By Syma Sayyah, Tehran
Sadegh Hedayat is in my opinion the
most important modern Iranian writer, an author who is read by both old and
young, and by past, present and future generations.
Hedayat
Award
It was an absolute delight,
therefore, to be invited to the Fifth Annual Sadegh Hedayat Award at the
Khaneh Honarmandan (Artists Forum) which has been organized by the
relentless and continuous efforts of Mr. Jahangir Hedayat, the nephew of Sadegh
Hedayat, who as the head of the Hedayat Office in Tehran has made an enormous
contribution to promoting Sadegh Hedayat’s work, both inside and outside
Iran. He has personally helped many
scholars around the world, in person or via correspondence, with his great
knowledge and library of Sadegh Hedayat’s literary works.
Mr.
Jahangir Hedayat
We should all be grateful to Mr.
Jahangir Hedayat since it was through his immense and tireless efforts five
years ago, to mark the centenary of Hedayat’s birth, he helped to publish a
collection of paintings, portraits and photos from the family collection for the
public at large, as well as setting up this award. Mr. Jahangir Hedayat is a good citizen
who does great good for all and may people and historians remember this tireless
kind gentleman.
Each year the Sadegh
Hedayat Literary Award is organized by the Hedayat Office and Sokhan internet website.
The competition for the award is now
very well known and very well respected.
The aim of this award is to encourage young writers to write and to have
the chance to take part in a respected literary contest.
The competition is for all Persian-speaking people. So writers of Persian
from other countries such as Tajikistan and Afghanistan can
take part in the competition as well.
A writer can submit one unpublished short story which should be not less
than 1,000 or more than 4,000 words. The story must not have been published in
any book, journal or internet site or have been submitted for another
award.
The award ceremony
this year was held on 22nd February, as usual around the week of
Sadegh Hedayat’s birthday (28th Bahman - 17th Feb). This year the judges were the well
known literary figures, Mr. Media Kashigar, Mr Kaveh Mirabassi and Mr Hossein
Ghadimi who was also the chair. The
award this year attracted 650 entries.
Mr.
Masoud Hedayat
Mrs Shideh
Hedayat (wife of Jahangir Hedayat) and son Sadegh
Hedayat
The master of ceremonies was the
well known TV presenter Mrs Ehteram Borouman who welcomed all with a few lines
of Hedayat’s works. Among the
audience were Mrs Simin Behbahani, Mr and Mrs Jahangir Hedayat and their son
Sadegh, other Hedayat family members and
the head of the Hedayat family Mr Masoud Hedayat, Mr and Mrs Cheltan, Mrs
Nahid Tavasoli and many other well
known names in literature and lovers of it and some of those who had part taken
in the competition.
Simin Behbahani
The first speaker was Dr Kashef who
spoke on the subject of the Blind Owl and Modernism. I found his speech most enlightening and
there were many interesting points. Dr Kashef stated that Hedayat reached the
end of the line twice in his literary life. The first time, in his work the Blind Owl
(1937), no doubt his masterpiece, in which the narrator has a deep need to speak
out and express himself, Hedayat
reaches an end of a personal ordeal
and through this work he manages to unload what had been built up within him for
many years. But in his work Haj
Agha (1945), another masterpiece, he observes the fast changes that the world is
going through, and the steps between the old and the new world that must be
taken and the pain of the struggle that change brings. In his Haj Agha, the fight between the
tradition and modernity, he manages to depict a new renaissance by the struggle
he creates between the inner demon and modernity which is free thinking. Here the beast within suppresses the
need to think and analyze and the narrator wants to know why and how. Here he reaches another finale where the
walls of all old beliefs are broken for a generation with no return. It is this point where Iranian modern
literature is divided into pre-Hedayat and post-Hedayat
eras.
The next speaker was Mr Khosrow
Sinai who in 2005 made the well known film about Sadegh Hedayat’s life, called
“Conversation with the Shadow”, based on the research done by Habib Ahmadzadeh,
which was recently shown at the Artists Forum followed by a discussion panel.
Mr Sinai told the audience about
many positive and negative comments he had received. Mr Sinai told us how Hedayat was
influenced by the films that he had seen in Paris, which was a point made in his film.
I saw the film last year and liked
it but did not agree with the ending. Mr. Sinai went on to say that he also
believes that Sadegh was also influenced by the music he must have heard during
his trip and then he delighted the audience with his accordion and played a few
of the old melodies that Hedayat must have enjoyed during his trips to
Paris.
Mr. Sinaie playing
acardion
Then we enjoyed the evocative and,
powerful and unforgettable voice of Mr Keykavous Yekideh who read Tarikkhaneh (“The darkroom”), one of the
most excellent of Hedayat’s short stories. Mr Yekideh’s voice is well known to many
in cinema and radio and now he has written a book of poetry, to add to his many
other talents. After that Mr
Mehrdad Pazouli came on stage and played piano while singing a song which he had
composed based on the poem Jadeh Namnak (damp road) by Mehdi Akhavan
Saless especially for the ceremony.
Simin Behbahani and Nahid tavassoli, writer and
pubisher
of Nafeh (a literary
magazine)
Mr Hossein Ghadimi, the chairman of
the judges read the judges statement and gave the following information. This year 650 stories were received,
which 103 of them were qualified and accepted and sent to the judges. Only 27 entries reached the second stage,
the majority of which were men and then 10 reached the final. 65% of the participants were male, and,
this year, in general many of the stories had an erotic theme; overall 85% of
the stories were about unfulfillment, misery, depression, unhappiness, gloom and
death, 10% were about social issues and only about 5% were to do with joy and
happiness.
Mr. Jahngir
Hedayat and MC Mrs Boroumand
Mr. and Mrs.
Cheltan
Mr Jahangir Hedayat, the head of
Hedayat Office in Tehran was the final speaker, and gave a brief
and astute report of the office’s activities throughout the year. He said that this is the fifth year that
they are celebrating Hedayat’s heritage with all other Persian speaking people
and nations around the world. The
Hedayat Office in Tehran encourages attempts to get as many of
Sadegh Hedayat’s books published in new forms. The Darkroom has been published in one
volume but in five languages, and other works have been reprinted and
republished in Iran and abroad. They do all that they can to assist
scholars with their work. He
informed the audience that about 40 of the best short stories entered for the
competition are collected and published in one book each year under the title
Yad-e Hedayat (in memory of Hedayat) and they have now published the
books for 2003 and 2004 but the book for 2005 has not yet been given publishing
permission.
Simin Behbahani and her son
Ali
One of the major works that the
Tehran office has done was to collect together all the events and works that
were done for Hedayat’s centenary in 2002 from across the globe and it has been
published by Donyay-e Daneh, even though some 40 pages had to be censored, still
it is a book full of interesting information and scholarly works on Hedayat and
his works. The office in the past
five years has received more than 3000 short stories by young writers from
Iran, Tajikistan, Afghanistan and Iranians residing outside
Iran. He said that what matters is not to win
but to take part in such an event.
He said that once a writer finishes a story it becomes his baby and he
wants to show it to others and hear their comments. This was why they decided to set up this
award.
Mr Hedayat went on to thank all
those who helped this event to take place, including the Artists Forum itself,
Mrs Borouman, Dr Kashef, Mr Khosrow Sinai, Mr Keykavous Yakideh, and the Sokhan
website.
Then Mr Hedayat read the list of ten
finalists and the names of their stories and finally the winners received their awards from Iran’s
distinguished man of letters, the writer and scholar Mr Amir-Hassan
Cheltan.
The runners-up
were:
Ms Marzieh Jokarr
- Vasvaseh Ham-e
Jangalha (Temptation of all the
forests)
Araz Barseghuiyan -
Gharibeh
(Stranger)
They each received a
Loheh Taghdir (certificate of merit) and a parcel of books.
Nasrin
Madani
This year the
Sadegh Hedayat award went to Miss Nasrin Madani for her story Mordeh
Shour [The Corpse Washer] - she was presented with a bust of
Hedayat and a number of books.
See http://www.sadeghhedayat.com/ for further
information
