Ahmad Shamlou, poet, 75

["Deathwatch Central" <cdw@slick.org>]

Monday July 24 8:36 PM ET

Ahmad Shamlou, leading Iranian poet, dies 

TEHRAN (Reuters) - Ahmad Shamlou, one of Iran's finest poets, who ran
afoul of the shah and grew disillusioned with the Islamic Revolution which
overthrew him, died Monday after a long illness. He was 75.

Shamlou, who had lived in virtual seclusion in a Tehran suburb in recent
years, died in hospital after a long battle with diabetes.

A major force in the secular intellectual movement opposed to the shah
before the 1979 revolution, he developed a free-flowing poetic style at
odds with the tightly-balanced rhymes of classical Persian poetry.

Influenced by the Spanish poet Federico Garcia Lorca, the black American
Langston Hughes and by Louis Aragon, the French communist intellectual,
Shamlou also wrote increasingly of love and human suffering.

His books were banned for long periods before and after the 1979
revolution, although since the early 1990s his poems have appeared in
literary magazines.

Before the revolution he had immense influence on the intellectual
movement which fought the shah's dictatorship in parallel with the Islamic
movement. His poetry nights drew large number of youths.

His criticism of the shah's regime cost him a brief stint in jail and
forced exile in 1970s.

On his return he was immediately disillusioned as the Shi'ite clergy
cracked down on secularism and intellectual movements, and took refuge in
love poetry.

Reuters/Variety 





* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
This mailing list is brought to you by Slick.ORG at http://www.slick.org
to remove yourself from the list, send e-mail to majordomo@slick.org
and include the words "unsubscribe deathwatch" in the message (not in the
subject).  For web-based help, go to:

http://www.slick.org/cgi-bin/majordomo

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *