The Metamorphosis Story

In this book, the author critiques and analyzes Nima Yushij’s poetry from three main perspectives: ‘Romanticism,’ ‘Realism,’ and ‘Symbolism.’ He recalls that he has followed Nima’s evolutionary path in a few lines or general characteristics, from the beginning to the end of each stage. Initially, as a preliminary classification, he found the tripartite ideological tendencies of Romanticism, Realism, and Symbolism, with all their advantages and disadvantages, to be the best framework. Romanticism relates to the poet’s early years, while Realism and Symbolism cannot be strictly placed in chronological order, although Realism is somewhat prioritized. Most of his poems from his maturation period until the end of his life are symbolic, whereas the peak of his realism is found in ‘Kar-e Shabpa,’ after which poems of this kind are rare. Within each school, the poems are arranged according to the date of composition to maintain temporal and historical perspectives on each phase of his poetic transformation. The author never neglects to express the influence of historical, political, and social events on his poetry. In selecting poems, sometimes criteria other than beauty and artistic value, such as possessing certain desired characteristics, were used. The critiques and analyses in this volume are generally a blend of aesthetic viewpoints and biographical criticism. The selection basis is the presence of distinct features that illustrate the consistent and systematic evolution of his poems from various aspects. For example, ‘Legend’ is categorized under this title due to its main feature of being a poetic drama, aside from reviewing its background and transformations up to that time. ‘Kar-e Shabpa’ is presented under ‘Narrative Storytelling’ in the Nima Realism school due to its realistic treatment. ‘Morgh-e Amin’ is placed in the ‘Symbolism’ section because of the dominance of symbolic characteristics. Since this poem is also significantly important from a dialogue perspective within a play, it is also referenced in the discussion of ‘Legend.’ Each poem’s discussion starts with a general title reflecting its outstanding features. Some titles are based on form, others on literary genre, style of expression, language, and so on. For each poem, the analysis begins with the content, then moves to the form of presentation, followed by various structural elements such as meter, rhyme, musicality, and scansion, and concludes with language and distinctive features.