Sohrab Sepehri

Sohrab Sepehri

Sohrab Sepehri (Persian: سهراب سپهری ) (October 7, 1928 - April 21 , 1980) was a notable modern Persian poet and a painter. He was born in Kashan in Isfahan province. He is considered one of the five most famous modern Persian (Iranian) poets who have practised "New Poetry" (a kind of poetry that often has neither meter nor rhyme). Other practitioners of this form were Nima Youshij, Ahmad Shamlou, Mehdi Akhavan-Sales, and Forough Farrokhzad, all of whom are now dead. Sohrab Sepehri was also one of Iran's foremost modernist painters. 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. The poetry of Sohrab Sepehri bears great resemblance to that of E.E. Cummings. 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 French, English, Spanish, Italian, Swedish and Russian.