Houshang Ebtehaj, distinguished Iranian poet, dies at 94

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TEHRAN, Iran — Houshang Ebtehaj, a outstanding Iranian poet whose small however influential frame of labor made him a big determine in his personal nation and in global literature, died on Wednesday in Cologne, Germany. He used to be 94.

His demise used to be showed via his daughter, Yalda Ebtehaj, who mentioned on Instagram that her father, recognized via his pen identify “Sayeh,” or Shadow, had “joined the opposite global.” In the put up, she quoted a verse written via her father within the taste of the good mystic poet Rumi: “Roam, roam roam … There are strangers on this house, so that you unusually roam.”

The reason for demise used to be kidney failure, in line with Iran’s semiofficial media. Ebtehaj had lived in Germany because the overdue Eighties.

He used to be born in 1928 in Iran’s town of Rasht, some 240 kilometers (150 miles) northwest of Tehran, the capital. He started writing when he used to be younger and revealed his first e book of poetry when he used to be simply 19. Throughout the 20 th century, Ebtehaj contributed to the recognition of the ghazal — a conventional type of Persian poetry set to tune that expresses the creator’s emotions, particularly about love, with shifting depth.

Suffused with romance and melancholic longing, his frame of labor used to be now not considered overly political. But socialist politics had been central to Ebtehaj’s identification. He sympathized with Iran’s Communist Tudeh Party, and paid the cost after the the overthrow of Iran’s secular Western-backed monarchy in 1979. During the younger Islamic Republic’s crackdown on leftists and liberals after the revolution, Ebtehaj landed in jail for just about a yr.

He used to be launched in 1984, when a well known Iranian poet appealed to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who used to be then president, to safe Ebtehaj’s freedom. The poet, Mohammad-Hossein Shahriar, wrote in a letter that Ebtehaj’s detention brought about angels to weep on God’s throne.

Ebtehaj become known in Iran for his cutting edge verses that constructed at the foundations of Rumi and the prestigious 14th-century Persian poet Hafez, combining conventional paperwork with fashionable social issues. He used to be additionally a musicologist and pupil, lecturing at universities throughout Europe about his complaint of the magical lyrical poetry of Hafez. However, the world succeed in of his poetry remained relatively restricted, with just one assortment translated into English.

Ebtehaj is survived via two sons and two daughters. His spouse, Alma Maikial, died ultimate yr.

Condolences poured in from rankings of Iranians on Twitter, in addition to Iranian cultural establishments and embassies.

Iran’s Embassy in Berlin mentioned it used to be mourning with “the entire fans of Persian tradition and literature in all the global.”

Source Link: https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/houshang-ebtehaj-prominent-iranian-poet-dies-at-94/2022/08/10/d349fa62-18b0-11ed-b998-b2ab68f58468_story.html?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=wp_world

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