Born Upon the Dark Spear by Ahmad Shamlu and translated by Jason Bahbak Mohaghegh

This is poetry from Iran.

Born Upon the Dark Spear by Ahmad Shamlu translated by Jason Bahbak Mohaghegh is published by Contra Mundum Press. This is a Book originally written in Persian. This was published in 2015.0 and has the ISBN of 9.781940625164E12.

Born Upon the Dark Spear, by Ahmad Shamlu and translated by Jason Bahbak Mohaghegh, brings one of modern Iran’s major poetic voices into a title full of danger and origin. To be born upon a dark spear is to begin from violence, elevation, and wound at once. Shamlu’s Persian poetry is central to modern Iranian literature, and his work often carries political conscience, lyric intensity, and a free-verse modernity that reshaped the field around him. I would read this collection as poetry where historical pressure and personal address do not separate cleanly. Mohaghegh’s translation has to carry force, density, and moral weather. This seems like a book for readers who want modern poetry with gravity: not decorative darkness, but a language sharpened by danger, witness, and defiance.

If you’d like to see international poetry continue and gain traction, consider requesting this work from your local library, or purchasing it from places like Open Books (a poetry only bookstore), Asterism Books (an independent press distributor), or bookshop.org to connect you with your local bookstores.

Check out more of the always in-progress translated poetry index here.