On Tuesday, 1 July 2025, Saed News released a never-before-seen handwritten ghazal by Iran’s Supreme Leader, showcasing his enduring passion for poetry and revealing a deeply personal meditation on the turmoil of the self.
According to Saed News, the publication of a new ghazal penned in the Supreme Leader’s own hand has captivated readers across Iran, underscoring Ayatollah Khamenei’s well-known affinity for poetic expression. The poem—titled “Reproach of the Self” (شِکوه از خویشتن)—was shared by Saed News’s political desk alongside a high‑resolution image of the original manuscript.
Experts note that the Leader’s engagement with classical Persian verse has long served both as a personal solace and a means of connecting with the nation’s rich literary heritage. This latest release, dated Tuesday, 10 Tir 1404 (1 July 2025), offers an intimate glimpse into his inner dialogue, as he grapples with the dualities of purity and corruption, love and longing.
The ghazal unfolds in six couplets, each exploring the restless struggle between the heart’s yearning and the self’s temptations:
I am bewildered by the clamour of my self;
Would that I could escape the bounds of every part of me.
It tugs at me like a straw from every side,
Whispering temptations, the ceaseless stir of my self.
Claws sunk deep in my bleeding heart,
I roam like a wolf within the flock of my self.
At times pure wine, at times deadly poison,
I lament this tangled brew within my self.
A child, I lay my head upon love’s gentle lap,
To lose myself utterly in the murmurs of my self.
Drunk and undone, O Amin, heedless of being or nothingness,
From whom shall I seek deliverance but from the tyranny of my self?
Literary commentators have praised the poem’s vivid imagery and emotional candour, highlighting how metaphors of wine, poison, and predation convey both spiritual aspiration and the perils of ego. The depiction of the “self” as a restless, even predatory force resonates with Sufi traditions of inner struggle and self‑annihilation in love.
This release not only reaffirms the Leader’s status as a custodian of Persian poetic culture but also invites wider reflection on the universal human battle between desire and transcendence. As readers pore over each line of his elegant penmanship, the ghazal stands as a testament to the enduring power of poetry to bridge the personal and the profound.
