This was a beautiful collection of poems that was simply teeming with life and humanness, with Farrokhzad freely exploring universally known themes ranging from love to grief. When it came to her love poems, I really enjoyed the intense sensuality in unabashedly expressing her desire, especially as a woman. When it came to topics related to grief, it was multilayered for Farrokhzad, as she looked within and outside herself to reflect on loss and longing. I think what struck me about her poems was that she wrote about such well-known (and arguably overused) themes while still painting unique pictures.

Regarding the translation of these selected poems, I appreciated the notes that Gray left in the back of the book to provide further context for certain cultural and linguistic concepts, so as not to make the translation too cumbersome. The biography provided at the start of the collection was also enormously helpful, since I knew next to nothing about Farrokhzad. Since I don’t know any Farsi, I have absolutely no idea if Gray successfully captured the essence of Farrokhzad’s words or not, but I found the English translation pretty compelling. I can only imagine how much more beautiful it is in the original language.