Mohammad-Reza Shafiei Kadkani
محمدرضا شفیعی کدکنیPoet under the name M. Sereshk and the most influential scholar of Persian literature of his generation.
- Known for
- Poetry as M. Sereshk; scholarship on Persian poetics and Sufi poetry
- Forms
- New poetry (she'r-e now), Ghazal
- Places
- Razavi Khorasanخراسان رضوی
- Tehranتهران
- Collection
- Contemporary
Shafiei Kadkani was born in Kadkan, a village in Khorasan, and trained first in the traditional seminary learning of Mashhad before taking a doctorate at the University of Tehran, where he taught for decades. His poems appear under the pen name M. Sereshk, sereshk meaning tear.
As a poet he writes in Nima's new forms with the clarity and compression of the Khorasani classics. Nature, the landscape of Nishapur and Khorasan, and the hope and frustration of the intellectual in his society are his abiding subjects, and many of his short poems have become widely quoted.
As a scholar he changed how Persian poetry is studied. Sovar-e Khiyal dar She'r-e Farsi (Imagery in Persian Poetry, 1971) and Musiqi-ye She'r (The Music of Poetry, 1979) brought modern literary theory to classical verse, and his critical editions of Attar and other Sufi texts are standard. Generations of Iranian students of literature count themselves his pupils.
Shafiei Kadkani'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 Mohammad-Reza Shafiei Kadkani.
Imagery in Persian Poetry
صور خیال در شعر فارسیA study of the image in Persian poetry from its beginnings to the early classical period, combining classical Arabic and Persian rhetoric with modern criticism. It remains a foundation text for the study of Persian poetics, read by students and poets alike, and showed that the old rhetorical manuals could speak to modern criticism.
The Music of Poetry
موسیقی شعرAn account of what makes Persian verse musical: metre, rhyme, the radif or repeated refrain, and the inner music of sound and syntax. It reaches from the classics to the new poetry of Nima and his successors. Written with a poet's ear, it is one of the most influential books on prosody in modern Persian.
Mohammad-Reza Shafiei Kadkani 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.