Simin Daneshvar

Simin Dāneshvar ["Simin" (سیمین) is the Persian word for "Silvery", "Lustrous" or "Fair", and "Dāneshvar" (دانشور), a combination of "Dānesh" (دانش), Knowledge, Science, and "var" (ور), a suffix indicative of one's profession or vocation, for "Learned", "Scientist".] (Persian: سیمین دانشور) (born on April 28, 1921 in Shiraz, Iran) is an Iranian academic, renowned novelist, fiction writer and translator of literary works from English, German, Italian and Russian into Persian. Daneshvar has a number of "firsts" to her credit. In 1948, her collection of Persian short stories was the first by an Iranian woman to be published. The first novel by an Iranian woman was her Savushun ("Mourners of Siyāvosh," 1969), which has become Iran's bestselling novel ever. Daneshvar's Playhouse, a collection of five stories and two autobiographical pieces, is the first volume of translated stories by an Iranian woman author. [ [http://www.mage.com/fiction/dph.html Daneshvar's Playhouse: A Collection of Stories - Fiction Books Translated from Persian From Iran ] ]

Education

Simin Daneshvar grew up in Shiraz where she received her early education. In 1942 she moved to Tehran where she studied Persian literature at Tehran University. Her Ph.D. dissertation, "Beauty as Treated in Persian Literature," was approved in 1949 under the supervision of Professor Badiozzaman Forouzanfar. In 1950, Daneshvar married the well-known Iranian short story writer and novelist Jalal Al-e Ahmad. In 1952, she traveled to the United States as a Fulbright Fellow working on creative writing at Stanford University. When she returned to Iran, she joined the faculty at University of Tehran. In 1979, Daneshvar retired from her post at the University.

Works

As an author and translator, Daneshvar writes sensitively about the Iranian woman and her life. Daneshvar's most successful work "Savushun", [In the introduction to the English translation of "Savushun" (سووشون) one reads [1] :

"Savushun", the title of the novel, is a folk tradition, surviving in Southern Iran from an undatable pre-Islamic past, that conjures hope in spite of everything."

[1] "Savushun": A novel about modern Iran (Mage Publishers, Washington, D.C., 1991). ISBN 0934211310

] [The word "Savushun" (سووشون) is said to have its root in the word "Sug-e Siyāvoshān" (سوگ سياوشان), where "Sug" (سوگ) means Lamentation and "Siyāvoshān", Pertaining to Siyāvosh. Siyāvosh, or Siyāvash, is a male charater from Ferdowsi's Shahnameh who symbolises selflessness and innocence. Thus "Sug-e Siyāvoshān" is a lamentation in remembrance of the unjust killing of Siyāvosh. The writer of these lines has found a reference in Persian that presents a quotation from Xenophon's Cyropaedia indicating that "Sug-e Siyāvoshān" has its origin in a lamentation song that Cyrus the Great has sung for his slain Hyrcanian soldiers. This writer has however not been able to trace this quotation in the English translation of Xenophon's Cyropaedia. The last-mentioned Persian quotation is as follows:
"کورش از کشته شدن سربازان طبري و طالشي مغموم شد و براي مرگ سربازان مازندراني و طالشي سرودي خواند و اين همان سرودي است که در ادوار بعد در مراسم موسوم به 'مرگ سياوش' خوانده مي شد."
In the first part of the above sentence, reference is made to slain "Tabari" (i.e. Hyrcanian) and "Talyshi" soldiers, and in the second part, to slain Mazandarani and Talyshi soldiers. Further, this text explicitly refers to "Death of Siyāvosh" (مرگ سياوش). For completeness, "Tabarestān" is the earlier name of the present-day Māzandrān Province, although some Eastern regions of the old Tabarestān are at present parts of the present-day Khorasan Province.] a novel about settled and tribal life in and around her home-town of Shiraz, was published in 1969. A best-seller of all Persian novels, it has undergone at least fifteen reprints. She has also contributed to the periodicals "Sokhan" and "Alef-ba", and has translated some of the works of George Bernard Shaw, Anton Chekhov, Alberto Moravia, Nathaniel Hawthorne, William Saroyan, and Arthur Schnitzler into Persian. "A City Like Paradise" ("Shahri chon Behesht") is the lead story of a collection she published in 1962. In 1981, she completed a monograph on Jalal Al-e Ahmad, "Ghoroub-e Jalal" (The Sunset of Jalal's Days).

Daneshvar's stories reflect reality rather than fantasy. They contain themes such as child theft, adultery, marriage, childbirth, sickness, death, treason, profiteering, illiteracy, ignorance, poverty and loneliness. The issues she deals with are the social problems of the 1960s and 1970s, which have immediacy and credibility for the reader. Her inspiration is drawn from the people around her. In her own words: "Simple people have much to offer. They must be able to give freely and with peace of mind. We, too, in return, must give to them to the best of our abilities. We must, with all our heart, try to help them acquire what they truly deserve."

Notes

Translations

*In India, "Savushun" is translated into Malayalam by S.A.Qudsi.

*Translation into German: "Drama der Trauer - Savushun". Glaré Verlag, Frankfurt/Main 1997.

External links

* [http://www.iranchamber.com/literature/sdaneshvar/simin_daneshvar.php Simin Daneshvar on Iran Chamber Society (www.iranchamber.com)]

See also

* Iranian women
* List of famous Persian women