Bijan Elahi (Persian: بیژن الهی; pronounced [biː'ʒæn elɑː'hiː]; 7 July 1945 – 1 December 2010) was an Iranian modernist poet and translator.[1] He was for most of his life known as a leading figure of a modernist poetry movement in Iran called The Other Poetry (شعر دیگر).
Bijan Elahi | |
|---|---|
| بیژن الهی | |
| Born | 7 July 1945 Tehran, Iran |
| Died | 1 December 2010 (aged 65) Tehran, Iran |
| Occupation(s) | Poet, translator |
| Spouses | |
| Children | 1 |
Elahi's poems were posthumously published in two volumes: Vision (2014) and Youths (2015). Youths brings together what the poet’s calls his “young poems” (Javaniha, 233), many of which had been published in serial form prior to the 1979 revolution. Vision is a collection of four poem cycles that indicate the fullness of Elahi’s contribution to Persian literature.[2]
Rebecca Ruth Gould and Kayvan Tahmasebian have argued that "A considerable strand of Persian poetry today is directly and indirectly inspired by Elahi's inventions and inspirations."[3]
Elahi's poems have appeared in English in Poetry Wales, Waxwing, The McNeese Review, and Tin House.The first book-length translation of his poetry appeared in 2019 under the title High Tide of the Eyes: Poems by Bijan Elahi, translated by Rebecca Ruth Gould and Kayvan Tahmasebian.[4]
References
edit- ^ Ganjavi, Mahdi. "Elahi, Bijan". Encyclopedia Iranica. Retrieved 28 February 2018.
- ^ "Iranian poet Bijan Elahi (1945–2010) – curated by Rebecca Gould and Kayvan Tahmasebian". Retrieved 28 December 2018.
- ^ Kayvan Tahmasebian and Rebecca Gould (2017). "Waxwing Literary Journal: American writers & international voices". waxwingmag.org. Retrieved 29 December 2018.
- ^ Bijan Elahi, High Tide of the Eyes, translated by Rebecca Ruth Gould and Kayvan Tahmasebian (New York: The Operating System, Glossarium: Unsilenced Texts & Modern Translations series, 2019).
External links
edit- Curated website about Bijan Elahi
- Reading of poetry by Bijan Elahi, Hasan Alizadeh, and Kayvan Tahmasebian (Yale University, Online, 2019)'
- Ganjavi, Mahdi. Bijan Elahi and the Rise of Sufi Experimental Poetry in Persian