Seventy Years of Love Poems

Seventy Years of Love Poems is a valuable work by Mohammad Mokhtari that analyzes contemporary lyrical mentality through selected poems written from the beginning of the 14th century AH until its seventh decade. Mohammad Mokhtari first explains the method for selecting poems in this book, focusing on three main criteria: public acceptance, the poem’s power representing the poet, and the personal preference of the compiler. He then explores lyrical mentality, addressing concepts such as unity, disintegration, duality, love, ancient tendencies, and various elements including physical desire in Farrokhi’s poetry, passionate love in Vis and Ramin, balanced tendencies in Saadi’s works, soulful love in Rumi’s poetry, and different forms of love like Platonic love, pure love, love as sacrifice, natural love, and mystical enlightenment. The author also scrutinizes new romantic tendencies in Seventy Years of Love Poems, tackling issues like romantic poetry alongside dreams, nature, and the unconscious. Furthermore, he examines various forms of Iranian romanticism, including individual-romantic and social-revolutionary themes, and analyzes erotic poetry within the romantic framework, physical knowledge, and contemporary flirtations. The selected poetry section of Seventy Years of Love Poems categorizes poets and includes several works by each. These poems not only familiarize readers with the poets and their works but also represent a historical treasure of Iranian love poetry.