TEHRAN -- A selection of poems by the contemporary Iranian poet and musicologist Mehdi Akhavan-Salis has recently been published in English in Tehran.

 

The poems of the collection have been selected and translated by Saeid Saied, who has rendered poems by contemporary Iranian poets Nima Yushij, Sohrab Sepehri and Qeisar Aminpur into English

 

All the collections have been published by the Association of Iranian Poets.

 

He was well acquainted with Persian classical poetry. However, he focused on the free verse poetry.

 

Akhavan-Salis wrote over twenty books including “Arghanun” and “Winter”. 

 

He taught Persian literature at the University of Tehran and several other academic centers, and was sentenced to several years in prison and exile for his political activities during the reign of Mohammad Reza Pahlavi.

 

Akhavan-Salis died in 1990 at 62 years of age and was buried in Tus beside the tomb Ferdowsi, the poet of the Persian epic masterpiece the Shahnameh.

 

MMS/YAW

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