Live recording and podcast now online: Those Days - Forugh Farrochsad

One of the last events that the Friends of the Museum for Islamic Art was able to offer live was the evening "Those Days" with Persian poetry and music on 15 December 2021. "Those Days" is the title of a poem by Forough Farrochsad, probably the best-known and most popular Iranian poet of modern times.

Her poems were a scandal in Iran at the time - and some of them still are today. In them, a woman openly expresses her feelings, writes quite bluntly about her female sexuality, dares to address her feelings for a married man and also critically examines her own position in society. As a result, collections of her poems usually lack the overly erotic texts.

Kurt Scharf introduced the 3000-year-old history of poetry and the emergence of modern poetry, acknowledged Forough Farrochsad's contribution to it and read selected poems of hers in German. He is the translator of Farrochsad's poems, was a long-time employee of the Goethe-Institut, including as deputy director from 1973 to 1979 in Tehran, and a founding member of the "Haus der Kulturen der Welt" as head of the "Literature, Society, Science" department.

Then the Cymin Samawatie Trio - the singer and composer Cymin Samawatie and her fellow musicians Roshanak Rafani (percussion) and Ralf Schwarz (double bass) - presented some of her poems in modern settings, in improvised alternation with Kurt Scharf, who in turn rendered parts of these poems in German. 
The audience at the well-attended event was enthusiastic and thanked the artists with prolonged applause.

Unfortunately, the announced live streaming was cancelled for technical reasons. We would like to formally apologise to all those who sat in vain in front of their computers to experience the evening live.
However, we can now provide you with a complete live recording of the event and recommend our podcast with Cymin Samawatie, Roshanak Rafani, Ralf Schwarz and Kurt Scharf.
 
In addition to the artists, we would also like to thank the Federal Foreign Office, which financed the event.