Uploaded May 2026 | Updated September 2026, 3 weeks ago
The Transnational Literature Series at Brookline Booksmith hosts translators Niloufar Talebi and Elizabeth T. Gray Jr. to discuss and honor their translations of Elegies of the Earth by Ahmad Shamlou and Let Us Believe in the Beginning of the Cold Season by Forough Farrokhzad.
Elegies of the Earth is a sweeping centennial edition of Iran’s iconic twentieth-century poet of liberty, whose work shaped modern Persian poetry.
Known for his political engagement and deep humanism, and his pivotal role in Persian poetry’s modernist turn toward free verse, Ahmad Shamlou (1925–2000) crafted poems that carried both lyrical intimacy and cultural force. A central, defiant voice in Iran’s modern literary history, Shamlou championed the power of poetry as an instrument of liberation. His work, long suppressed in his homeland, remains urgent for readers everywhere confronting censorship, exile, and erasure.
This bilingual edition honors Shamlou’s centennial with the most expansive selection of his poetry to date in English, encompassing his wide thematic range: from fierce protest to intimate love, mythic storytelling to existential reflection. Niloufar Talebi’s vibrant translations and deeply researched commentary shine new light on Shamlou’s legacy and his relevance today.
Let Us Believe in the Beginning of the Cold Season is a ravishing new translation of Iran’s trailblazing, feminist poet in an indispensable collection.
In the years since her tragic death in a car accident at age thirty-two in 1967, Forough Farrokhzad has become a poet as iconic and influential as Lorca or Akhmatova, celebrated as a pioneer of modernist Iranian literature and as a leading figure of contemporary world literature. Farrokhzad, as Elizabeth Gray writes in the preface, “remains a beacon to artists, especially women and marginalized artists, who seek freedom in all its forms.”
This thoughtfully curated, deftly translated selection of Farrokhzad’s poems includes work from her whole writing life, early to late. Readers will thoroughly treasure this expansive poet of the quotidian; of longing, loss, and desire; of classical reinvention; of lexical variation and sonic beauty; of terrifying wisdom, hope, and grief.
Hosted by the Transnational Literature Series at Brookline Booksmith, this virtual event was originally recorded on May 7, 2026.
Support the author and independent bookstores by buying books from us!
The Transnational Literature Series at Brookline Booksmith hosts translators Niloufar Talebi and Elizabeth T. Gray Jr. to discuss and honor their translations of Elegies of the Earth by Ahmad Shamlou and Let Us Believe in the Beginning of the Cold Season by Forough Farrokhzad.
Elegies of the Earth is a sweeping centennial edition of Iran’s iconic twentieth-century poet of liberty, whose work shaped modern Persian poetry.
Known for his political engagement and deep humanism, and his pivotal role in Persian poetry’s modernist turn toward free verse, Ahmad Shamlou (1925–2000) crafted poems that carried both lyrical intimacy and cultural force. A central, defiant voice in Iran’s modern literary history, Shamlou championed the power of poetry as an instrument of liberation. His work, long suppressed in his homeland, remains urgent for readers everywhere confronting censorship, exile, and erasure.
This bilingual edition honors Shamlou’s centennial with the most expansive selection of his poetry to date in English, encompassing his wide thematic range: from fierce protest to intimate love, mythic storytelling to existential reflection. Niloufar Talebi’s vibrant translations and deeply researched commentary shine new light on Shamlou’s legacy and his relevance today.
Let Us Believe in the Beginning of the Cold Season is a ravishing new translation of Iran’s trailblazing, feminist poet in an indispensable collection.
In the years since her tragic death in a car accident at age thirty-two in 1967, Forough Farrokhzad has become a poet as iconic and influential as Lorca or Akhmatova, celebrated as a pioneer of modernist Iranian literature and as a leading figure of contemporary world literature. Farrokhzad, as Elizabeth Gray writes in the preface, “remains a beacon to artists, especially women and marginalized artists, who seek freedom in all its forms.”
This thoughtfully curated, deftly translated selection of Farrokhzad’s poems includes work from her whole writing life, early to late. Readers will thoroughly treasure this expansive poet of the quotidian; of longing, loss, and desire; of classical reinvention; of lexical variation and sonic beauty; of terrifying wisdom, hope, and grief.
Hosted by the Transnational Literature Series at Brookline Booksmith, this virtual event was originally recorded on May 7, 2026.
Support the author and independent bookstores by buying books from us!
