Elegies of the Earth: Selected Poems by Ahmad Shamlou
Edited and Translated from Persian by Niloufar TalebiA sweeping centennial edition of Iran’s iconic twentieth-century poet of liberty, whose work shaped modern Persian poetry.
Known for his political engagement and deep humanism, and his pivotal role in Persian poetry’s modernist turn toward free verse, Ahmad Shamlou (1925–2000) crafted poems that carried both lyrical intimacy and cultural force. A central, defiant voice in Iran’s modern literary history, Shamlou championed the power of poetry as an instrument of liberation. His work, long suppressed in his homeland, remains urgent for readers everywhere confronting censorship, exile, and erasure. This bilingual edition honors Shamlou’s centennial with the most expansive selection of his poetry to date in English, encompassing his wide thematic range: from fierce protest to intimate love, mythic storytelling to existential reflection. Niloufar Talebi’s vibrant translations and deeply researched commentary shine new light on Shamlou’s legacy and his relevance today.
(World Poetry Books, Nov. 2025)
Praise:
"A poet of liberty and defiance, Ahmad Shamlou reimagined the role of language, giving voice to both personal longing and public resistance. His work stands as a testament to poetry’s power to confront tyranny, celebrate human dignity, and break free from formal bounds.” —Dunya Mikhail
“With her judicious selection and elegant translations, Talebi introduces Anglophone readers to the ‘towering vision’ of Iranian modernist Ahmad Shamlou, whose radical free verse reshaped twentieth-century Persian poetry. Like Giuseppe Ungaretti, Shamlou looked abroad to the French surrealists and symbolists, departed from the classical forms of his own tradition, and created new formal and tonal possibilities. Like Mahmoud Darwish, he invested language with an ethical urgency, saw poetry as an act of resistance, and became the conscience of a nation.” —Geoffey Brock
“After decades of work, Shamlou reached such an undeniable stature that neither praise nor criticism could alter his place in history. The greatest tribute I can offer this giant is not commentary, but simply to recite one of his poems.” —Abbas Kiarostami
“With the death of Ahmad Shamlu … Iran has not only lost its greatest contemporary poet but also its most potent symbol of intellectual conscience against tyranny and repression.” —The Guardian
Part memoir, part biography. “There are two books in this book, one portrait of me and one of Ahmad Shamlou. And they intersect," Talebi writes of Self-Portrait in Bloom.
A mix of lyrical prose and critical insights, Self-Portrait in Bloom chronicles Talebi’s encounter with Nobel Prize nominated Iranian poet Ahmad Shamlou’s genius and intertwines it with reflections on the politics of translation and power, a history of Iranian literature, and Talebi’s story of coming into her own as a woman, artist, and immigrant.
Self-Portrait in Bloom delves deep into culture, personal history, and pays homage to Tehran, the city of Talebi's childhood. Told in fragments of prose, poetry, and photographs, this lyrical exploration reimagines the memoir form and in a dramatic climax sets free the details of a hurt that can no longer limit the blossoming of an artist.
Watch Niloufar’s TEDx Talk on Shamlou
Praise:
"A hybrid wonder.”
— The Rumpus“Brilliant writers can have brilliant debuts. Elegiac and deep diving into the mind of a genius existentialist, Niloufar Talebi's memoir, Self-Portrait in Bloom, is reminiscent of Sebald. This original work feels true to continuous life and disjointed memory -- separate yet forced to be connected. This is a compelling book by a true writer.”
— Amy Tan, author of Where the Past Begins: A Writer's Memoir"Self-Portrait in Bloom recounts the stories of poets, revolutions, women, and censorship. A celebration of the recreative power of memory and language, from the girl standing in front of her blue bedroom window watching snow, to the many lessons of silence — Talebi's ‘animal with two faces.’ It is a book of longing, haunted by history."
— Ilya Kaminsky, author of Deaf Republic and Dancing in Odessa"A passionate defense of the crucial role translation plays in connecting the world, Self-Portrait in Bloom also tells the story of Niloufar Talebi's courage in overcoming profound obstacles to bring her expert translations of world-class Iranian poet, Ahmad Shamlou, to new readers. A brave and remarkable feat."
— Edith Grossman, author of Why Translation Matters"Niloufar Talebi offers a lyrical evocation of an Iranian childhood, of a girl growing into complicated maturity as an artist while bringing to life the great Iranian poet Ahmad Shamlou, whose art became intertwined with her own. For these achievements alone, her book would be well worth reading. But Talebi is after bigger game. Step by step, she lures us into a profound meditation on the power of poetry, the politics of language, and the art of translation--and then into the shocking spectacle of an artist stifled. This memoir is not just poignant, it's wrenching."
— Tamim Ansary, author of West of Kabul, East of New York, and Games Without Rules"A brutally honest memoir of a life built by words, destroyed by words, rebuilt by words."
— Firoozeh Dumas, New York Times Bestselling Author of Funny in Farsi and Laughing Without An Accent."Niloufar Talebi has written an original and intriguing memoir. Dispensing with linearity, shuttling between her Iranian childhood and her American coming of age, she moves nimbly up and back along the space-time axis. A loving and contemplative spirit compels these pages forward."
— Sven Birkerts, author of Changing the Subject: Art and Attention in the Internet Age“Niloufar Talebi’s Self-Portrait in Bloom is not only a personal portrait that presents her marvelous translations of the poetry of the great Iranian poet, Ahmad Shamlou, a friend of the Talebi family, but it contains her hymn to and of Tehran in a brilliant prose-poem that makes that city memorable.”
— Jack Hirschman, Emeritus Poet Laureate of San Francisco"Niloufar Talebi's superb translations of Shamlou's poetry convey a deep mastery and love of the immortal poet's texts, and are a major contribution in presenting Shamlou's literary greatness for Western readers. These translations are a work of love."
— Nahid Mozaffari, editor, Strange Times My Dear: The PEN Anthology of Contemporary Iranian Literature“In Self-Portrait in Bloom Talebi treats nonfiction as a manicured garden where memoir, essay, commentary, scholarship, translation, and so much more coexist. She treats autobiography as a door to deeper reflection, not just introducing Shamlou to Western audiences who will not have heard of him before, but also interrogating the politics of translation that reflect and shape power relations between Iran and the United States.”
— “Translation and Power,” Asterix Journal“Niloufar Talebi breaks cultural barriers, walls for women, and harnesses this ability to break expectations and limitations of genre...She is clearly an unstoppable force for creativity and art in American culture. Other attempts at a hybrid genre include fiction-based collections but nothing reflective of Talebi’s new genre, which combines nonfiction, translation, and creative writing— perhaps the first book of its kind. It is clear that Americans need more of Niloufar Talebi: her translation, her story, and her lyrics...”
— Hannah Terry, Self-Portrait in Bloom Review
“Where Shamlou and Talebi overlap is not just the personal, artistic drive for self-expression, but the unshakeable resolve of standing by one’s convictions regardless of the risk and repercussions.”
— Mizan Project, Songs of Resolve and Resilience
Recent political developments, including the shadow of a new war, have obscured the fact that Iran has a long and splendid artistic tradition ranging from the visual arts to literature. Western readers may have some awareness of the Iranian novel thanks to a few breakout successes like Reading Lolita in Tehran and My Uncle Napoleon, but the country's strong poetic tradition remains little known. This anthology remedies that situation with a rich selection of recent poetry by Iranians living all around the world, including Amir-Hossein Afrasiabi: “Although the path / tracks my footsteps, / I don’t travel it / for the path travels me.” Varying dramatically in style, tone, and theme, these expertly translated works include erotic divertissements by Ziba Karbassi, rigorously formal poetry by Yadollah Royaii, experimental poems by Naanaam, powerful polemics by Maryam Huleh, and the personal-epic work of Shahrouz Rashid. Eclectic and accessible, these vibrant poems deepen the often limited awareness of Iranian identity today by not only introducing readers to contemporary Iranian poetry, but also expanding the canon of significant writing in the Persian language. Belonging offers a glimpse at a complex culture through some of its finest literary talents. (North Atlantic Books, 2008)
Praise:
“Niloufar Talebi’s accomplishment in gathering the poetry of the Iranian diaspora is unprecedented and breathtaking. It is as if she has, by force of commitment and vision, and by way of cultural hunger, bequeathed a new literary heritage to Iran and the world. Here is a lyric symphony of utterance in the voices of exiles, immigrants, refugees, and expatriates. That Talebi assembled such an extraordinary collection is impressive enough—that she translated most of these poems herself is nothing short of remarkable.”
—Carolyn Forché, editor of Against Forgetting: Twentieth Century Poetry of Witness
“In Belonging, with literary skill and passion, Niloufar Talebi has made a major contribution to the recognition of contemporary Iranian literature in the West, to the appreciation of diaspora poetry by Persian speakers everywhere, and to the important project of producing good translations from rich but underrepresented literary canons for the anglophone reader.”
—Nahid Mozaffari, editor of the PEN Anthology of Contemporary Iranian Literature
“Poetry is a world art because of brilliant editors and translators like Niloufar Talebi ... Here are the poets, in all their power, defiance, dignity, wildness, and lyric grace, scattered across the earth, yet united in this book. Here is proof that poetry humanizes: now contemporary Persian culture has a face, and the Persian tongue a voice, for those of us in the English-speaking world, and we are all richer for it.”
—Martín Espada, Pulitzer Prize nominee and author of The Republic of Poetry
“After reading her introduction and the first few sections of Belonging, I realized that Talebi had accomplished perhaps the greatest service that a translator of Iranian poetry for American audiences can provide: she made the Iranian poetic landscape feel familiar. Not only familiar, but modern, full of laughter, rich with wonder, completely joyful and terrible and worthy of revisiting multiple times."
—Peter Conners, Three Percent
“Niloufar Talebi has accomplished the ultimate magic trick in her clean and modern translation. She has made the work of modern Persian poets read like original English ... an unparalled contribution.”
—Willis Barnstone, author of With Borges on an Ordinary Evening in Buenos Aires
“The poems speak of lost places and missing people; of the fear and freedom that come with new surroundings; of love, sex, and passion; of prison and protest; of the commonplace and the universal; and of subjects classical, political, and taboo… In form and imagery these poems often allude to works of Persian classical literature, but they are also the heirs of Rimbaud, Lorca, Dante, Shakespeare, and the literatures of adopted countries… Talebi’s translation process included thorough review and collaboration with the poets themselves… While one can always find phrases with which to quibble, the translations are of consistently high quality… not only do the poems work in English, but they adhere closely to the originals in tone, content, and format.”
—Harvard Review Online Journal
“If you will trust me though, and don't want to read my justification, you can know that this is simply one of those books you need to have on your shelves, one you can look for and find at a party, and hand to one of your closer American friends and smilingly say, ‘Here Bradley, this will explain everything!’”
—Iranian.com
"This collection is impressive by making a good sample of contemporary Iranian poets in the diaspora so beautifully accessible to English readers and by presenting them so deservingly as a part of world literature today."
—World Literature Today Magazine