SOAS Research Online

Abstract

Esmail Khoi’s poem Return to Borgio Verezzi (written in March 1983 and first published in 1984) belongs to the key texts of post-revolution Persian exile literature. Esmail Khoi is one of the leading voices of Persian poetry in the second half of the 20th century. His literary works since the beginning of his exile in London in 1982 include more than 20 books of poetry, translations of classical Persian literature (particularly the 14th century satirical poet Obey-e Zakani of Shiraz) into English and numerous articles and contributions to Iranian press in exile. Khoi was a founding member of the Iranian Writers’ Association and the Iranian PEN Center in exile. In 1989, after the annoncement of Ayatollah Khomeini’s fatwa (death sentence) against the British author Salman Rushdie, Khoi was among the founding members of the international committee for the defence of Salman Rushdie. Return to Borgio Verezzi is a long narrative poem which reflects many key aspects and features of Khoi’s work and personality as a modern poet with strong ties to the tradition of classical Persian poetry and as a politically and socially engaged exile. My paper consists of an introductory essay about the poem. Initially it uses the methodology of “explication de texte” with a text immanent approach. In the further development of the essay the historical and intertextual references to the poetry of Hafis, Forugh Farrokhzad and Nasser-e Khosro are also discussed. The essay is followed by my translation of the poem into German. The booklet is accompanied by an audio CD with an original recoding of Esmail Khoi reading his poem in Persian. Literary critics generally consider Esmail Khoi as one of the best voices to recite poetry by himself and also by other classical and modern Persian poets.