The book ‘Private Hafez Reading’; an effort to connect Hafez with daily life
According to the correspondent of Iran Book News Agency (IBNA) in Mashhad, Alireza Iranmehr, during a critique and review session for the book “Private Hafez Reading” held on Sunday evening at the second branch of “Cheshmeh Delshodegan Bookstore in Mashhad,” stated: “Hafez is an astonishing asset. Perhaps future generations will not be as unfamiliar with Hafez, so I was looking for a way to connect Hafez to modern life.”
He added: “This book became intertwined with my life because I was involved in writing it for nearly 17 years. About four years of these 17 years were spent on rewriting, so writing this book took many years of my life.”
Stages of Rewriting the Book
The screenwriter, stating that this book comprises 230,000 words, said: “During these 17 years, my inner world, my prose, my perspective on events and phenomena underwent changes. Thus, during rewrites, the book was reduced from one million words to 230,000 words.”
Iranmehr described unifying the prose over this 17-year period as very difficult and expressed: “The entire text of this book is in the form of SMS messages that people send to each other, and this itself was a challenge.”
The author, in explaining which version of Hafez’s corrections he considered, said: “For writing this book, I reviewed several different editions of Hafez’s Divan, such as those by Qasem Ghani, Khanlari, etc., and finally, I found that the best version for me was ‘Sayeh’s’ version, and I tried to base all the poems in ‘Private Hafez Reading’ on Sayeh’s version.”
The Puzzle-like and Non-linear Form of “Private Hafez Reading”
Referring to the puzzle-like and non-linear form of “Private Hafez Reading,” he said: “Form, for me, is content itself; these two are two sides of the same coin. I was compelled to choose this form for this work. In the early days of starting this work, I only knew I wanted to write about Hafez, and the name of my main character was ‘Alireza.’ That was the beginning of this book for me; I didn’t even know what I wanted to do.”
Iranmehr continued: “In those days, every week at a writing workshop in Tehran, I would read my notes to the children. That year, the workshop became very crowded, and by reading my notes, I was, in a way, organizing my own thoughts about this book.”
How the Work’s Form Was Achieved
Iranmehr stated: “It was through this process that, in encountering different opinions, I constantly revised the form. On the other hand, editing the work was also very exhausting due to the scattered nature of my notes, because the output had to be placed in a broken unity, similar to seeing oneself in a mirrored wall where you see every part of yourself in fragmented mirrors. Therefore, in the end, the story had to be a single story with unified characters, but one could enter the story from anywhere without this sudden entry harming the narrative.”
Referring to a work by Marcel Proust, he added: “When I was reading ‘In Search of Lost Time,’ I couldn’t read the entire work. I read parts of it from different volumes. This book was like a dream to me. The story of ‘Private Hafez Reading’ also couldn’t be coherent; it couldn’t be a collection of short stories because, with that method, the Hafez I was looking for wouldn’t emerge.”
The author stated: “I needed a single story, and gradually the form of the work came to me, and I realized that this was the way to write about the contemporary Iranian human, their pains, their questions, and their connection with Hafez.”
Hafez, Beyond Being the Epitome of Iranian Culture
Regarding Hafez’s role in this book, Iranmehr said: “Beyond being the epitome of Iranian culture, Hafez addresses the most terrifying concepts that exist in life and presents them in a way that we don’t suffer. Imagine we have a patient who needs surgery, and we cannot anesthetize them, and the patient must witness the stages of surgery and endure great pain. Hafez facilitates this image for us; he blends it with love and lyricism, so that you can accept and perform it. This is a great achievement for our nation that not every culture and society possesses. He eases all difficult concepts like death and its terrifying shadows.”
The screenwriter said: “This is Hafez’s matter for me. He is like a prophet because he allows you to understand something whose comprehension is very terrifying and frightening. With Hafez, you see shadows that cause understanding and fear in humans, but Hafez, through his ‘methods,’ makes accepting our shadows easier.”
Hafez and the Introduction of Archetypes
Iranmehr described Hafez as a summary of human culture and stated: “In my opinion, he has presented all the great human archetypes. I was looking for a way to express these issues. We consult Hafez for omens, and this is no small thing.”
Referring to “hermeneutic reading” in contemporary world literature, he emphasized: “It is every writer’s dream for their work to reach hermeneutic reading, and Hafez has provided this for Iranians. Even if we don’t have much literacy, we read Hafez and understand him.”
Iranmehr spoke about the characterization in his latest work: “The characters in this book are ourselves. I can be Parisa; anyone can be Parisa or Alireza.”
Stating that people consider Hafez an enemy of ‘reason,’ he stressed: “Most of society believes Hafez encourages people to set aside reason and embrace love, while Hafez’s poetry is rational.”
Iranmehr continued: “Hafez has blended philosophical understanding, the tangible reality of life, materialism, the nature of matter, etc., and these are important. Many things sound funny when heard. Perhaps in some cultures, there is a contradiction between reason and love, but for the Iranian human, this contradiction is laughable because Hafez solved this geometry and equation for us many years ago and provided us with this precious metaphysical asset. Hence, my concern in this book was how to use Hafez in daily life.”
He stated that many great concepts are present in Hafez’s works: “In Hafez’s ghazals, we see themes such as devotion, submission, tyranny, and other great issues that we deal with daily.”
A Novel Gives Us the Experience of Living
Iranmehr continued: “A novel is not a philosophical work; a novel wants to give us the experience of living, to confront us with selfishness, terror, and surrender. I tried to take these concepts from Hafez and place them in a novelistic situation.”
This Book Is the Author’s Lived Experience
In another part of this session, Somayyeh Seyyedian, a writer and literary critic, said: “The author has not tried to create characters in this work; what exists is the author’s lived experience, flowing through this book, its characters, and its events. The boundary between Alireza in this book and the author himself is very thin. I always told Mr. Iranmehr that the character ‘Alireza’ in the book is you.”
The literary critic said: “The book begins with ‘If you are not ready to drown, do not accompany this book.’ This first sentence is the most important and complete definition for this work.”
Seyyedian, stating that every victory precedes a defeat, expressed: “The theme of the novel might seem like sinking into darkness and facing an abyss, but we know that after every darkness there is light. Everyone seeks light and must pass through darkness before reaching it.”
Somayyeh Seyyedian said: “Since I met Mr. Iranmehr, he had been busy writing this book. This long time spent writing a work was initially strange to me, and his lack of desire to publish the book was also interesting. He was afraid that some people would know the story and face concepts that would be difficult to overcome.”
The storytelling instructor said: “Every part of this book I read over these years gave me a strange feeling. The concepts presented in the book are like a tightrope walker on a rope; at any moment, one can fall to one side. Writing these concepts is very difficult—concepts like love, betrayal, death, fear, and other concepts that we deal with daily and see within ourselves, and this is very frightening.”
She added: “Over the years, I repeatedly asked Mr. Iranmehr, ‘Why did you write this theme?’ or ‘Writing this concept scares me.’ And yet, I knew writing these concepts was necessary because confronting them gave me insights that helped me understand myself and my surroundings better. The reader of the book might not grasp its hidden and obvious meanings by reading it only once.”
Seyyedian stated: “Even now, after reading this work several times, I find both connecting with this book and not reading this book difficult, but people must read this book.”
