I Have Autumn on the Face and Spring in the Eyes

A survey of Persian literature shows that the literati of this land have exhibited various personalities and diverse experiences; rich and poor, dignified and sycophantic, travelers and city dwellers, humorous and gloomy, and more. Perhaps there is hardly a culture that hosts poets and literati with such a breadth of personal diversity. This extensive variety may be because the Persian language has thrived with power and vitality in the world for hundreds and over a thousand years, continuously nurturing poets and literati under its protection. Masoud Saad Salman, a poet from the early Islamic centuries in Iran, is a unique poet with his own distinct experiences. He spent much of his life in prison and did not have the fortune to benefit from flattering kings and rulers. The imprisonment of such a talented poet led to the creation of the most prominent examples of prison poetry (habsiye) in Persian literature. After his Diwan was revised and refined by the late Gholamreza Rashid Yasemi and Mehdi Nourian, his poems regained attention and were introduced to university students as part of Persian literature and language courses. What follows is an account of Masoud Saad’s life and poetic style, accompanied by a selection of his poems, serving as a suitable introduction for those interested in this Persian-speaking poet’s literary approach.