Inspired by the mystical works of Suhrawardi and Henri Corbin, Royai considers the poems in his book Labrikhta-ha as a form of shathiyyat, the outpouring of ecstatic utterances that may appear paradoxical and blasphemous. Many of Royai’s poetry books also have an organic unity, revolving around a specific theme, such as the gravestone. And although his poems are usually not overtly political, some deal with socio-political themes in subtle and unconventional ways. One example is the lyrical section of his poem “Martyr’s Stone” from Seventy Gravestones, which he dedicated to Neda Agha-Soltan, who was killed in the protests after the 2009 contested election. Royai was also jailed twice as a political prisoner after the 1953 coup.
Royai & Bassiri
Yadollah Royai, an Iranian poet, passed away in 2022 at age 90, is the author of eight books of poetry and four books of essays and interviews. Several critical works have also been published on his writing, including collections of essays on his books Seventy Gravestones and Labrikhta-ha (a coined term akin to “lip-spills,” meaning “overflowing from the lip”). In the 1960s, Royai founded the important hajm movement, and his writing on poetry has been very influential for the new generations of Iranian writers. Royai received the Chevalier from the French Ministry of Culture and was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature. His books have been translated into French but not English.
Kaveh Bassiri is an Iranian-American writer and translator. He is the author of 99 Names of Exile, winner of the 2019 Anzaldúa Poetry Prize, and Elementary English, winner of the 2020 Rick Campbell Chapbook Prize. His poems have been published in the anthologies Best American Poetry 2020, Best New Poets 2020, The Heart of a Stranger (2020), Essential Voices: Poetry of Iran and Its Diaspora (2021), and Somewhere We Are Human (2022). His translations have appeared or are forthcoming in the Chicago Review, The Common, Fence, Denver Quarterly, Two Lines, Colorado Review, and Guernica. Bassiri is the recipient of the 2022-2023 Tulsa Artist Fellowship, a 2021 award from the Arkansas Arts Council, and a 2019 translation fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts.