In the meeting, Ayatollah Khamenei expressed pleasure with the growing and
progressive trend of the country’s poetry and described poetry as a "national
asset”, adding, "Since the outset of the [1979] Revolution, there have been
efforts to steer poetry in the direction of objectives other than those of the
Revolution and those efforts still continue to be made.”
The Leader of the Islamic Revolution described the predominant poetic movement
in the era prior to the Islamic Revolution as serving concepts other than
"national awareness and awakening,” saying, "In the literary environment of
those days, most of the people professing modernism and modernity, offered no
contribution to the country’s progress and true and proper revitalization.”
He described the victory of the Islamic Revolution as the beginning of a new
poetic era and the initiation of motivated youth and poets into the composition
of "insight-boosting poetry at the service of the country’s goals,” adding, "The
expanse of these poets increased day by day and fortunately, today, the
dominance lies with poetry compatible with religious and revolutionary
objectives as well as growing and progressing poems.”
Ayatollah Khamenei described "inertia and the assumption of having reached the
final station” as a deadly poison for poets and reiterated, "The tree of the
country’s poetry enjoys much greater potential and capacity for prosperity and
growth and greater effort and attention must be paid to ‘identifying of the
themes, improving the terminology and conveying the contemporary concepts’.”
Pointing to the weakness present in reporting the country’s events and the state
of national figures, the Leader of the Islamic Revolution described Iranians as
suffering from indolence and laxity in this regard, saying, "Our honourable Imam
(later founder of the Islamic Republic Imam Khomeini) is a top-notch individual
whose greatness is acknowledged by friend and foe, but how many books have been
written about this supreme figure?”
He described Syria’s developments and the Defenders of the Shrine [active in
Syria and Iraq] and the important issues of Iraq as worth composing hundreds and
thousands of poems, adding, "Most of the people are uninformed about the
objective that the Americans entertained in Iraq and how they went down there.
And the issue that how ‘the Saddam-era Iraq’ turned into ‘one belonging to
Martyr Hakim’, is very important and in need of clarification.”
Ayatollah Khamenei urged poets to "create collections” from topics and to
compose poetry in the field of "satire” on some of the bizarre issues of today’s
world and added, "The Holy Prophet (PBUH) ordered one of the poets in his
disciples to satirize polytheists and today cases such as the sword dance of
‘modern Jahiliyyah (ignorance)’ alongside ‘tribal Jahiliyyah’ or the inclusion
of a government such as that of Saudi Arabia in the United Nations Human Rights
Council are issues that seriously deserve to be satirized.”
In the meeting, 30 poets recited their poems in the presence of the Leader of
the Islamic Revolution.
They also held the Maghrib and Isha prayers led by the Leader of the Islamic
Revolution and broke their fast alongside him.