Iranian translator and poet Mojtaba Veysi, 55, says he saw “no significant change” in Iran’s literary market that could make it distinct from the previous years.
Reviewing the domestic production scene in books and literature during the outgoing fiscal year, on the eve of the start of the New Year on March 21, he said, “In the qualitative sense, literature has not undergone a palpable change that could distinguish the current year from the previous years,” ISNA reported.
“But in terms of quantity, the book market has developed with a remarkably higher variety of books, due to a huge number of active poets, translators and writers.”
He noted that because of the advanced technology available, readers are drifting away from printed texts and are drawn toward technological tools and cyberspace. Such virtual environment allows users to skim from one online text to another, giving little time to focus and contemplate. Books encourage readers to analyze the contents keeping them focused on the subject. “But the contemporary human has been influenced by the virtual world thus undermining the position of books.”
As long as such a situation continues, books will not find their past celebrated status, Veysi added.
Among the books he read and found noteworthy are ‘Second Person Narrative’ (in Persian: ‘Ravi Dovom Shakhs’), a collection of poems by poet Shams Aqajani, 48; and ‘Geography of the Dead’ (in Persian: ‘Joghrafia-e Amvat’), a story collection by fiction writer Mohsen Faraji, 44.
Among Persian translations, he named a selection of German poet Friedrich Holderlin’s works, converted into Persian by translator Mohmoud Haddadi, 69, with the Persian title ‘Ancheh Mimanad’ (what remains); and Chilean poet Pablo Neruda’s ‘I Confess that I Have Lived’ translated into Persian by writer and translator Ahmad Pouri, 63.
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