TEHRAN The 18th death anniversary of Sohrab Sepehri, great contemporary Iranian poet and painter, was held in his hometown, Kashan, with his former friends attending the ceremony with their hearts still beating for him. Attendance of a large crowd of people in the ceremony and lack of enough space made many of those interested in poetry and literature only wait outside Farhang Hall, where the ceremony was held.

Despite this, a good number of the interested could watch the process through closed-circuit televisions in the entrance halls of Kashan's Culture and Islamic Guidance Organization while some others viewed from outdoors. In the ceremony, held on Thursday night, the director general of Isfahan Province's Culture and Islamic Guidance, Majid Zehtab and a few experts of cultural affairs as well as literary figures delivered lectures on the critique of Sohrab's works as well as his status in the contemporary literature.

On the sideline of the ceremony an exhibition was held to display Sohrab's books and paintings. Otagh-e Aabi (The Blue Room), a documentary made from Sohrab's last prose writings, as well as a talk with his relatives and close friends was shown at the end of the ceremony. Sohrab Sepehri was born in 1918 in Kashan and passed away in 1980 after he came down with leukemia.

He was buried in Mashhad. Of his works can be mentioned Marg-e Rang (Death of Color), Zendegi-e Khabha (Life of Dreams), Avar-e Aftab (Debris of the Sun), Shargh-e Andooh (East of Gloom), Sedaay-e Paay-e Aab (The Purl of Water), Mosafer (The Traveler), and Hasht Ketab (Eight Books).