Sin
Selected Poems of Forugh Farrokhzad
Translated by Sholeh Wolpé
Foreword by Alicia Ostriker

New translations of poems by Iran’s rebel woman poet

“The shock of Farrokhzad’s poetry is the shock of purity, of ice water, of a corpse rotting in broad daylight. The purity is that of her relentless
intensity. . . . [Wolpé’s] translations are hypnotic in their beauty and force. This book will be treasured by readers who crave not a clash of cultures but a connection.”
—Alica Ostriker, From the Foreword

“Translated with deep admiration by Sholeh Wolpé, a poet fluent in both Persian and English, these lucid translations capture the absolute ferocity and passion that have made Forugh Farrokhzad so beloved and so infamous.”
—American Poet

“Poetic modernism came to Iran as late as the 1960s, when Farrokhzad (1935–1967) streaked across the literary horizon. . . . Of course, she became a scandal, one that endures to this day. . . . [T]he poems’ long lines and musical repetitions sweep the reader away as effectively as any American projective verse.”
—Booklist

“Potent . . . like certain works by Charles Wright or Seamus Heaney [these poems] are meticulously built to be precise and elusive at once. They reach outside of the poet’s own experience, beyond her headspace, her gender, her country of origin. Both pensive and urgent, they strive for the universe.”
—Lebanon Daily Star

“Farrokhzad is compared to Akhmatova and Plath. She’s their peer, and this is a magnificent book of beautifully wrought, distinctly modern poems.”
—Robert Covelli, The New Mexican Magazine

Sin includes the entirety of Farrokhzad’s last book, numerous selections from her fourth and most enduring book, Reborn, and selections from her earlier work, and creates a collection that is true to the meaning, the intention, and the music of the original poems.

Sholeh Wolpé is the author of The Scar Saloon and Rooftops of Tehran. Her poems, translations, essays, and reviews have appeared in many
publications.

Alicia Ostriker is the author of eleven volumes of poetry, a two-time
National Book Award finalist, and a winner of the William Carlos
Williams Award of the Poetry Society of America.

September
5 1⁄2 x 8 1⁄2, 166 pages
$16.95 paper
ISBN 978-1-55728-948-3