Ahmad Shamlou
Encyclopedia
Ahmad Shamlou It is situated west of Tehran, at the foothills of the Alborz...

.

Death

Suffering from several illness at the same time, Shamlou's physical condition deteriorated in 1996. He underwent several operations and in 1997 his right foot was amputated due to severe diabetic problems. He died on Sunday July 23, 2000 at 9 p.m. at his home in Dehkadeh in Karaj due to complications from his diabetes. On July 27, thousands took part in Ahmad Shamlou's funeral. He was buried in Emamzadeh Taher
Emamzadeh Taher
Emamzadeh Taher is located in Iran in the town of Karaj, is one of the most famous cemeteries in Iran.-Notable interments:Many prominent figures of Iranian literature, art and culture are interred here, including:- External links:...

, Karaj.

Works and style

Ahmad Shamlou has published more than seventy books: 16 volumes of poetry; 5 anthologies of poetry; 5 volumes including novels, short stories & screenplays; 9 volumes of children's literature; 9 translations of poetry into Persian; 21 novels translated into Persian; 5 collections of essays, lectures and interviews; 10 volumes (to date) of The Book Of Alley.

Ahmad Shamlou's poetic vision accords with both western Modernist concepts and the modern transformation of classical Persian poetry. The Spanish poet, Federico Garcia Lorca, the African American poet Langston Hughes, the French thinker and writer, Louis Aragon
Louis Aragon
Louis Aragon , was a French poet, novelist and editor, a long-time member of the Communist Party and a member of the Académie Goncourt.- Early life :...

, and Nima Youshij are among the figures who influenced him. One of the disciple of Nima Youshij, Shamlou, standing among the generation who adopted his techniques, constantly sought untried ways, new poetic realms. He quickly became the flag bearer of young Iranian poets and writers that included Forough Farrokhzad
Forough Farrokhzad
Forugh Farrokhzād was an Iranian poet and film director. Forugh Farrokhzad is arguably one of Iran's most influential female poets of the twentieth century...

, Sohrab Sepehri
Sohrab Sepehri
Sohrab Sepehri was a notable modern Persian poet and a painter.He was born in Kashan in Isfahan province....

, Mehdi Akhavan Sales, Yadollah Roya’i, Nosrat Rahmani
Nosrat Rahmani
Nosrat Rahmani Nosrat Rahmani Nosrat Rahmani (نصرت رحمانی; in Persian; (1929 — June 16, 2000) was an Iranian poet and writer .-History:Rahmani was born in the slums of Tehran. He received his college degree from Ministry of PTT...

, and Nader Naderpour
Nader Naderpour
Nader Naderpour was an Iranian-born poet.Among many Iranian poets who shaped up the New Persian Poetry or New Poetry , Ali Esfandiari, aka Nima Yooshij, Parviz Natel Khanlari, Nader Naderpor, Forough Farrokhzad, Mehdi Akhavan Saless, Sohrab Sepehri, Feraydoon Moshiri, Siavosh Kasraii, Ahmad...

.

Shamlou is known for employing the style and words of the everyman. He developed a simple, free poetic style, known in Iran as Sepid Persian Poetry
Sepid Persian Poetry
Sepid poetry is a type of Modern Persian poetry.The word "sepid" means "white" and it refers to a certain class of Persian poetry initiated by Ahmad Shamloo and came to its mature form and general acceptance after Bijan Jalali....

(literally meaning white), which is a kind of free verse
Free verse
Free verse is a form of poetry that refrains from consistent meter patterns, rhyme, or any other musical pattern.Poets have explained that free verse, despite its freedom, is not free. Free Verse displays some elements of form...

 that departs from the tightly balanced rhythm and rhymes of classical Persian poetry. The themes in his poetry range from political issues, mostly freedom, to human condition.

Political views

Shamlou is a humanist
Humanism
Humanism is an approach in study, philosophy, world view or practice that focuses on human values and concerns. In philosophy and social science, humanism is a perspective which affirms some notion of human nature, and is contrasted with anti-humanism....

 and a socially minded intellectual who has woven personal love and affection together with his social attitudes. He was a major force in the intellectual movement opposed to the former Shah of Iran
Mohammad Reza Pahlavi
Mohammad Rezā Shāh Pahlavi, Shah of Iran, Shah of Persia , ruled Iran from 16 September 1941 until his overthrow by the Iranian Revolution on 11 February 1979...

 before the 1979 revolution
Iranian Revolution
The Iranian Revolution refers to events involving the overthrow of Iran's monarchy under Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi and its replacement with an Islamic republic under Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the leader of the...

. In 1976, he left his country as a form of protest against censorship and the suffocating political atmosphere. In 1977, one year before the collapse of Shah's Regime, he signed an open letter which supported the rights of gathering for members of The Writers Association of Iran. New Islamic regime wasn't favorable to him, considering him as an anti-Islamist nationalist element, a traitor and a Westernised writer. However, with a view to his popularity, the ruling clerics could not arrest him, but at the same time didn't allow publication of his works for many years. Since the early 1990s his poems have appeared in many literary journals. Shamlou standing has been reinstated under Iran's moderate president, Mohammad Khatami
Mohammad Khatami
Sayyid Mohammad Khātamī is an Iranian scholar, philosopher, Shiite theologian and Reformist politician. He served as the fifth President of Iran from August 2, 1997 to August 3, 2005. He also served as Iran's Minister of Culture in both the 1980s and 1990s...

. Khatami's liberal Culture Minister
Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance
The Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance is the ministry of Culture of the Islamic Republic of Iran. It is responsible for restricting access to any media of which the Islamic Regime in Tehran does not approve....

, Ataollah Mohajerani, openly expressed his grief over Shamlou's death.

Awards

  • Forough Farrokhzad Prize
    Forough Farrokhzad
    Forugh Farrokhzād was an Iranian poet and film director. Forugh Farrokhzad is arguably one of Iran's most influential female poets of the twentieth century...

     (1973)
  • The Fund for Free Expression (1990)
  • Stig Dagerman Award
    Stig Dagerman
    Stig Dagerman was a Swedish author and journalist.Stig Dagerman was one of the most prominent Swedish authors during the 1940s...

     (1999)

Books

  • The Forgotten Songs (1947)
  • The Verdict (1951)
  • Poems of Iron and Feelings (1953)
  • Fresh Air (1957)
  • The Mirror Orchard (1960)
  • Ayda in the Mirror (1964)
  • Moments and Forever (1964)
  • Ayda: Tree,Dagger, Remembrance (1965)
  • Phoenix in the Rain (1966)
  • Blossoming in the Mist (1970)
  • Abraham in the Fire (1973)
  • The Doors and the Great Wall of China (1973)
  • Of Airs and Mirrors (1974)
  • Poniard on the Plate (1977)
  • Little Rhapsodizes of Exile (1979–1980)
  • Panegyrics Sans Boon (1992)
  • The Cul-de-Sac and the Tigers in Love (1998)
  • The Tale of Mahan's Restlessness (2000)
  • The Book of Alley (1978–Present)

See also

  • List of Iranian intellectuals
  • Intellectual movements in Iran
    Intellectual movements in Iran
    Intellectual movements in Iran involve the Iranian experience of modernity and its associated art, science, literature, poetry, and political structures that have been changing since the 19th century.- History of Iranian modernity :...

  • Gholam Hossein Saedi
  • Houshang Golshiri
    Houshang Golshiri
    Houshang Golshiri was an Iranian fiction writer, critic and editor. He was one of the first Iranian writers to use modern literary techniques, and is recognized as one of the most influential writers of Persian prose of the twentieth century.-Early life:...

  • Forough Farrokhzad
    Forough Farrokhzad
    Forugh Farrokhzād was an Iranian poet and film director. Forugh Farrokhzad is arguably one of Iran's most influential female poets of the twentieth century...

  • Sadegh Hedayat
    Sadegh Hedayat
    Sadegh Hedayat was Iran's foremost modern writer of prose fiction and short stories.-Life:...

  • Bozorg Alavi
    Bozorg Alavi
    Bozorg Alavi was an influential Iranian writer, novelist, and political intellectual...

  • Parvin E'tesami
    Parvin E'tesami
    Parvin E'tesami , also Parvin Etesami was a 20th century Persian poet of Iran. According to Ali Akbar Dehkhoda, her given name was Rakhshanda .-Life:...

  • Pegah Ahmadi
    Pegah Ahmadi
    Pegāh Ahmadi is an Iranian poet, scholar, literary critic and translator of poetry.Pegah Ahmadi was born in Tehran. She began writing poetry at the age of seven. At seventeen she made her début as a poet by the publication of a poem in the literary magazine Takāpu, edited by Mansur Kushān. Since...

  • Mina Assadi
    Mina Assadi
    -Biography:Mina Assadi is a famous poet, author, journalist and songwriter who lives in exile in Stockholm, Sweden. She is known for writing about controversial and provocative subjects, especially when she describes the fight against the Iranian regime. In 2007 she wrote the poem called "Pimps"...

  • Shahrnush Parsipur
    Shahrnush Parsipur
    Shahrnush Parsipur is an Iranian novelist. She is the daughter of an attorney in the Iranian Justice Ministry originally from Shiraz.-Biography:...


Further reading

  • Atashi, Manouchehr
    Manouchehr Atashi
    Manouchehr Atashi was a Persian poet, writer, and journalist.He was born in 1931 in Dashtestan, Bushehr province His poetry is the poetry of the revolting warrior of the humiliated southern tribesman. He takes his work seriously and although attached to his native birthplace his poems are...

     (2004). Ahmad Shamlou: a Critical Analise. Amitis Publication ISBN 964-95143-1-7
  • Firoozeh Papan-Matin (1984). The Love Poems Of Ahmad Shamlu. ISBN 1-58814-037-7
  • Mojabi, Javad
    Javad Mojabi
    - Profile :He has a BS in Law and a Ph.D. in Economics from Tehran University. He has written hundreds of critical works and essays on art and culture in journals and magazines. He began writing poetry in the 1960s, along with short story writing and research on modern painting in Iran.A well-known...

    . (2004). Bamdad's Mirror: Satire and Epic in Shamlou's Works. Digar Punlication. ISBN 964-7188-50-1.
  • Mojabi, Javad. (1998). Shenakht-nameyeh Shamlou (Biography of Shamlou), . ISBN 964-5958-86-5
  • Pashai, A (2000). Life and Poetry of Ahmad Shamlou. Sales Publication. ISBN 964-6404-62-6
  • Pournamdarian, Taghi (2002). Journey in the mist, Negah Publication. ISBN 964-351-070-0
  • Salajegheh, Parvin, (2008). Amirzadeh-ye-Kashiha, Morvarid Publication. ISBN 978-964-5881-50-2

External links

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