Mehdi Akhavan-Sales

Mehdi Akhavān Sāles
Born Mehdi Akhavān Sāles
March 1929
Mashhad, Iran
Died August 26, 1990
Tehran, Iran
Nationality Iranian
Occupation Poet

Mehdi Akhavān-Sāles , or Akhavān-Sāless (Persian: مهدی اخوان ثالث‎) (March, 1929 in Mashhad, Iran - August 26, 1990 in Tehran, Iran), pen name M. Omid (م. امید, Hope) was a prominent Iranian poet. He is one of the pioneers of Free Verse (New Style Poetry) in Persian language.

Life

Akhavan Sales was born in 1928 in Mashhad, Iran. He gave up an interest in music to appease his father. When the government of prime minister Mohammad Mosaddegh was toppled, he was imprisoned along with other political activists. His daughter Laleh, was born while he was in prison.

After his release from prison in 1957, he started to work in radio, and soon after was transferred to Khouzestan to work in TV. Later on, he taught literature on radio and TV and at the university. After the 1979 Iranian Revolution he was granted membership to the Iranian Academy of Artists and Writers. In 1981 he was forced to retire from government service without pay. In 1990, following an invitation from the cultural organization in Germany, he traveled abroad for the first time. Few months after his return, he died at Mehr Hospital in Tehran. He is buried on the grounds of the mausoleum of Ferdowsi in Tus.

Poetry

Grave of Mehdi Akhavan-Sales in Tous, near Mashhad

Although Akhavan Sales's poetic career began as early as 1942, he did not acquire the degree of recognition, necessary for breaking into the literary circles of his time until the publication of his third volume of poetry in 1956. Called "Zemestan" (Winter), this volume boosted Sales's career and placed him among the top runners for the mantle of Nima Yushij. In fact, for many circles, Nader Naderpour and Akhavan Sales were equally recognized as worthy successors of the Bard of Mazandaran. The fact that like Nima they both had started as traditionalists and had worked their way into new realms of New Poetry through individual initiative itself deserved praise for singular effort.

Akhavan's forte, like the bard of Tus, Ferdowsi, is epic; more precisely, he chooses themes of epical proportion and expresses them with the same zeal that Ferdowsi uses in the Shahnameh. The difference is that they write for two diametrically different audiences. Akhavan Sales need not engage his poetry in gavel by gavel battles of Iranian and Turanian chiefs. Rather, he can focus on the theme and illustrating aspects of it with diverse, often far-fetched similes, metaphors, and symbols.

Finally, Sales's language is complex. While translating his verse, one cannot ignore the impact of the internal rhyme, the interconnection of seemingly disparate images, and the ubiquitous presence of the theme. Sales's "Winter," is a good example for understanding the depth of his conviction as well as the dexterity and the finesse that distinguish his compositions. Iraj Bashiri's translation gives us the English equivalent:[1]

Works

Poetry

Other Books

See also

References

  1. ↑ Bashiri, Iraj. "Life of Mehdi Akhavan Saless". Working Papers on Iran and Central Asia. Retrieved 6 October 2013.

External links

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