“The Sin” Poem by Forough Farrokhzad Essay

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The Sin is Forough Farrokhzad’s poem; she is an Iranian writer living in the first part of the 20th century, before the Islamic revolution in Iran. Her poems are full of love, passion, and other intense feelings, along with femininity: her lyrical heroes usually are emotional women who do not fear expressing them openly. She probably considers emotions as the key to mystical experiences and exalted states of consciousness, and her poems, including The Sin, encourage emotionality and freedom of expression.

The poem is full of feelings: they are expressed in strong words, and their strength is shown as they are associated with sin. Probably it is the Muslim influence, where strong feelings are often condemned as displeasing to God and even blasphemous. According to Islam, one should love only God, and all strong feelings should be addressed to Him. While Farrokhzad did not challenge Islam openly, she did not fear expressing her emotions and encouraged others to do this. In The Sin, she presents a lyrical heroine with exalted feelings: love, passion, and mystical experiences are the three primary emotions present there. One may feel the protest against restrictions on self-expression in all lines of the poem.

Love is the poem’s central theme: there, the main lyrical heroine, a woman, falls in love with some unnamed man, and her feelings are expressed in a very open and naked form. She “whispered in his ear the tale of love,” saying that he is her life and the biggest desire for all her personality and entity. Love is the primary emotion in the poem, and all others are its derivatives, such as passion and mystical sensations. It is present in all lines of the poem, where the heroine expresses and describes her passionate feelings, mystical experiences, and exhausted state at the end of the poem.

Passion is another theme that is separate from love, despite being connected with it. Love is a high soulful feeling, while passion is mundane and associated with sexuality. While no sexual relations are mentioned explicitly in The Sin, there are many direct and indirect references to them. The name of the poem itself redirects to the sexual act, which is labeled as a sin in the Islamic tradition. The poem starts with the words, “I’ve sinned a sin full of pleasure,” meaning that her actions are considered immoral, but nevertheless, she did what she wanted. She admits that she “sat disheveled at his side” and “his lips poured passion on my lips,” expressing the fierce passion between her and her lover. At the end of the poem, the heroine writes that she “sinned a sin full of pleasure, next to a shaking, stupefied form,” admitting that those feelings exhausted her. However, she has no regrets about that, as she has satisfied her desires and is happy about this.

Mystical experiences are another essential part of the poem: along with the love and passion, the lyric heroine says that she feels something unusual that lifts her above the ordinary world. Her love for the unnamed man in the lyric led to the state when she “escaped from the sorrow of her crazed heart,” meaning that she left behind the typical feelings. This line may be considered the poem’s climax: the state when she and her lover unite in the act of love, both feeling as one entity. Her love is so crazy that she transcends her typical state of consciousness and reaches a state of unification with the world and the universe. She expresses it by calling her lover the “life of mine” and “life-giving embrace,” showing her mystical experiences caused by love and passion.

Overall, the poem is characterized by high tension, and all emotions mentioned above are highly exaggerated. The love is strong and extraordinary, letting to the powerful feeling of the main heroine. She wants her unnamed lover in all senses: from a simple physical desire to a connection on the highest soul levels. The Sin proclaims the power of love, emotions, and feelings and encourages everyone not to fear expressing them. As Farrokhzad lived in the Islamic culture, she probably underwent many such restrictions, and in her poems, she protested against them. After the Islamic Revolution, her poems were banned for a long time in Iran, as they drastically violated Islamic morals, especially considering that women are mostly limited in rights in the Islamic Sharia. The poem may be viewed as the anthem to the freedom of emotions and expression, the riot against all restrictions.

Thus, The Sin is full of love, passion, and mysticism; strong and vivid feelings are present almost in all its lines, and the overall atmosphere is mystical and reverent. The lyrical heroine expresses her sentiments of love to her unnamed lover, revealing that he is the most important being to her. She says that her feelings are overwhelming, from the shivering in all parts of her body to the sense of flying out of the world, escaping all mundane sorrows. The heroine considers her actions sinful, which is why she named the poem The Sin. Probably, it means the protest against strict Islamic Sharia laws that forbid the open expression of feelings, especially for women. She feels no regrets for those actions and finds them pleasant. However, at the end of the poem, she admits that she is spent and exhausted by those overwhelming sensations. To conclude, The Sin shows images of fierce passion, praises love, and proclaims the freedom of emotions.

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