Alexei A. Kuznetsov

This article is aimed at studying the childhood component in the works of Nima Yushij and his younger coeval Golchin Gilani (1910–1972). Both authors stayed at the origins of Iran’s “new poetry” (“še‘r-e now”), which demonstrated a break with the rules of normative poetics. This study addresses two interrelated aspects of the analysis. First, the matter is focused on the strategy of displaying memories of childhood, which form a frame of axes in the author's artistic world. Secondly, the artistic solutions of Nima Yooshij, embodied in his poems for children at the meaning and formal organization aspects, contributed to the formation of “new poetry” tools, since these poems could serve as a kind of creative laboratory for the poet. The article touches upon the little-studied area of scientific consideration of the "new poetry" in Iran, especially: the origins of the childhood theme in traditional Persian-language poetry; the role and functions of the childhood theme in the construction of the author's individual artistic world in the "new poetry"; figurative image fabric of children's feelings by the material of the early “new poetry” works in Persian. The childhood theme in the lyrics of the two authors is tightly connected with the theme of love for a homeland. The idyllic description of the homeland’s beautiful nature serves as a "portal" to the ideal world, and the author's landscape, imbued with the personal vision of the lyrical hero, is one of the methods for individualizing the artistic world in the "new poetry" poems.