Memories of an Impossible Future: Mehdi Akhavān Sāles and the Poetics of Time

174 Pages·2016·0.764 MB·English

by  Marie Huber

Memories of an Impossible Future
Iran Studies
Editorial Board
Ali Gheissari (University of San Diego, CA)
Yann Richard (Sorbonne Nouvelle)
Christoph Werner (University of Marburg)
Volume 14
The titles published in this series are listed at brill.com/is
Memories of an Impossible Future
Mehdi Akhavān Sāles and the Poetics of Time
By
Marie Huber
LEIDEN | BOSTON
Cover illustration: Mehdi Akhavān Sāles in 1990, portrait by Ebrahim Golestan. By courtesy of
Ebrahim Golestan.
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In memory of my mother, Ingeborg Huber
∵

Contents
Acknowledgements IX
Introduction 1
1 An Emancipation of Rhythm 13
Isochronies of Night 14
The Immanence of Perception 21
Metrical Spaces 25
Embodied Rhythm 31
Measures of Seeing 35
Time and Song 38
2 Images of the New 45
The Screen of Nature 47
Porous Images 50
Objective and Subjective Realities 57
The Two Mirrors 66
3 Time-Spaces of Poetic Narration 70
The Most Intimate Relation 72
Dream Time 80
Syncopations of Desire 84
The Immobilised Now 91
Embedded in Time 97
Unmappable Spaces and Spaces of Myth 102
4 The Depth of Time: Voices 108
The Broken Cogito 111
La parole scindée 118
The End of the Book of Kings 132
Bibliography 151
Index 162

Acknowledgements
My profoundest gratitude goes out to Mohsen Ashtiany, , for
ناوخا رابت زا یدنر
his lucid humanity. This book would not exist without the grace and percep-
tiveness he has shown to my writing.
A number of scholars and friends have marked my thought and accompa-
nied me on parts of my journey. Mortezā Kākhi committed me to the necessity
of modern poetry in Iran. Masʿud Jaʿfari Jazi has never withheld his kindness
and generosity, from the moment I began to discover Persian literature. Safiyeh
Khoddāmi-Fahādān took me to Tus and made the words that time had frozen
come to life again. Mohammad Saʿid Shād has been on many a walk
هدیروش
that was led on by verses. Fereshteh, Rouzbeh, Reza and the late Mohammad
Ghahreman embodied a space of writing and being that is all but lost: a space
in which Akhavān could give voice to a poetry that remains new and impera-
tive. Ardalan Zargham has shared his impeccable intuition for the sounds and
rhythms of Persian in conversations beyond count over many years of friend-
ship. Rezā Afzali and Zardosht Akhavān Sāles offered answers to questions that
would otherwise have remained without closure. My gratitude is theirs.
I would also like to thank Ahmet Soysal for showing me that the ethics of
thought can be lived; Judith Ryan for her unwavering support along a road
that took many turns; John Gurney for the first spark, the first tasnif, and for
never losing faith; Jann Matlock for opening up exhilarating new worlds of
intellectual discovery to me; Luis Manuel Girón-Negrón and Steven Caton for
introducing me to ideas that ended up shaping my approach to literature; and
Peter Gamper for encouraging the other path at a time when I did not yet know
where that path would lead.
My final thanks go to Rosanna Lewis for the care she took in preparing the
manuscript. I am indebted to her thoroughness and discernment.