TEHRAN – A book carrying the German translation of a selection of works by Iranian poet Garus Abdolmalekian has been published in Germany.

Forty-one poems from his collections “Acceptance”, “Hollows”, “Lines Change Places in the Dark”, “The Faded Colors of the World” and “The Middle East Trilogy: War, Love, Loneliness” have been selected for the book entitled “When the War Ended, Peace Killed the People” (“Als der Krieg zu Ende War, Brachte der Frieden die Menschen Um”).

Translated by Jutta Himmelreich, the book has been published by Sujet Verlag.

Abdolmalekian’s collections have previously been published in many languages, including English, French, Italian and Arabic.

Carabba in Milan released an Italian translation of his “The Middle East Trilogy” (“Trilogia del Medio Oriente: Guerra Amore Solitudine”) by Faezeh Mardani and Francesco Occhetto this year.

The reference to war evokes the early years of the poet’s childhood marked by the tragic war between Iran and Iraq from 1980 to 1988, and recalls recent conflicts in Syria, Iraq and Yemen, in which he was emotionally involved. 

The narrative verse used by the author makes writing a privileged instrument of excavation, of surgical analysis both of the surrounding reality and of the inner universe of man.

The front cover of the Persian edition bears a picture by Iraqi photographer Ali Fahdawi, depicting a girl from Mosul who was fleeing along with her family from ISIS forces. The publishing house purchased the copyright to the picture, which was later titled “Mona Lisa of Mosul”.

A selection of his works translated into Arabic was published in 2020 in Kuwait in a collection named “A Bridge That Doesn’t Lead Anybody to Home”.

Asghar Alikarami is the translator of the collection released by Takween, a publishing house and bookshop in the country that has published works by world-renowned poets such as Rainer Maria Rilke, Anna Akhmatova, Sylvia Plath and Fernando Pessoa.

Abdolmalekian is presently the editor of the poetry section at Cheshmeh Publications in Tehran and the executive editor of publications at the Youth Poetry Office in Iran.

Penguin Books has published a selection of his poems in English in “Lean against This Late Hour” translated by Idra Novey and Ahmad Nadalizadeh.

A Swedish translation of a selection of his work was published in Sweden under the title, “Raderna Byter Plats i Morkret” in 2016.

Photo: Front cover of the book “Als der Krieg zu Ende War, Brachte der Frieden die Menschen Um” containing works by Persian poet Garus Abdolmalekian.

MMS/YAW