Woman-Nature Principle in Forough Farrokhzad’s Poetryand her Nature-oriented Thoughts

In Modern Persian literature, the most serious and influential feminism occurs in Forough Farrokhzad’s poetry. She is the first Persian female poet who disclosed her womanist desires in a feminine, pure, and humble language while illustrating world of women in contemporary Iran. The goal of this article is to explore Woman/nature traces in Forough Farrokhzad’s poetry. Therefore, the following themes and issues which may help to connect her thoughts and language to nature are presented: “The Nature Ontology”, “The Seasons and Time Passage, “The Four Major Elements in Nature”, “The Tree and The Plant”, and “The Earth and The Sky Creatures”. Attempts are made to investigate how these themes are interwoven in Farrokhzad’s poetry, and how she had been indirectly under the influences of such feminist tendencies in the world of literature. Hence, an analysis of Woman and Nature in Forough Farrokhzad’s Nature Poetry reveals her thoughts and ideas as one of the most significant Persian Modern poets. This research applies an analytical-qualitative method and uses a descriptive-library approach. 

Nature has been one of the most significant subjects in literary discussions. Ecocriticism and Green studies in literature of the East and the Western/European literary orientations were always important subjects. Landscapes, nature descriptions and nature elements, such as the mountains, the plains, the ocean, the woods, and the rocks have been always under the attention of poets and authors. Sometimes these nature descriptions were to praise the nature and its fundamental aspects like the seasons and time changes, other times to reveal the poets’ inner moods and emotions and his/her sentimental reflections. The nature ontology, the seasons and time passage, the four major elements in nature, the plants, and the earth and the beast have direct connection with human life. In other words, human life is meaningful when it is accepted within the environment and the outer world; consequently, the reflection of this outer world is eminent and considerable in literary texts and poetry.

It is true that most of the critics consider four major movements for Feminism: the first movement insisted on the rights of the women and the suffrage; the second movement searched equalities for both men and women; and the third movement concentrated on the cultural and academic institutions. Finding women’s real social places and ranks, supporting social equalities and political/economical equalities, releasing the women in a patriarchal society are all among the most significant basics of the European Feminist current. Elaine Schowalter, a well-known feminist theoreticians speaks of two feminist tendencies: 1. Studying literary texts and analyzing the picture of women in them; 2. Evaluating the female poets/authors as the creators of literary texts, and deciding whether there are some differences between the male poets’ interest and those of the female ones (Schowalter, 1988: 346). This essay insists on the first tendency and attempts to follow such an outlook, which means criticizing literary texts from women’s viewpoints. Thus, the aim of this research is to find out the reflections of nature, women’s identities, and the nature-oriented tendencies of a female poet, Forough Farrokhzad, who like ecocritics thinks of nature-destruction and decadence, and worries about the women’s exploitations in the society. The ecocritics or the nature-oriented-critics believe that both women’s social exploitations and the nature destruction are the results of a hierarchical society where the role of women becomes more and more weak and unimportant. Consequently, this research, while using analytical-qualitative method and applying a descriptive-library approach, attempts to disclose the thoughts and the inner emotions of a female poet in Persian modern poetry.

Forough Farrokhzad’s volumes of poetry, Re-birth (1343) and Trusting the Dawn of a Cold Season (1343) reveal the common pain the poet and the nature suffering from; a lonely lady who is suffering from a cold and icy society while melting in a gloomy atmosphere: At the beginning of a cold season/ At the beginning of the perception of the polluted existence of earth/ And the simple damp despair of heaven (Farrokhzad, 1386: 317). The wind blows in the alley/ The wind blows in the alley/ And I think of flowers breeding/ And buds on vestigial stalks (Farrokhzad, 1386: 318). Will I ever again comb my tresses in the wind?/ Will I ever again plant violets in flowerbeds?/ Will I ever again leave the geraniums in the sky beyond the window? (Farrokhzad, 1386: 323). She thinks that the life is a simple dream and hallucination, and immediately a self-destruction and nature-decadence are remembered: Excuse her/ She who at times forgets/ her close painful connection/ with the stagnant waters/ and the empty holes/ and foolishly thinks/ the right of living (Farrokhzad, 1386: 231). Forough seeks shelter among her own simple fellow, those who are also perfect and worthy: Give me shelter, oh simple perfect women following/ With your slender fingertips/ The delightful movement of a fetus beneath the skin (Farrokhzad, 1386: 281). Woman/nature traces and the reflection of nature in these two volumes of poetry and Forough’s earlier poems are significant due to these topics: “The Nature Ontology”, “The Seasons and Time Passage, “The Four Major Elements in Nature”, “The Tree and The Plant”, and “The Earth and The Sky Creatures”. Every one of these subjects can be applied in the poet’s personal, social, mental, and philosophical areas, so that when facing the nature, Forough Farrokhzad joins her, involves in her, sympathizes with her, and finally familiarizes and unifies with her.

One of the most beautiful imaginaries in Persian poetry is the changing that the poets make in inanimate objects in their environment while giving them movement and soul. A primitive kind of living and the nature, their connections and relationship, were the major factors for such tendencies in absorbing the natural phenomena in their poetry. Then such interests resulted in the brilliant pictures of nature elements in Persian poetry. Consequently, “Personification” as a literary device has been widely used in Persian classical poetry to personify the inanimate objects and the natural phenomena. Among the traditional Persian poets one can remember Manuchehri Damghani, Farrukhi Sistani, Rudaki, and Unsuri Balkhi who described the nature in their poetry and reflected her widely; that is why Manuchehri is called the encyclopedia of the nature in Persian poetry. In Modern Persian poetry one can remember Forough Farrokhzad, Mehdi Akhavān-Sāles, Nimā Yushij, and Sohrab Sepehri who also kept in mind the nature while writing their poetry. Subjects and issues like “The Nature Ontology”, “The Seasons and Time Passage, “The Four Major Elements in Nature”, “The Tree and The Plant”, and “The Earth and The Sky Creatures” indicate how Forough Farrokhzad’s thoughts and language are extensively connected with nature. She is considered as one of the most eminent female poets who cared for the women’s real rights in Modern Iranian society. The following themes and issues highlight Forough’s major woman/nature tendencies: “The Nature Ontology”, “The Seasons and Time Passage, “The Four Major Elements in Nature”, “The Tree and The Plant”, and “The Earth and The Sky Creatures”. In her poetry, nature has an idealistic, pure, and feminine meaning, and the time is the symbol of development and growth; every four major elements of nature are a pattern for human’s ontology (the water is the symbol of life, purification, rebirth, feminine characteristics, and matriarchal power; the fire refers to fertility, purification, and the illumination; the wind shows creation and fertility; and the soil presents the life and the abundance). Also the vegetable in Forough’s poetry stand for birth and life-death circle, and the trees indicate life and the association of the woman and the earth; all these are widely present in Forough Farrokhzad’s almost every line of poetry.