Article author:
Associated Press
TEHRAN, IRAN (AP) — Renowned Iranian poet Houshan Ebtehaj, whose small but influential body of work has made him a major figure in national and world literature, will perform in Cologne, Germany, on Wednesday. died. He was 94 years old.
His death was confirmed by his daughter Yalda Ebtehaj. Yalda Ebtehaj said on her Instagram that her father, known by his pseudonym "Sayeh" or "Shadow," "joined another world." In her post, she quoted a poem her father wrote in the style of the great mystic poet Rumi.
According to Iranian semi-official media, his cause of death was renal failure. Ebtehaj has lived in Germany since the late 1980s.
He was born in his 1928 in the Iranian city of Rasht, about 240 kilometers (150 miles) northwest of the capital Tehran. He began writing in his youth and published his first collection of poems when he was nineteen. Throughout the 20th century, Ebtehai contributed to the popularity of ghazals. Ghazal is a traditional form of Persian poetry especially set to music that expresses the writer's emotions. About love, with moving intensity.
His work, filled with romance and melancholic longing, was not considered overly political. However, socialist politics were central to the Ebtehai identity. He sympathized with Iran's communist Today Party and paid the price after the 1979 overthrow of Iran's Western-backed secular monarchy. During the Young Islamic Republic's crackdown on post-revolutionary leftists and liberals, Ebtehai nearly landed him in prison for a year.
In 1984, when the famous Iranian poet appealed to then-President Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei to secure Ebtehaj's freedom, he was released. rice field. Poet Mohammad Hossein Shariar wrote in a letter that Ebtehaj's detention caused the angels to weep at God's throne.
Ebtehaj has gained recognition in Iran for his innovative poetry that combines traditional forms with contemporary social themes, based on Rumi and his famous 14th-century Persian poet Hafez. became. He was also a musicologist and scholar, lecturing at universities throughout Europe on his critique of Hafez's mystical lyric poetry. However, the international reach of his poetry remained somewhat limited, with only one collection of his being translated into English.
Ebtehaj has two sons and two daughters of his. His wife, Alma Mychial, died last year.
Many Iranians expressed their condolences on his Twitter account, as well as condolences from Iranian cultural institutions and embassies.
The Iranian embassy in Berlin said it was extending its condolences with "all lovers of Persian culture and literature around the world."
