Coinciding with the opening of Iran’s pavilion at the Paris Book Fair 2016 (March 17-20), the late Abolhassan Najafi, a man of letters, will be honored by the Iranian Embassy in the French capital on March 17.
The ceremony, on the sidelines of the conference ‘The necessity of new insight into Persian classic literature in the international arena’, will be attended by Ahmad Samiei-Gilani, noted author and translator, Hossein Masoumi Hamedani, Persian literature professor, Ali Asghar Mohammad-Khani, head of the bureau of culture at Book City Institute, Jaleh Amouzgar, well-known Iranologist and a university professor and Amir Massoud Shahram Nia, head of Iran Cultural Fairs Institute (ICFI), Mehr News Agency reported.
Abolhassan Najafi, (1929 –2016) was an acclaimed Iranian writer and translator.
Born in Najaf, Iraq, into a family from Isfahan, he began his literary activities in the 1960s and translated several books from French into Persian. After the 1979 Islamic Revolution, he published a controversial book on Persian usage entitled ‘Let’s Avoid Mistakes’.
He has written over twenty books, among them a dictionary on Persian slang, elements of general linguistics and its application to the Persian language. He translated French novels to Persian, notable works from Jean-Paul Sartre, such as ‘Le Diable et le bon Dieu’, ‘Les sequestres d’Altona’, ‘Qu’est-ce que la literature’, Andre Malraux’s ‘Antimemoire’, Albert Camus’s ‘Caligula’, Roger Martin du Gard’s ‘Les Thibault’, Claude Levi-Strauss’s ‘La race et l’histoire’, and ‘ Le Petit Prince ‘ by Antoine de Saint-Exupery.
Najafi was a member of the Academy of Persian Language and Literature (1990–2016).
More than 600 titles on Iranology, ancient literature, modern art and Persian language teaching material among others will be displayed at Iran’s pavilion in an area of 40 sq meters.
The Iranian pavilion is to hold special events on the sidelines including meetings with Iranian and French literary figures, reading sessions of Iran’s contemporary literature and separate sessions titled ‘A Novel Perspective to Persian Classical Literature on the Global Scale’ and ‘Norouz and Iran’s Mythological History.’
The other programs include a meeting on comparative analysis of Persian and French works, poetry recital, calligraphy workshop, Persian classic music performance and a photo gallery about Iran.
The pavilion will also introduce the Tehran International Book Fair (TIBF) slated in May and Iran’s publishing industry.
Iran’s embassy in Paris, the Book City Institute and Alhoda International Publishers will cooperate with the ICFI in organizing the Iranian pavilion.
