Mohsen Emadi : A Poet of Exile

Abstract

"I’m from exile”. This is how a poet, a cosmopolitan, and a citizen of the world of poetry Mohsen Emadi describes himself. He writes poems on loss and displacement, charting his experiences of mobility. This essay is based on Emadi’s poems and bio­graphical interviews with the poet. Quotes from the interviews and fragments of his poems are combined with theoretical reflections on diaspora, nomadism, and exile by researchers such as Edward Said and Rogers Brubaker. Following Emadi, I take a critical look at the concept of diaspora and discuss mobility and exile both as a forced condition and as a choice. The experiences of both voluntary and coerced mobility are considered from the perspective of an individual within the context of global mobility. I suggest that via his writing, which draws from his personal experiences of mobility and non-belonging, Emadi himself becomes a poet of exile.