HEAVEN WITHOUT A PASSPORT by Fereydoun Faryad

74. Everyone fights the darkness
their own way.
You with your rifle
the star with its shaft of light
and I with my poem.

This collection by Fereydoun Faryad, his first to appear in English, was inspired by his residence in Greece. A sequence of 81 poems in a style that has been influenced by the work of Nazim Hikmet, Louis Aragon, Yannis Ritsos, as well as the classical Iranian poets. There is a gentleness and energetic hope in this work, a brightness like simple sunlight that triumphs over the black circumstances of poverty, exile, and war. Heaven without a Passport has yet to be published in its original language of Persian. In 1995, the author's own Greek translation was published in Athens and included a prologue by Greek poet Yannis Ritsos (included in this edition).

Faryad is considered to be among the leading poets of the new generation in Iran, and his poems have been translated into English, French, Greek, and German. He was awarded the 2005 State Prize for Translation in Greece. In 2006, Greece's State Televison produced a 60 minute film about his life and works.

Fereydoun Faryad (pen-name of Fereydoun Rahimi) was born in Khoramshahr, Iran, in 1949. His hometown, occupied for two years by Iraqi forces during the Iran-Iraq war, was completely destroyed. In 1985, after a few years in Teheran, Faryad moved to Greece to study Modern Greek language and literature. He lives in Athens.

Scott King, translator, lives in Northfield, Minnesota. He is founder & editor of Red Dragonfly Press.