The Imaginary Garden

Program Notes:

The Imaginary Garden is a piece of hope, steadfastness, and determination during trials and tribulations. A victim of the Islamic Revolution, the poet, Mahvash Sabet, a Bahá’í, describes the power of her words despite the bars holding her back.

Composer / Arranger Notes:

The Imaginary Garden is a piece about hope, steadfastness, and determination during trials and tribulations. Mahvash Sabet, the author of the poem, was one of the seven Bahá’í leaders in Iran who were sentenced to 20 years of imprisonment as prisoners of faith in 2008. Mrs Sabet was a school principal and was stripped of her role during the Islamic Revolution because of her adherence to the Bahá’í Faith. However, this did not stop her from covertly teaching all the children and youth around her from persecuted communities, Bahá’í or not, who were deprived of the basic human right to education.

Despite her hardships in prison, Mrs Sabet still held firmly to her love of God and her utmost conviction that it was her duty to teach. In this poem, she evokes others who came before her and, like herself, found ways to continue their tasks through unconventional means that circumvented the bars keeping them captive. The imagery of the wind picking up her materials to reach those she would teach drives this piece.

The poem comes from a collection of short texts, scribbled on small pieces of paper and napkins, that Mrs Sabet’s family and friends smuggled out of prison after visiting hours. The poems were shared with friends outside of Iran, who then translated them into English. The collection as a whole was published under the name “Prison Poems” by George Ronald Publisher in Oxford, while Mrs Sabet was still in prison.

 

Text Source

Mahvash Sabet