanding which takes too much time. While, this way becomes very short through the heart and intuition since taking risks is just possible by heart not by cautious mind.

Plan for peace: A martyr who was sleeping on the soil/said to himself/if this is a win/that the enemy broke/ why there’s still enemy? ( [9] , p. 17]). In the poem “plan for peace”, the news is stated in high brevity and in the form of a rhetorical question which enjoys such a depth that makes the reader to ponder and think about contradictions. This question can be asked by any human being who knows martyrdom as the salvation peak, accepts the death with beauty and goal, and welcome the martyrdom with open arms as the greatest kind of death with the aim of revising the attitudes.

3.3. Who Is the Red Green?

Who is this red green?/Why is this green cedar in the soil?/As he wanted/Plant with green dress/It remains to Evergreen/to read the Evergreen/He/When planted/It was too green, too red ( [4] , p. 33]). Aminpoor [5] points to the pure moments of the human in the war scene and his vies is a kind of romantic and human-oriented perspective. His poem is one of the most beautiful examples of the young revolutionary poets’ attempts in depicting wounds and pain, struggle and battle, heroic and passionate young warriors in the battlefields of war, great moments of facing warriors with death and embracing it, and pure moment of joining the holy and sacred spirit of the martyrs. The most remarkable point in the revolutionary poems of this poet is his romantic relationship with the martyrs.

4. Submission

It’s a while that I doubt my prisoner/I doubt my secret self/the way you submit your life/I doubt my own muslin hereinafter ( [4] , p. 47]). When the poet faces such mystics who sacrifice themselves so easily in God’s way, he fills with doubt about his Muslim.

4.1. Party

The secret sun rises/from the east side of the mystical geography/Jumps back my eyelid is a sign?/I heard someone comes to a party/who is a thousand times greener than spring/Who, one wonders, so that you know/ Who is the starting point for all flights to/You are the finish line in the love trip/the love ship was anchored next to your name/Let your mind calms the storm ( [10] , p. 47]). Party sonnet is one of the other poems of our remarkable poet “Kaiser Aminpoor” with mystic illumination which was composed for praising the hidden Imam (AS).

The conceptual structure of the poem is composed of two aspects: the mystic aspect and the descriptive aspect of Imam’s nature. In the mystic aspect, the poet introduces the hidden Imam (AS) as a mystic person, but this mysticism is different from other ones such as Hindi, Buddhist, and Sufi… It seems the mysticism the poet identifies in the character of the hidden Imam (AS) is comprehensively exhaustive which embraces all aspects of the human personality and manner and extends God-centered in all human dimensions. Not only has a mystic with such an attitude thought just to self-purification, but also to spread this piety in all aspects of political and social life which we usually had seen in our Imams’ life style. In this method and according to this perspective, the mystic’s role is Journey to God in all life dimensions. The late Aminpoor in the above sonnet, believes that the presence of this person is necessary for change and this point demonstrates the poet’s view regarding the hidden Imam’s kind of mysticism because other kinds of mysticism don’t consider the variations and social revision seriously. But Kaiser considers an ability to change for his ideal characteristic:

Come one, the city is near to destruction

Another reason confirming the comprehensiveness of the hidden Imam (AS) is the following hemistich:

The one who is the starting point of flight

This means that any kind of fly is an attempt to develop asceticism, self-improvement, social and political development, mental and personality growth which shows that such a person is the sum of all the virtues and value. The second part of the poem’s conceptual structure is the description of the hidden Imam’s nature and his necessity for the revision of the human affairs.

4.2. Mirror

Blessed are the men dance in the mirror/Mirror field riders/Blessed is going from oneself and reaching him/Vi- siting in the street of the mirror/Blessed fading the repetitive images/Passing from the porch of the mirror/all surprised from visiting their selves/In the stormy waves of the mirror/sweep our hearts/bring a guest of the mirror ( [8] , p. 149]). “Mirror” poem is a completely mystic poem. The word “mirror” among mystics suggests the mystic’s heart which is the manifestation of the Holly. The late Aminpoor in this poem, states more explicitly his intention in the fifth bit:/sweep our hearts/bring a guest of the mirror. In which his intention is God’s reincarnation in the human’s heart. This happens when the human remove the impurities and contaminants. The second reason which confirms this analysis is the second bit of the above sonnet: Blessed is going from oneself and reaching him/Visiting in the street of the mirror .The poet means that sacrificing oneself occurs in the theology and mysticism which is actually a kind of self-realization and we all know that that is an introduction to theology.

5. Conclusion

Recognizing and demonstrating the mental and intellectual values of Aminpoor [5] on the morality and mysticism basis with epic foundation actually play an important role in leading to the identification of the poet’s specific style. In the present project, it is tried to investigate the creative mind and great imagination of this poet of mysticism, morality and epic. Furthermore, some of the constituents of his poems’ themes are analyzed such as: love, home, resistance, and appreciation of war values. Since Aminpoor militates as a warrior in the fronts and experiences two great incidents during the most sensitive period of his life; therefore, the presence of epic concepts in his poems seems natural. The first one is the occurrence of Islamic revolution when he is 19 and the second one is the demolition and destruction of his city and his living place by the enemy when he is 23. But Kaiser’s gentle, sensitive and highly emotional spirit cannot be in harmony with the epic’s rude words and consequently epic doesn’t appear alone in his poems and his works emerged in the form of conceptual framework with a metaphorical sense. The epic sense can be seen more in his first poems such as: morning breathe, in the sun’s alley, and sudden mirrors. Kaiser’s poems are meaningful, effective, and full of spiritual field, with epic language which is impressive because it derives from the heart.

NOTES

*Corresponding author.

Conflicts of Interest

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

References

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[5] Aminpoor, K. (1984b) In the Sun’s Alley. Art Field Publications, Tehran.
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[10] Aminpoor, K. (1993) Sudden Mirrors. Morvarid Editions, Tehran.

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