Parvin I‘tisami

Parvin I’tisami (1906-1941), daughter of Mirza Yusuf Khan I’tisam al-Mulk. Rakhshandih I’tisami, well-known as Parvin I’tisami, a distinguished contemporary poet, was born in Tabriz, though she mainly lived in Tehran. She received her early education from her father, an erudite scholar and poet who believed and necessity of girls’ education. She departed for Tehran with her father, studied Persian and Arabic literature with him, and learned from erudite masters who frequented her father’s home and were impressed by her precosity. She began composing poetry at the age of eight, trying her hand at poetical compositions of elegant and delicate compositions translated by her father from European, Turkish, and Arabic authors. She graduated from the American College in Tehran in 1924 and delivered a speech titled Woman and History at the graduation event in which she treated of men’s cruelty towards their spouses who share their felicity and sorrows. It was a learning experience for her to accompany her father on his journeys in Iran and abroad. Despite being a free thinker and having studied at the American College, she remained an eastern woman in character. Reza Shah suggested that she serve as a tutor and companion of the queen because of her mastery of English and literature, but she magnanimously declined the offer as well as the decoration of the Ministry of Education. Parvin married her cousin on 19 Tir 1934 and four months later went to her husband’s home in Kermanshah. Her husband was a police officer and the chief of police force in that city. His military character stood in sharp contrast to her delicate character; as a consequence of which they could not live together. Finally, their six week matrimonial life ended and she got divorced and forfeited her bridal money. Nonetheless, she tolerated such bitterness with surprising magnanimity and never complained about it to her last days. Then, she worked as a librarian at the library of the Higher Education College in Tehran and also continued her vigorous poetical compositions. She died in the evening of 16 Farvardin from typhoid fever and was buried at their family tomb, adjacent to her father’s grave, in Qum. The first edition of her collection of poetry, Divan,  was published by her distinguished, erudite father in 1935. She had also composed an elegy for her tomb stone which was inscribed on it. In her poetry, mainly enriched by moral and mystical themes, she followed the classical style, particularly that of Nasir Khusraw. The readership from different walks of life is influenced by her fluent and elegant expression of moral and philosophical subjects. She is on a par with distinguished poets in terms of vigor and mastery of literary devices and style. In this respect, she accords particular significance to poetical dialogues in which she revived the style of poets from the North and West regions of Persia. She was influenced by Sa’di and her poetry intertwines the Khurasani and ‘Iraqi styles. Her poetry is imbued with motherly love, sympathy for the poor, orphans, and even animals. She elegantly composed her novel compositions with themes of mysticism, morality, admonition, and support for the deprived and the oppressed using classical genres. Malik al-Shu’ara’ Bahar, the distinguished poet and authority in the domain of belles-lettres wrote a scholarly introduction to the first edition of her divan reflecting the fruits of his studies of her compositions, including more than 150 of her qasidas and mathnavis with a qit’a in the introductory part. As a token of her total devotion to her distinguished father and his contributions to her poetical talent, she dedicated her collection of poetry to him. Her poetry had appeared in the second year issues of the Bahar jounal, published by her father, Yusuf I’tisam al-Mulk from 1921-1923. Her complete poetical works, exceeding 6,500 couplets in the genres of qasida, mathnavi, and qit’a, have been reprinted several times. Bahar’s introduction to the first edition of her Divan (1935) treats of the style and characteristics of her poetry. The second edition of her Divan was posthumously published by her brother, Abu al-Fath I’tisami. Originality is reflected in her poetical style of composition. Her poetry is tinged by diversity of genres and themes deriving from everyday life and the manner of dialogues between inanimate voices as the main features of her work. Such features indicate her true originality. Her Divan includes qasidas, qit’as, single couplets (mufradat), mathnavis, and ghazals. Her poetry is imbued with raising simple social and emotional discussions. Her moral compositions indubitably spring from her pure feelings. Her poetry may generally fall into several categories: some of them deal with different dialogues between two human beings, two animals, or two inanimate objects, mainly embracing moral counsels; those imbued with strong sympathy for the indigent and the miserable; some of her compositions constitute her revolutionary themes in which she depicts the cruel economic system of the society, calling for change, encouraging toilers to engender drastic changes in the economic system. Parvin belongs to one of the two trends in Persian poetry following the suppression of the Constitutional Movement, which may be interpreted as an eclectic trend (the other trend is that of Nima Yushij and his followers). The eclectic trend is mainly marked by intertwining classical genres with novel ideas and modern politico-social issues. The trend is a sequel to the bazgasht movement, though it is more exalted and modern in nature. Her compositions, in terms of idiom and stylistics, are marked by following the linguistic style of classical poets, particularly those of the Khurasani style; consequently, one may discuss the archaism reflected in her poetry. Some features of her poetry include colloquialism, fluency of expression, refraining from employment of florid poetical figures of meaning and speech, particularly reflected in her qit’as and mathnavis. She does not blindly follow classical poets in terms of archaism and florid poetical devices, but despite perfect following of classical poetic standards, her poetry is fluent, simple, and quite elegant. Such simple style is further reflected in her qit’as and mathnavis and less obvious in her qasidas. Her poetry, particularly her qasidas are marked by fluency, vigor, and adherence to lexical and grammatical standards. Parvin’s poetical compositions are models of fluent and elegant poetry, though her poetry, similar to other distinguished poets, is imbued with rhetorical figures. She emphasizes positive, rather than ascetic, morality, encouraging people to live a dynamic life, rather than belittling mundane life. She urges people to beware of transience of life and seize the day.

Adabiyyat-i Mu’asir (34-35); Az Rabi’a ta Parwin (76-86); Az Saba ta Nima (3/ 541); Da’irat al-Ma’arif-i Farsi (1/ 540); Sabkshinasi (343); Farhang-i Sukhanvaran (1/ 24-37).