Quick Facts
Biography
Sohrab Sepehri (Persian: Sohrāb Sepehri) (October 7, 1928 – April 21, 1980) was a notable Iranian poet and a painter.
He was born in Kashan, Iran. He is considered to be one of the five most famous Iranian poets who have practiced modern poetry. Other practitioners of this form were Nima Youshij, Ahmad Shamlou, Mehdi Akhavan-Sales, and Forough Farrokhzad.
Sepehri was also one of Iran's foremost modernist painters.
Well-versed in Buddhism, mysticism and Western traditions, he mingled the Western concepts with Eastern ones, thereby creating a kind of poetry unsurpassed in the history of Persian literature. To him, new forms were new means to express his thoughts and feelings.
His poetry has been translated into many languages including English, French, Spanish, German, Italian, Swedish, Arabic, Turkish and Russian. An English translation of his selected poems by Ali Salami appeared in 2003.
Sepehri died in Pars hospital in Tehran of leukemia. His poetry is full of humanity and concern for human values. He loved nature and refers to it frequently.
Works
- Hasht Ketab (Eight Books) 1976
- The Death of Color 1951
- The Life of Dreams 1953
- Us nil, us a look Was not published until 1977
- Downpour of Sunshine 1958
- East of Sorrow 1961
- The Oasis of Now (1965) translated by Kazim Ali with Mohammad Jafar Mahallati, BOA Editions, 2013.
- The Wayfarer 1966
- The Green Space 1967
Sohrab Sepehri's life timeline
- Born in 1928 – Kashan – Iran
- He hosted a painting exhibition - Tehran 1944
- He published his first poetry book that followed by a few other books in the same year - 1951
- He graduated from the fine arts university with B.A. degree in painting - Tehran – 1953
- He translated some Japanese poetry into Persian and published them in a literary magazine called Sokhan – 1955
- He traveled to Ghazvin and attended the Paris Fine Arts School in lithography – 1957
- He traveled to Tokyo to further his studies in lithography and wood carving – 1960
- On the way back to Iran from Japan, he visited India and became familiar with the ideology of Buddhism – 1961
- He published three books in poetry – 1960
- He traveled to India again and visited several cities and provinces – 1964
- He traveled to Pakistan and Afghanistan 1964
- He traveled to Europe and visited several countries such as Germany,England,France,Spain,the Netherlands,Italy and Austria – 1966
- He published some long poems after he returned to Iran – 1966
- He hosted a painting exhibition in Tehran 1967
- He published another book in poetry 1967
- He traveled to Greece and Egypt – 1974
- He published his final book called ‘Hasht Ketab' (Eight Books), which was the collection of almost all of his published poems in one volume – 1976
- He got Leukemia and traveled to England for treatment – 1978
- Unfortunately, his attempt to defeat cancer brought him no result. He returned to Iran and died in Pars Hospital in Tehran on Monday April 21, 1980.