The following is the full text of the speech delivered on July 23, 2013 by Ayatollah Khamenei, the Leader of the Islamic Revolution, in a meeting with a number of poets. The meeting was held on the eve of Imam Hassan Mojtaba's (a.s.) birthday anniversary.
In the Name of Allah, the Beneficent, the Merciful
First of all, I enjoyed the poems that the friends recited in this meeting. Some of the poems were very good and some were good. Speaking from memory, it seems to me that this year, the poems were at a higher level compared to last year. This shows that thankfully, the poetry movement of the country is a continuous movement. This movement is moving forward and this is very valuable.
Poetry is one of the outstanding arts and the artist - whether those artists who are involved in poetry or those who are involved in other arts - is one of the outstanding personalities who has a heavier responsibility in significant areas. This is natural. Wherever they are, the responsibility of outstanding personalities - whether political, scientific or cultural personalities - is heavier than ordinary people. Artists are among outstanding personalities and therefore they have certain responsibilities. In my opinion these responsibilities should be taken seriously and poetry - which is a very honorable and significant art and which never becomes old-fashioned - should be entrusted with such responsibilities.
Of course, the human feelings of the poet should be taken into consideration as well as the sense of melancholy and the ideas and philosophy of the poet. Each of these three parts occupies part of the poem. There is no room for making complaints in this regard. If poetic and romantic feelings and if the feelings which are related to the personal issues of the poet are not reflected in poems, then poetry has not completely fulfilled its responsibility. Therefore, part of poems should be allocated to the feelings of the poet. Well, sometimes this is done to excess and the entire poem is allocated to these feelings.
Part of all poems is related to the melancholy of poets. We can see this in poetry. Many poets in different eras have had a sense of melancholy. This is not particular to a specific era. As far as I know and according to the things which I have managed to observe and understand about poets, all eras are the same in this regard. Poets desire something which is beyond their lives. Apart from their desire for spirituality and other such things, they make certain complaints about material conditions, about problems and about pains and agonies. They are sad because of such problems. All poets suffer from such melancholy.
In his autobiography, one of the poets in late Mongol era complains that the poetry market is unfortunately dull and that poets do not receive enough attention. He says that there was a completely different situation in the past. This happened during a time when poets were respected and when they were given money. They were given gold or silver as much as their body weight. This sense of melancholy has always existed. So, these kinds of melancholy have a place in poetry and there should be no complaint in this regard. I never criticize a poet for expressing his melancholy in his poems. After all, poets have a sensitive and fragile spirit. They may become upset and annoyed about something. Therefore, there is really no room for complaint in this regard. Many of my close friends, who are poets, have suffered from such kinds of melancholy and I have been a good and patient listener to their poems on melancholy. Therefore, we recognize these two parts of poetry, whether the part which is related to the feelings of poets or the part which is about their melancholy.
But there is another part which is the ideas and the philosophy of poets. This issue should not be ignored. You should take a look at Saadi. After all, such poets stand at the peak of our poetry. Saadi has many - as you say - romantic and emotional poems. He has also many poems on melancholy, both in "Bustan", in his ghazals and other poems. But you should also look at his philosophy, which pervades all his poems. Saadi can be known as a sage. This is what makes someone like Saadi, Hafiz and Saeb reach peaks. Understanding and expressing wise ideas, and teaching fundamental issues through poetry - religious teachings, human principles and the issue of lifestyle are the most important issues in this regard - are among the responsibilities of poets. My advice is that the friends in this meeting do not forget about this important and fundamental part of poetry. Of course, this was fortunately seen, to a great extent, in tonight's poems.
Poets have a responsibility towards issues related to society and the present conditions as well. Today, a great historical movement has emerged inside our society, which has inspired great human movements. This is a fact. The confrontation of the Islamic Revolution against global arrogance, the resistance of our people - who have suffered from the oppression of others for two centuries or more - against bullying and raising the flag of freedom and liberation in this country are very important things. This should be reflected in the poems of our poets.
Also, what happened in the wake of this freedom should be expressed in their poems. I have said many times in such meetings and other meetings that the issue of our eight-year military jihad was not a minor issue. It was an important issue and in my opinion, this should receive special attention in poetry. Besides, the issues of building Islamic society, strengthening national unity and improving lifestyle - as I said, this issue is the main essence of Islamic civilization and the other issues that we discuss are all different forms of it - are each a kind of jihad. The issue of presence in these arenas of jihad should receive attention in poetry. Moreover, issues related to history and the present conditions should be reflected in poetry as well. Today, Islamic Awakening is a very important issue. The issue of Palestine is also a very important issue. These things should be part of our poetry. We should discuss such issues in our poems. Anyway, these are things which are very significant.
I have another piece of advice which I have written down. In my opinion, paying attention to children's poetry - which should incorporate concepts related to Islamic teachings and political wisdom - is one of the necessary things that should be done and today, there is room for improvement in this regard. The issue of children's poetry and books for children and teenagers is one of the important areas which is discussed at length today. The poets who have enough capabilities and who are articulate should incorporate valuable and moral concepts - that is to say, concepts related to Islamic and Iranian teachings - in their poems. The talents of the youth should be developed. We have many talented youth and they can accept the truth and reflect it in their poems more easily than other people.
I thank God because today, the language that our poets use is very articulate, through which valuable truths are expressed. If we want to compare today with, say, ten years ago - each year such meetings are held at such nights - then we see that this forward movement has exerted great influence so much so that tonight is not comparable to the other nights during which we had a meeting with you. To be fair, our revolutionary poems, the poems of youth, the poems of our dear responsible poets, the poems of our previous poets and the poems of those people who are present in the arena of building youth and who play their part in this arena have made good progress. As I said, our good friends in the area of poetry are always trying to improve, both in the area of poetry and in the area of literary criticism. I sometimes read the articles of a number of friends in the area of literary criticism. One really enjoys reading such articles. They are meaningful and good. By Allah's favor, you should continue doing this. I hope that Allah the Exalted will bestow His blessings on other things that you do as well. By Allah's favor, you will be able to add more achievements to the spiritual resources of Persian poetry.
Greetings be upon you and Allah's mercy and blessings