TEHRAN – The House of Humanities Thinkers in Tehran has arranged a session to commemorate Persian poet Mehdi Akhavan-Saless (1928-1990) on his 33rd death anniversary on Wednesday. 

The session will be attended by a number of literary figures and scholars including Mahmoud Motaqedi, Kamyar Abedi, Vahid Eidgah and Mahmoud Jafari Dehaqi. 

Born in Mashhad, in 1928, Akhavan-Saless lived most of his life in Tehran. He began writing poetry in his teenage years, and his works were soon recognized for their exceptional quality and depth of emotion.

Akhavan-Saless wrote over twenty books, including “Arghanun” and “Winter”. He was well acquainted with Persian classical poetry. However, he focused on free verse poetry.

His unique poetic style combined traditional Persian meters and rhyming schemes with modern imagery and language, making his poetry accessible to contemporary audiences. His use of vivid imagery, metaphors, and symbols created a rich tapestry of meaning and emotion that captivated readers and earned him a place among the great Persian poets of his time.

Akhavan-Saless 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. The poet was buried in Tus beside the tomb of Ferdowsi, the poet who wrote the Persian epic masterpiece, the Shahnameh.

SAB/