Remembering Parnia Abbasi

Sana Nassari

 

Parnia Abbasi was a twenty-four-year-old Iranian poet known for her poignant, introspective verse, earning a place among Iran’s emerging Gen-Z voices 

On the night of 12–13 June 2025, Parnia and her family were killed in an Israeli airstrike on a residential block in Tehran’s Sattar-Khan neighbourhood—the strike reportedly targeting a nuclear engineering professor.
She died just before her twenty-fourth birthday alongside her parents and teenage brother, Parham.

Vaz-e Donya Poetry Journal (Iran) has published excerpts from a group interview with Gen Z poets, featuring poet Parnia Abbasi (2002–2025) as part of a roundtable on the poetry of Generation Z.

Parnia Abbasi:
Whenever I write something, I always share it with my mother, with my friends. I ask those around me what they think. I love observing people’s reactions when they read my poems—their expressions, their responses—it absolutely fascinates me. Honestly, this has become a significant part of my life. I view everything that happens to me as a potential subject for writing, a chance to capture and express the feeling I experienced in that moment through poetry. In that sense, writing brings me a sense of calm. Even if it’s just a small piece each night.

Many of these poems I never submit or publish anywhere, but when I return to them and read them again, it feels as though the emotions are brought back to life within me—and that’s profoundly meaningful.

When I joined the poetry workshop, I was juggling work and university, but truthfully, the workshop meant far more to me than school or anything else. I’d get excited beforehand, thinking about what I wanted to share. Meeting other poets, seeking them out—that meant more to me than almost anything. And it still does.

 

A Fading Star
By Parnia Abbasi

Translated by Sana Nassari

 

I wept for us both
for you
and for myself.

You blow out
the stars of my tears
in your sky.

In your world:
the freedom of light.

In mine:
the play of shadows.

Somewhere,
you and I
Will come to an end.
The most beautiful poem in the world will
fall silent.

Somewhere,
you begin
you cry out
the whisper of life.

In a thousand places,
I come to an end.
I burn
I become a fading star
that in your sky
turns to smoke.

 

Return to You

When you crash against my shore,
the rhythmic pearl of your body
scatters across the sand.
I row into your embrace,
hook your smile—
the fish are caught in the net,
and I fall in love
again.