Voice Post

In My Persian Corner by Pontia, several of her blog posts can be identified with voice while other posts require delving deeper to understand what she is trying to convey to the reader. In the first blog post titled “The Iranian Death Wish,” the blog captures a glimpse of Pontia’s style of voice. The blog relates a Persian show called “Shahgoosh” to the everyday Persian phrases that Pontia uses. Phrases such as “marg!, death!, boro bemir!, go die!, che margeshe?, what's his death?” all capture a similar theme which is death. The last phrase she states, “then the mother phrase of them all came to me: marg bar [Amrika]!, death to [America]! It seems we Iranians have a death wish worse than Charles Bronson”. In her last sentence she makes a similarity with Iranian death wish phrase to Charles Bronson’s Death Wish movie. It’s fascinating that she makes such a comparison to an American actor, whose movie is titled Death Wish. Her voice suggests that she is familiar with American pop culture and that she is not one of those FOBs (fresh of the boat). 

 In another Persian phrase, she states that “ the other day I was feeling frustrated and muttered under my breath, khabare margeshun!, the news of their death!, and chuckled upon realizing what I had said”. In this previous statement, we once again experience Pontia’s voice. “Feeling frustrated and muttered,” she says “the news of their death!” in italics with an explanation point and yet didn’t realize what she had said. This suggests that she would not make that same statement towards a person. It seems that it was at the moment or situation that she felt she had to release her frustration by using Persian phrases like “khabare margeshun!”. When discussing phrases that are referenced to death she says “Suddenly all these phrases related to death started piling up in my head like Jenga”. Then again she makes a similarity with phrases related to the game of Jenga. She is trying to come up with different words that all use death but have different connotations. After making the bold statement death to America, she is not referring to the people but to the government because she says “, the way I see it, Iranians don’t view governments as representative of the people”. Her wording of “the way I see it” implies that she is taking a neutral stance of the way Iranian society doesn’t view government representative of the people. From this wording, we can tell Pontia is not the type of character that is assertive and quick to make absolute claims.

             Going back to death-related phrases, Pontia says that “ You’d think that being the poetic creatures that we are, we’d find a more lyrical way of expressing ourselves, but I guess death is, after all, the ultimate sacrifice. One minute we are willing to die for you, but get on our bad side, and we will just as soon wish for your death” In the previous quote, Pontia reveals a sarcastic/ humoristic side by saying “death is, after all, the ultimate sacrifice” I think what she is trying to reveal is that Iranians can be poetic but it always ends with expressions related to death. Death is not taken literally but can be understood differently in context. As she states, “one minute we are willing to die for you, but we will just as soon wish for your death”.

            In her second blog post titled “The Things That Don't Translate: Persian Idioms Part 1,” Pontia presents different Persian idioms. She says, “Iranians speak in poems. Iranians speak in proverbs. Iranians speak in idioms. It’s no wonder we have so much trouble communicating with the U.S.” In her last sentence, Pontia’s voice expresses humor because what Persians say is interpreted differently for another person listening to the same statement. Lastly, she offers a list of statements and asks readers to interpret what they mean. “For the Persian-learners, try to guess what on earth this phrase could possible mean. Answers below, but no cheating ;)” She puts a smiley face at the end of her sentence to show that maybe cheating is tolerated because those statements are probably only understood by Persians and no one else but those that speak Farsi and are familiar with Persian idioms.

Comparing the two different blog posts that express voice, I definitely see a contrast between the first blog and second blog.  At first her voice is very serious and then becomes subtle and eventually becomes funny.