Sugar-Coated Coffee

This is not a book to read only once; whenever you wish, taste the sugar-coated coffee: both bitter and sweet together. Sugar-coated coffee consists of bittersweet smiles at the events of the past and present of the people of Iran, examined through political, social, and cultural incidents. The compiler of this book strives to represent every generation and group in this work, aiming to assemble excerpts of “contemporary satirical poetry” of Iran—a collection of poems that have been composed and heard since the Constitutional Revolution, and perhaps have been published in various books and notebooks. Mahdinejad, through a brief review, has brought together numerous poems from contemporary Iranian satirists, a daunting task given the assembling of works from 91 poets, whether they have been exactly published in books, magazines, pamphlets, daily publications, or have been found on personal blogs and websites of poets. This effort has not merely focused on compiling poems of contemporary poets by excluding the works of past masters or, conversely, gathering only the classical works without including contemporary ones. Instead, all these individuals are arranged together under a simple alphabetical order. Thus, the reader can find poems from nearly one hundred poets, from today’s renowned figures such as the late Seyed Hassan Hosseini, Omran Salahi, and Manouchehr Ehteshami, to Nasim e Shomal, Rahi Mo’ayeri, and Ali Akbar Dehkhoda, all in one place. The compiler of this collection seeks to give a greater share in “Sugar-coated Coffee” to those known for their humorous writings and, alongside this, makes great efforts to introduce poets who are not recognized for their satire. Mahdinejad mentions that some works by satirical poets were excluded because they crossed certain red lines. According to Mahdinejad, “This collection has been prepared with great effort and pain. Please refrain from reading it alone, throwing it away, placing it under chair legs, or using it to kill cockroaches!”