Siavash Kasraei
سیاوش کسراییPoet of Arash the Archer, who retold an ancient Iranian legend of sacrifice in the new verse of Nima.
- Known for
- Arash-e Kamangir (Arash the Archer), 1959
- Forms
- New poetry (she'r-e now)
- Collection
- Contemporary
Kasraei was born in Isfahan, studied law at the University of Tehran and followed Nima Yushij into the new poetry, she'r-e now, in which line lengths vary while the old metres remain. He sometimes wrote under the pen name Kowli.
His fame rests on Arash-e Kamangir, a long poem of 1959. In Iranian legend Arash is the archer who settled the frontier between Iran and Turan by shooting a single arrow, pouring his whole life into the shot. Kasraei turned the story into a modern poem of self-sacrifice for the common good, written to be read aloud, and generations of Iranians have learnt it at school and heard it recited.
He was a committed member of the left-wing Tudeh Party for most of his life, and politics runs through much of his work. He left Iran in the early 1980s, lived in Kabul and Moscow, and died in Vienna in 1996.
Kasraei'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 Siavash Kasraei.
Voice
آواHis first collection, lyrical poems in Nima's new manner that marked him out among the young poets of the 1950s and set the social themes, of hope, solidarity and a better future, that he would return to throughout his career, in Iran and later in exile.
Arash the Archer
آرش کمانگیرA long narrative poem retelling the legend of Arash, the archer whose arrow fixed Iran's frontier at the cost of his life. Framed as a story told by an old man on a winter night, it became one of the most popular poems of modern Iran.
Siavash Kasraei 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.