Sohrab Sepehri
سهراب سپهریPainter and poet of Kashan, whose quiet, luminous lines are among the most loved in modern Persian.
- Known for
- The Footsteps of Water (Seda-ye Pa-ye Ab), 1965
- Forms
- New poetry (she'r-e now)
- Collection
- Contemporary
Sepehri was a painter as well as a poet, and his poems share his paintings' clarity. He read widely in Eastern thought, and long poems such as The Footsteps of Water and The Traveller turn ordinary things, a pool, an apple, a mother's prayer, into moments of revelation.
His collected poems, Hasht Ketab (Eight Books), are still widely read in Iran.
Sepehri's poems are in copyright. We will publish translations only with permission from the rights holders; until then we write about the work.
Booksکتابها
The principal works of Sohrab Sepehri.
The Death of Colour
مرگ رنگSepehri’s first collection, published in his early twenties, while he was training as a painter. Its sombre poems in Nima’s new manner are darker and lonelier than his later work, but they already show the painter’s eye for light, colour and stillness that would mark everything he wrote.
The Footsteps of Water
صدای پای آبA long autobiographical poem that begins ‘I am from Kashan’ and moves from his childhood and family to a gentle, open vision of the world, where washing the eyes lets us see things anew. It is among the most quoted modern Persian poems.
The Traveller
مسافرA long poem in which a traveller arrives at a house in the evening and speaks of sorrow, longing and the journey of the spirit. It draws on Sepehri’s travels and on mystical traditions of both Iran and the East.
The Green Volume
حجم سبزA collection of Sepehri’s best-loved shorter poems, among them ‘Address’ and ‘Water’. Clear, luminous and calm, they ask the reader to look at ordinary things, a poplar, a stream, a neighbour, a passing friend, with fresh and unhurried eyes. Many of its lines have become everyday sayings in Iran.
The Eight Books
هشت کتابThe collected edition of Sepehri’s eight books of poetry, from The Death of Colour to The Green Volume, which he gathered and arranged himself four years before his death. It has rarely been out of print and remains one of the best-selling books of poetry in Iran.
We Nothing, We Gaze
ما هیچ، ما نگاهSepehri’s last collection, published three years before his death from leukaemia in 1980. Its poems are sparer and more abstract than those of The Green Volume, pared back towards silence, and puzzled some readers, though many now see it as the purest expression of his way of seeing.
Sohrab Sepehri 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.