A World Between: Poems, Short Stories, and Essays by Iranian-Americans

by Persis M. Karim (Editor), Mohammad Mehdi Khorrami (Editor)

Overview

This collection is the first published anthology of writings by Iranian immigrants and first generation Iranian Americans.

This collection is the first published anthology of writings by Iranian immigrants and first generation Iranian Americans. Wide ranging and deeply personal, these pieces explore the Iranian community's continuing struggle to understand what it means to be Iranian in America. The selections come together to present a rich, humanizing portrait of a growing community Americans tend to view negatively. Many are intimate reflections on the pain of being alienated from the language, history, and geography of one's childhood. Others grapple with the complexities of cultural and personal identity. Iranian Americans, like any other immigrant community, must face the ongoing negotiation between past and present, their native home and their adopted home. A World Between gives voice to their unique and moving stories.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780807614433
Publisher:	Braziller, George Inc.
Publication date:	05/16/1999
Edition description:	1ST
Pages:	224
Product dimensions:	6.30(w) x 9.30(h) x 1.20(d)

About the Author

Persis M. Karim was born in the United States to an Iranian father and a French mother. She received a Ph.D. in comparative literature from the University of Texas at Austin.

Mohammad Mehdi Khorrami has lived in the United States since 1984. He is an assistant professor of Persian and Persian literature at New York University.

Read an Excerpt

Chapter One

namaz(*)

empty pickle jars line
the bottom of the pantry
gossiping in vinegar.
they await the alchemist's blessing
eager to join the consecrated
vessels amassed above
flush with tarragon and mint
saffron and thyme.
the cupboard is a shrine
each tea tin a reliquary
every burlap rice sack a benediction.

"try this," you murmured
and laughed as I puzzled over
the red leather bulb
a fat sunburned king
with a tiny stem crown.
it was my first pomegranate.
at ten I made chai
you let me
praised me for it
though I was always the guest
always will be.

twenty thousand
casserole afternoons
a lifetime of prayer
forever on your knees
crushing lentils into paste
drying herbs on bronze platters
pressing forehead to floor
have turned your spine into limestone
and you still start from scratch
one eye on the sun
the other on me
addasi, ash reshteh, ghormeh sabzi
I have tasted your love songs.

(*) The prayer Muslims perform five times a day.

nowruz(*)

"goldfish are cheap,
dollar a dozen.
wait'll you see the rest."
I pointed to sea horses, angel fish, porcupine puffers,
"goldfish," grandma whispered, "two of them."

the shopkeeper fetched her a pair of aces,
they danced in the bowl like ochre bullion,
flashed like canaryducats. Carassius auratus.
the kind you'd expect in a picture
by the dictionary definition.

two weeks into the new year,
her nightstand bare.
"naneh ... the goldfish?"
"they had nothing to eat," she mumbled,
frowning to keep from crying.
"no one to feed them."

(*) Nowruz, literally "new day," refers to the Iranian New Year and marks the arrival of spring. Goldfish, among other things, serve as symbols of good fortune and are traditionally found in Iranian households during New Year celebrations.

    dastet dard nakoneh(*)

grandma can't thread
a needle anymore,
says, "it's better I die"
as though it will happen
soon. until then,
I'll thread her needles.

(*) A Persian expression of thanks whose rough translation is "May your hand be free of pain."

yeki bud, yeki nabud(*)

what goes without saying?
ours is a history of silence,
an assemblage of garments
strung on a clothesline of
glyph glances and idle chatter.

my tongue, built of porcelain,
dams a decade of questions,
moots that have faded
like the cerulean marks
on your fingers and forehead.

I carry your image
in the book that you gave me,
sewn from your lips.
the story begins:
one was, one wasn't.

(*) Literally, "one was, one wasn't." It is the Persian equivalent of "once upon a time."

ta'rof(*)

            I.

she's there again,
pouring tea leaves
onto the dew-soaked lawn,
scattering rice scraps beneath
the weeping willow.
sparrows converge,
as always.

            II.

"during shortfalls, your
grandmother would fast for days,
place her portion on our plates.
each time she'd insist,
'I have eaten.'"

            III.

sure as the dawn,
her first words are, "ghaza khordi?"
"have you eaten?"
as I mumble, "I have,"
naneh turns toward the kitchen
and replies, "eat again love,
eat again."

Table of Contents

FOREWORD	15
PREFACE	17
INTRODUCTION	21
Poems
ARASH SAEDINIA
namaz	33
nowruz	35
dastet dard nakoneh	36
yeki bud, yeki nabud	37
ta'rof	38
shah bekher	40
donya hamineh	41
cheshmetun rowshan	42
takhteh-nard	44
piri bad ast	45
TARA FATEMI
My Turn	46
I Ain't No American Beauty Rose	47
Five P.M. Express	48
My Fifties Theme Birthday Party	50
LALEH KHALILI
Disassociation	52
Why the hell American Revolutionaries bother the hell
out of me	55
Defeated	58
In Exile	60
MARYAM OVISSI
Untitled	62
Khorshid	63
PARINAZ ELEISH
On the Way to the Caucasus (Crossing the Delijan Pass)	64
The Secret Alley	65
Darya Poshteh (an all-female sea resort)	66
Knowing about War	67
The World	68
The Year of the Winds	69
ZARA HOUSHMAND
I Pass	70
Exile, 1	72
Exile, 2	73
Transit Lounge	74
REZA SHIRAZI
Eid Nowruz in Seattle	75
The Sound of Home	77
Bombay Immigrant	78
Learning Persian	79
ALI ZARRIN
Origin	80
A Word with Majesty	81
Made You Mine, America	82
KATAYOON ZANDVAKILI
Galloping: the original reds	88
Elephants	91
No. 2	94
untitled	95
AZADEH FARAHMAND
The Untimely Traveler	96
Season of Revival	100
SOLMAZ SHARIF
My Father's Shoes	104
ZJALEH HAJIBASHI
Morning Exercise	105
PERSIS M	KARIM
Hybrid	108
SANAZ NIKAEIN
Exile	110
SAÏDEH PAKRAVAN
Mother, Mother	111
SASSAN TABATABAI
Uzumborun	112
REZA ASHRAH and MICHAEL C	WALKER
blindness of our depth	114
Short Stories
ZJALEH HAJIBASHI
Heaven's Fruit	119
FIROOZEH KASHANI-SABET
Martyrdom Street	125
PERSIS M	KARIM
Paris Rendez-vous	139
MARIAM SALARI
Ed McMahon Is Iranian	150
NIKA KHANJANI
The Eyebrow	152
FARNOOSH MOSHIRI
The Bricklayer	154
SHADI ZIAEI
Death Observed	174
NAHID RACHLIN
Search	176
RAMIN M	TABIB
Tuesdays	196
JAHANSHAH JAVID
Persia, Iowa	206
TARA KAI
Mother Visits	209
ROXANNE VARZI
The Pelican	214
Essays
NASRIN RAHIMIEH
Pregnant with Sorrow	231
NAZANIN SIOSHANSI
The Suffocating Sense of Injustice	239
SIAMAK NAMAZI
Finding Peace in the Iranian Army	245
FEREYDOUN SAFIZADEH
Children of the Revolution: Transnational Identity
among Young Iranians in Northern California	255
AUTHORS' BIOGRAPHIES	277

Editorial Reviews

While many themes in this collection echo typical immigrant experiences, most of the contributions offer unusual glimpses into a lesser-known and often stereotyped ethnic group. The majority of the more than one million Iranian Americans left their homeland after the 1979 events that brought down the Shah and ushered in a new fundamentalist order. This anthology includes stories, essays, and poems by more than 30 first- and second-generation Iranian Americans, set against the backdrop of the Islamic revolution in Iran and refugee life in America. Charming and deeply personal, the writings often reflect on the pain of alienation and cultural struggle. The diversity of the contributors is noteworthy, ranging from 14-year-old Sharif, whose poem "My Father's Shoes" describes the pain of exile, to Persian poet and New York University professor Mohammad Khorrami. This first-ever collection of writings in English by Iranian American literary talents is highly recommended for most libraries.--Ali Houissa, Cornell Univ., Ithaca, NY Copyright 1999 Cahners Business Information.

Library Journal

A World Between ( paper May; 286 pp.; 0-8076-1443-2; paper 0-8076-1445-9): This generous anthology includes 15 stories, all previously unpublished, about the condition of exile and sense of strangeness in a strange land experienced both by Americans of Iranian descent and Iranians uprooted by either the Revolution of 1979 or the (1980–88) Iraqi War—and, most affectingly, about their endurance of vilification from Americans who consider all Iranians barbarians or terrorists. The stories vary from simplistic argument (Nazarin Sioshansi's "The Suffocating Sense of Injustice") to plaintive episodes (Nahid Rachlin's "Search" and especially Farnoosh Moshiri's "The Bricklayer"). A fine idea for a book, expertly realized.

Kirkus Reviews