October 7 was the 86th birth anniversary of the late Sohrab Sepehri, who is greatly revered as one of the foremost Iranian poets and painters of the twentieth century.
Born in the ancient city of Kashan, Isfahan Province in 1928, he obtained a Bachelor of Arts from the Faculty of Fine Arts, University of Tehran. He travelled on numerous occasions to America, Europe, and Africa. He spent almost half his life focusing on his personal interests: poetry and painting, and he excelled at both.
He is considered to be one of the five most famous Persian poets who wrote ‘new poetry’ (poetry that often has neither meter nor rhyme). Other practitioners were Nima Youshij, Ahmad Shamlou, Mehdi Akhavan-Sales, and Forough Farrokhzad.
To him, new forms were new means to express thoughts and feelings. His poetry is full of humanity and concern for human values. He loved nature and refers to it frequently.
Sepehri was also one of Iran’s foremost modernist painters. He worked on numerous paintings applying the same soft and gentle style, which can be found in his poems.
In 1979 he was diagnosed with cancer and for the last time he moved to England for treatment. A year later, in 1980, he passed away in Tehran and now he rests in his birthplace.
His poetry has been translated into many languages including English, French, Spanish, German, Italian, Swedish, Arabic, Turkish and Russian.
