The Iranian poet and painter Sohrab Sepehri
(1[zasłonięte]928-19) is revered today for many of the things he
was criticized for during his lifetime. Born and raised
in the ancient city of Kashan, he was educated in Tehran
and travelled widely. A gentle introvert by nature, he
was accused of escapism when his reaction to the world
around him was to go back to nature, mysticism and
mythology, poetry and painting. This mystic of the
twentieth century seeks a light that radiates from the
individual soul and ultimately affects its relationship
with others and the world around it. While Rumi, the
mystic of the thirteenth century, dances, sings, and
chants out loud that he comes from the world of spirit
and is a stranger in the world of matter, Sepehri,
quietly aware of humanity in a milieu alien to its
physical, psychological, and spiritual needs, in poetry
and painting, appeared to stroke human consciousness
into a tranquility, almost a state of beatitude, which
nevertheless is never quite free of the ongoing struggle
for "awareness, understanding and illumination" Sepehri
had a free and sometimes convoluted approach to the
verities of life, insisting that the book of everyday
"illusions" must be closed and . . . . . . one must rise
And walk along the stretch of time, Look at the flowers,
hear the enigma. One must run until the end of being . .
. One must sit close to the unfolding, Some place
between rapture and illumination. (Both Line and Space.
Bk.8) In this fresh translation, Bahiyeh Afnan Shahid
successfully conveys the meaning, feelings, and
sensitivity of the Persian original allowing the reader
to appreciate the pertinence of Sepehri to the
twenty-first century.
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