TEHRAN – Najaf Daryabandari, Iranian translator and writer who was selected as a Living Human Treasure in the category of cuisine, died of old age at his home in Tehran on Monday at the age of 91, his son Sohrab announced in a statement.

“I offer my condolences to his fans,” Sohrab said and asked his fans and friends not to gather at his home to prevent the spread of coronavirus.

Daryabandari is most famous for translating stories from Ernest Hemingway, William Faulkner, Mark Twain and several other American writers.

Since 2001, Daryabandari was translating “The Complete Short Stories of Ernest Hemingway”, which comprises 99 short stories and was published by Random House in the United States in 1979.

The best Persian translations of Hemingway’s “A Farewell to Arms” and “The Old Man and the Sea”, and William Faulkner’s “A Rose for Emily” and “As I Lay Dying” were produced by Daryabandari.

With the help of his wife Fahimeh Rastkar, he wrote the cookbook “From Garlic to Onion” that brought him the title “Living Human Treasure” from the Cultural Heritage, Tourism and Handicrafts Organization in 2017.

He also rendered Bertrand Russell’s “A History of Western Philosophy” and “Power” into Persian.

Photo: Iranian translator and write Najaf Daryabandari in an undated photo. (ISNA/Mehdi Qasemi)

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