A World Between Poems, Short Stories, and Essays by Iranian-Americans

by Karim, Persis M.; Khorrami, Mohammad Mehdi

• ISBN13: 9780807614433
• ISBN10: 0807614432
• Edition: 00
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 1999-05-16
• Publisher: George Braziller Inc.

Summary

This collection is the first published anthology of writings by Iranian immigrants and first generation Iranian Americans. Wide ranging and deeply personal, these pieces explore the Iranian community's continuing struggle to understand what it means to be Iranian in America. The selections come together to present a rich, humanizing portrait of a growing community Americans tend to view negatively. Many are intimate reflections on the pain of being alienated from the language, history, and geography of one's childhood. Others grapple with the complexities of cultural and personal identity. Iranian Americans, like any other immigrant community, must face the ongoing negotiation between past and present, their native home and their adopted home. A World Between gives voice to their unique and moving stories.

Table of Contents

Foreword	15	(17)
Preface	17	(4)
Introduction	21	(12)
Poems
Arash Saedinia
namaz	33	(2)
nowruz	35	(1)
dastet dard nakoneh	36	(1)
yeki bud, yeki nabud	37	(1)
ta'rof	38	(2)
shab bekher	40	(1)
donya hamineh	41	(1)
cheschmetun rowshan	42	(2)
takhteh-nard	44	(1)
piri bad ast	45	(1)
Tara Fatemi
My Turn	46	(1)
I Ain't No American Beauty Rose	47	(1)
Five P.M. Express	48	(2)
My Fifties-Theme Birthday Party	50	(2)
Laleh Khalili
Disassociation	52	(3)
Why the hell American Revolutionaries bother the hell out of me...	55	(3)
Defeated	58	(2)
In Exile	60	(2)
Maryam Ovissi
Untitled	62	(1)
Khorshid	63	(1)
Parinaz Eleish
On the Way to the caucasus (Crossing the Delijan Pass)	64	(1)
The Secret Alley	65	(1)
Darya Poshteh (an all-female sea resort)	66	(1)
Knowing about War	67	(1)
The World	68	(1)
The Year of the Winds	69	(1)
Zara Houshmand
IPass	70	(2)
Exile, 1	72	(1)
Exile, 2	73	(1)
Transit Lounge	74	(1)
Reza Shirazi
Eid Nowruz in Seattle	75	(2)
The Sound of Home	77	(1)
Bombay Immigrant	78	(1)
Learning Persian	79	(1)
Ali Zarrin
Origin	80	(1)
A Word with Majesty	81	(1)
Made You Mine, America	82	(6)
Katayoon Zandvakili
Galloping: the original reds	88	(3)
Elephants	91	(3)
No. 2	94	(1)
untitled	95	(1)
Azadeh Farahmand
The Untimely Traveler	96	(4)
Season of Revival	100	(4)
Solmaz Sharif
My Father's Shoes	104	(1)
Zjaleh Hajibashi
Morning Exercise	105	(3)
Persis M. Karim
Hybrid	108	(2)
Sanaz Nikaein
Exile	110	(1)
Saideh Pakravan
Mother, Mother	111	(1)
Sassan Tabatabai
Uzumborun	112	(2)
Reza Ashrah and Michael C. Walker
blindness of our depth	114	(5)
Short Stories
Zjaleh Hajibashi
Heaven's Fruit	119	(6)
Firoozeh Kashani-Sabet
Martyrdom Street	125	(14)
Persis M. Karim
Paris Rendezvous	139	(11)
Mariam Salari
Ed McMahon Is Iranian	150	(2)
Nika Khanjani
The Eyebrow	152	(2)
Farnoosh Moshiri
The Bricklayer	154	(20)
Shadi Ziaei
Death Observed	174	(2)
Nahid Rachlin
Search	176	(20)
Ramin M. Tabib
Tuesdays	196	(10)
Jahanshah Javid
Persia, Iowa	206	(3)
Tara Kai
Mother Visits	209	(68)
Roxanne Varzi
The Pelican	214	(17)
Essays
Nasrin Rahimieh
Pregnant with Sorrow	231	(8)
Nazanin Sioshansi
The Suffocating Sense of Injustice	239	(6)
Siamak Namazi
Finding Peace in the Iranian Army	245	(10)
Fereydoun Safizadeh
Children of the Revolution: Transnational Identity among Young Iranians in Northern California	255	(22)
Authors' Biographies	277

Excerpts

Chapter One

namaz(*)

empty pickle jars line

the bottom of the pantry

gossiping in vinegar.

they await the alchemist's blessing

eager to join the consecrated

vessels amassed above

flush with tarragon and mint

saffron and thyme.

the cupboard is a shrine

each tea tin a reliquary

every burlap rice sack a benediction.

"try this," you murmured

and laughed as I puzzled over

the red leather bulb

a fat sunburned king

with a tiny stem crown.

it was my first pomegranate.

at ten I made chai

you let me

praised me for it

though I was always the guest

always will be.

twenty thousand

casserole afternoons

a lifetime of prayer

forever on your knees

crushing lentils into paste

drying herbs on bronze platters

pressing forehead to floor

have turned your spine into limestone

and you still start from scratch

one eye on the sun

the other on me

addasi, ash reshteh, ghormeh sabzi

I have tasted your love songs.

(*) The prayer Muslims perform five times a day.

nowruz(*)

"goldfish are cheap,

dollar a dozen.

wait'll you see the rest."

I pointed to sea horses, angel fish, porcupine puffers,

"goldfish," grandma whispered, "two of them."

the shopkeeper fetched her a pair of aces,

they danced in the bowl like ochre bullion,

flashed like canary ducats. Carassius auratus .

the kind you'd expect in a picture

by the dictionary definition.

two weeks into the new year,

her nightstand bare.

" naneh ... the goldfish?"

"they had nothing to eat," she mumbled,

frowning to keep from crying.

"no one to feed them."

(*) Nowruz , literally "new day," refers to the Iranian New Year and marks the arrival of spring. Goldfish, among other things, serve as symbols of good fortune and are traditionally found in Iranian households during New Year celebrations.

    dastet dard nakoneh(*)

grandma can't thread

a needle anymore,

says, "it's better I die"

as though it will happen

soon. until then,

I'll thread her needles.

(*) A Persian expression of thanks whose rough translation is "May your hand be free of pain."

yeki bud, yeki nabud(*)

what goes without saying?

ours is a history of silence,

an assemblage of garments

strung on a clothesline of

glyph glances and idle chatter.

my tongue, built of porcelain,

dams a decade of questions,

moots that have faded

like the cerulean marks

on your fingers and forehead.

I carry your image

in the book that you gave me,

sewn from your lips.

the story begins:

one was, one wasn't.

(*) Literally, "one was, one wasn't." It is the Persian equivalent of "once upon a time."

ta'rof(*)

            I.

she's there again,

pouring tea leaves

onto the dew-soaked lawn,

scattering rice scraps beneath

the weeping willow.

sparrows converge,

as always.

            II.

"during shortfalls, your

grandmother would fast for days,

place her portion on our plates.

each time she'd insist,

`I have eaten.'"

            III.

sure as the dawn,

her first words are, " ghaza khordi? "

"have you eaten?"

as I mumble, "I have,"

naneh turns toward the kitchen

and replies, "eat again love,

eat again."

Copyright © The copyright to each selection is held by its author. All rights reserved.