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Sohrab Sepehri | |
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سهراب سپهری | |
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| Born | (1928-10-07)October 7, 1928 |
| Died | April 21, 1980(1980-04-21) (aged 51) Tehran, Iran |
| Resting place | Mashhad-e Ardahal, Kashan, Iran |
| Occupations | Persian poet and painter |
| Relatives | Hamideh-banou kalantar Zarabi (grandmother) |
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Sohrab Sepehri (7 October 1928 – 21 April 1980;Persian:سهراب سپهری) was anIranianpoet andpainter, considered to be one of the five most famousIranian poets who have practiced modern poetry alongsideNima Youshij,Ahmad Shamlou,Mehdi Akhavan-Sales, andForough Farrokhzad.[1] Sepehri's poems have been translated into several languages, includingEnglish,French,Spanish,Italian,Lithuanian andKurdish.
Sohrab was born inQom,Iran on 7 October 1928. He grew up in a family that valued art and poetry. His grandmother, Hamideh-banou Zarabi, was a poet. His father worked in a post office and loved art. His mother loved poetry and art, too. When he was a child, his father suffered from paralysis and died in 1941. Sohrab missed his only brother who was his only playmate in childhood, too.
He completed his elementary and secondary education inKashan and moved toTehran in 1943 to study at a teachers' college (Persian:دانشسرای مقدماتی). He worked as a teacher for a few years, then enrolled as a student in the Faculty of Fine Arts at theUniversity of Tehran (Persian:دانشکده هنرهای زیبا) and graduated with honours. After finishing his education, he was employed in an oil company, which he left after 8 months. He soon published his first collection of poems named "The Death of Color", followed by a second collection, "Life Sleeps". Sohrab Sepehri was very talented in fine arts and his paintings were displayed in many European exhibits. His paintings depict natural subjects; one of them was sold in Tehran in 2018. He is one of Iran's foremost modernist painters. Unfortunately, he moved toEngland for treatment, but he had to return Tehran because of the progression of his illness. Finally, he died in Pars Hospital in Tehran on 21 April 1980. He was buried in Kashan. Sohrab never married and his grave is frequently visited by many art lovers.[2][3]
Sepehri travelled to many European countries. InParis, he enrolled in a lithography course at the school of Fine Arts. However, after he stopped receiving a scholarship, he needed to work and make a living. He sometimes worked hanging from tall buildings to wash the apartments' windows.
Well-versed in Buddhism, mysticism, and Western traditions, he blended the Eastern concepts with Western techniques, thereby creating a kind of poetry unprecedented in the history ofPersian literature. He had his own style of writing poetry, using short sentences rather than long ones, the latter having been frequently used in Persian poetry for centuries. To him, new forms were new means to express his thoughts and feelings. In one of his works called 'Footsteps of Water' or 'The Water's Footfall', Sepehri introduces himself, his family, and his way of thinking in a poetic form. This poem, which is written like a biography, has two aspects: the inner and outer. The inner aspect of this poem is about God's recognition through the beauty of nature.
Sepehri explains that he doesn't blindly do his religious duties. In most of his poems, Sepehri introduces a new form of literature by using romanticism and symbolism. The beauty of his poems is seen through his evocation of nature and the use of tender and simple language.Abdolali Dastgheib, acclaimed literary critic and writer, believes that Sepehri reached great levels in poetic language following the publication of his later books such as 'The Water's Footfall', 'Traveller' and 'The Green Volume'. There are many examples of personifications, or symbols in his poetry.[4] In his poem "Let's not Spoil the Water", he talks about water, the necessary and basic element of life which people must keep clean. He used a special symbolism in these poems that makes the objects talk to the reader, rather than describing those objects.[5]
Sepehri's poetry is full of humanity and concern for human values. He also achieved a new technique in painting which is called Texture, and was unknown to other painters for a long time. He used to create most of his pieces of art in isolated places like "Ghariyeh Chenar" and the deserts around Kashan. His poetry has been translated into many languages including English, French, Spanish, German, Italian, Swedish, Arabic, Turkish, Dutch and Russian.
The first known translation into English of Sepehri's long poem, Seday-e Pay-e Ab (صدای پای آب) by Abbas Faiz and Martin Turner was published as "Water's Footfall" by Cambridge University Press in 1986.[6]
An English translation by Ali Salami of some of Sepehri's poems was published in 2003.[citation needed]
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Media related toSohrab Sepehri at Wikimedia Commons
