She studied Drama at the Tehran University of Art; later she received an MA degree in English Literature from Tehran University. Poetry This Dead Body Is Not An Apple, It’s Either A Cucumber Or A Pear, (1997) Making A Face, (1998) Making Coffee To Run A Crime Story, (2002) The Hourglass is Fast Asleep,(2011) Highways Blocked, (2014) Here Gravity is Less(2019) Plays The Shadow (2007) Translations Edge, World Poetry in Persian The House of The Edrisis, a novel by Ghazaleh Alizadeh (translated from original Persian to English), Karma Books, New York
Her debut collection of poems, “This Dead Body is Not an Apple, It Is Either a Cucumber or a Pear”, was published in 1997 and announced a major new voice in Iranian poetry. The book opened Persian poetry to new creative possibilities. That same year her second collection of poems “Making a Face” was published and well-received by critics. This collection, with its stream-of-consciousness narrative poems, merged different types of discourses and registers – sometimes archaic, sometimes colloquial, written, formal, informal, journalistic, scientific. Jamali adapted a kind of music from classical Persian poetry and imbued it with the natural cadences of speech, juxtaposing long and short sentences, infusing the whole with her bitter and distinctive sense of humour. Her third collection “Making Coffee To Run a Crime Story” was partly inspired by Sadegh Hedayat’s Blind Owl. Her most recent books are “The Hourglass is Fast Asleep” and “Highways Blocked”, which have been mentioned for combining present-day setting with the myths and themes of Persian mystics. According to a Persian poetry critic, she has perceived new landscapes in a kind of imagery and as Britannica says she has experimented new styles of expression in Persian poetry.
Poetry
This Dead Body Is Not An Apple, It’s Either A Cucumber Or A Pear, (1997)
Making A Face, (1998)
Making Coffee To Run A Crime Story, (2002)
The Hourglass is Fast Asleep,(2011)
Highways Blocked, (2014)
Here Gravity is Less(2019)
Plays
The Shadow (2007)
Translations
Edge, World Poetry in Persian
The House of The Edrisis, a novel by Ghazaleh Alizadeh (translated from original Persian to English), Karma Books, New York
WE HAVE JUST RECEIVED SOME PIECES OF NEWS
HORRIBLE
NIGHTMARISH
FROM A SEISMOGRAPHY CENTRE
EARTHQUAKE IT WAS
QUAKE
TOOK PLACE!
THE ROUTE HAS BEEN DIVIDED
ON THE OIL FIELDS
AIR SATELLITES
OVER THIS MERIDIAN
THIS VERY TIME ZONE
FREE ZONE
HAS BEEN TRANSFERRED
REMOVED FROM THE MAP
OMITTED FROM THE HISTORY
BANISHED
UNKNOWN NETWORK
INVISIBLE LETTERS.
THEY WILL BROADCAST ONE DAY
SOME TRACES OF LIFE
HAS BEEN SEEN
HERE IN THIS REGION
YOUR PULSES BEAT
AS
OUR PULSES
BEAT!
CAN’T YOU ERASE OUR NAMES FROM THE OIL FIELDS?
DO NOT ADJUST YOUR CLOCK
WITH THIS PARTICULAR TIME ZONE!
MORSE CODES
TURNING AND TURNING
LIKE A PRISM THROUGH THE TIME
RETURNED THE TIME PAST
HAS BEEN TAKEN OUT
FROM THE SPINAL CORD
SHALL WE WALK BACK?
THESE BLIND BOUNDARIES
BERMUDA TRIANGLE
I WILL SEND YOU A LETTER IN CAPITAL LETTERS
FULL OF PASSWORDS
THIS EVENING AND THIS SUNSET
IT’S GONNA BE FORGOTTEN
PRETTY SOON.
A CUBIC EXILE!
MYSTIC CODES
HAVE DISTORTED THE LINES,…
And the Sun was in My Handbag
Rosa Jamali
Translated from Persian to English by Babak Mazloumi
And the Sun was in my handbag
And the world felt heavy on my bruised hands
Where our bodies merged ever since
And I had devoured the blind branches
As if your crimson gold had poured over me
And I was wildlife
And my voice was your silent arrow in the echo of my voice.
Shrieking like a Banshee…
It is me who has run in the branches
Has lived in you like a termite
And has joined wildlife.
Two Black Buttons
My eyes are used to the dark mood
For I have sewed two black buttons into my eye SOCKETS
And you are gonna touch me
In this Bleak House
All over the blackness…
The Flintstone
Block No.1:
A whole nation has created the kindling
Which owes you desperately
But it hasn’t been specified
Whether it’s the flint stone
Or A fire storm?
Block No.2:
A piece of my happiness is in debt with the flint stone
You’ve turned to the rocks
But it’s for the flint stone.
Block No.3:
I’m in debt with the flint stone
The whole world is in debt with the flint stone
Block No.4:
It has cast a spell
For all your desires
Behind the railing.
Block No.5:
I’m the mother of this flint stone
I’ve nourished it
I’ve shed tears on it
If the world is on fire
I’m the one to blame.
Block No.6:
I’ve betrayed the heaven above
God is disabled by it.
Block No.7:
And since then people have taken the vow of silence, …
‘Dating Noah’s Son’/ ‘Making coffee to Run a Crime Story’ / Translated from Original Persian to English by the Author: Rosa Jamali
