The
Windup Doll - VIEW
THE POEM
More
than this, ah yes,
one can remain silent more than this.
For
hours and hours
with the vacant stare of a corpse,
one can gaze at cigarette smoke,
at the shape of a tea cup
at a faded flower in a carpet,
at an imaginary line on the wall.
In many poems
from the late 1950s onward, Farrokhzad's poetic personae no longer
seem to represent merely her autobiographical self in the expression
of feelings and views, but rather all Iranians with similar feelings.
In other words, her feminine personae are transformed in these
poems into a spokesperson, female to be sure, but voicing an anti-patriarchal
clarion call that knows no gender.
This role of the speaker as spokesperson is explicit and obvious
in "The Windup Doll" which vividly outlines the middle class,
Iranian woman's potentially lifeless status as wife.
Of course, the poet is neither there saying that all Iranian
women are in such a situation nor revealing explicitly how it s that
Iranian women should live. She
does not seem here to be accusing men of forcing women into roles
as windup dolls. Nevertheless, she presumes to speak for more than
herself.
A Lonely Woman
Michael Hillmann page 99
Reprinted from
Lonely Woman: Forugh Farrokhzad and Her Poetry, by Michael C. Hillmann.
Copyright © 1987 by Michael C. Hillmann. Reprinted with permission of
Lynne Rienner Publishers, Inc.
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