Iranian Poet and Painter Sohrab Sepehri

Iranian Poet and Painter Sohrab Sepehri 1928 To 1979

Posted: 19 Oct 2012 04:46 AM PDT

Sohrab Sepehri (October 7, 1928 - April 21, 1980) was a notable modern Persian poet and a painter. He was born in Kashan in Isfahan province.
He is the most popular figure of Iranian modern poetry. His literary style is simple and verses are written in a way very close to spoken language. Some of his poems have either meter or a mild melody while some others have no meter and no rhyme. His most popular poems, however, belong to the former category.
A selection of his poems has been put to music by the celebrated musician Shahram Nazeri, in an al bum called “Dar Golestaneh”. His poems have also been featured in a few Iranian movies, for instance in ‘Where is the house of myfriend?’ by the critically acclaimed Iranian director Abbas Kiarostami.
In his poems he talks about the relationship between nature and human spirit. They mainly turn around the idea of re-discovering and returning to the roots and appreciating its beauty and serenity instead of giving in to the down-ward spiral of modern life’s preoccupations. He died in Tehran of leukemia at the age of 51.
This website contains my rendition of a selection of his poems, including the English version of The Footsteps of Water. Footsteps of Water is a long poem that was first published as a separate work. Note that the illustrations in this website, with some obvious exceptions, are selected from Sohrab's paintings.