Mahvash Sabet

Here is a poem by Iranian poet Mahvash Sabet (born February 4, 1953), who rose to international prominence after a volume of poems she had written in prison was published in English under the title “Prison Poems”. Mahvash was recognized by PEN International as its 2017 International Writer of Courage.

In 2008, Sabet was arrested, interrogated and tortured for her faith – she is Baha’i, a religion the Islamic Republic of Iran considers heresy. She was arrested with six other members of an informal Baha’i council known as the Yaran, or Friends in Iran.

Her Baha’i beliefs in peace, altruism and humanity were, undoubtedly, instrumental to Sabet’s perseverance in prison. But she also relied on something else: poetry.“Writing,” she says, “became my means of survival.”

She scribbled her words on paper napkins and towels and shoved them into pockets and purses during precious “contact” visits with family. The words she managed to get out of prison described a place of bleakness but one that could not break the human spirit.

On November 21, 2022, in the midst of increasingly violent and repressive actions by the Iranian authorities against their own citizens, Mahvash Sabet and her colleague Fariba Kamalabadi, regarded as symbols of resilience in Iran after spending 10 years in prison, were once again sentenced to a second 10-year imprisonment.

The Prayer of the Tree

That hapless tree that sat through all the winter months out there
naked in the snow and ice, it’s shivering branches bare,
broken, wind-torn, bleak and dreary,
bent by the changing seasons, weary,
has finally had an answer to its prayer.
See how the kind Creator full of loving care
has decked it in new garments, fresh and rare!
Have you seen how green it is at last, how finally dressed, how fair?
-- Mahvash Sabet