Hushang Ebtehaj (Sayeh)
هوشنگ ابتهاج (سایه)Writing as Sayeh, he was the great master of the ghazal in the 20th century and an editor of Hafez.
- Known for
- The modern ghazal
- Forms
- Ghazal, New poetry (she'r-e now)
- Collection
- Contemporary
Hushang Ebtehaj was born in Rasht, on the Caspian, and wrote under the pen name Sayeh, shadow. He published his first collection, Sarab (Mirage), in 1951, and though he also wrote in Nima's new forms, he is remembered above all as the finest modern master of the ghazal, the short rhymed lyric of Hafez.
His ghazals keep the classical music and imagery of wine, the beloved and the rose, and fill them with the hopes, losses and political griefs of his own century. Many have been set to music and sung by leading singers of Persian classical music.
In the 1970s he directed the celebrated Golha (Flowers) programmes of poetry and music on Iranian radio. He later spent years on a critical edition of Hafez, published in 1994. He lived his last years in Germany and died in Heidelberg in 2022, aged 94; his body was taken home to Rasht for burial.
Ebtehaj's poems are in copyright. We publish them only with permission from the rights holders; until then we write about the work.
Booksکتابها
The principal works of Hushang Ebtehaj (Sayeh).
Mirage
سرابHis first collection, mostly ghazals and other classical lyrics written in his early twenties, already showing the musical ease and command of the old forms that would define his reputation. Here the young Sayeh is already in conversation with Hafez and the other classical masters he would spend his life reading.
Hafez, Edited by Sayeh
حافظ به سعی سایهEbtehaj's edition of the Divan of Hafez, the fruit of many years' comparison of manuscripts and earlier editions. It is valued as much for a poet's ear for the right reading as for its scholarship, and is widely used by Iranian readers.
Hushang Ebtehaj (Sayeh) in Iranian history
Iranian historyThe Pahlavi century and afterدوران پهلوی و پس از آن
Two Pahlavi shahs built railways, universities and a centralised state, while poets, novelists and film-makers created a new Persian culture. The era ended with the revolution of 1979.