The Snowflake Chronicles

Tahirih: A Portrait in Poetry (Book Review)

Review of Tahirih: A Portrait in Poetry by ProsperousSnow

NOTE:Tahirih: A portrait in Poetry Selected Poems of Qurratu’l-’Ayn is edited and translated by Amin Banani and English Poems by Jascha Kessler and Anthony A. Lee published by Kalimat Press, Los Angeles.

Tahirih (the Pure One) also called Qurratu’l-’Ayn (Solace of the Eyes) was born in Persia (today Iran) over a hundred and fifty years ago. Tahirih, born Fatimih Zarrin-Taj, was a remarkable woman for the time and place she was born. She was one of the nineteen Letters of the Living, the disciples of The Bab. She was a religious scholar and poet who wrote in the classical tradition of Persian mystic poets. She died in 1852, a drunken soldier strangled her with a white silk handkerchief and her body dumped into a well.

The poems in this book reveal an intriguing portrait of Tahirih, as well as the era she lived in. I liked several things about this book. First, the book explains how the translator and the shapers of the poems worked. Second, there are notes in the back of the book concerning each poem. Third, the poems published in both their English translations and the original language. Fifth, you can read the poems either straight through without studying the notes one each poem or you can read the poem while consulting the notes. I recommend this book to anyone who enjoys reading mystic poems from any religious tradition.