Mohammad Ali Sepanlou, the Poet of 'Tehran Epic', Passes Away

The family and close friends of Mohammad Ali Sepanlou, a poet and one of the founders of the Iranian Writers' Association, announced his passing on the evening of Monday, May 10. Sepanlou had been hospitalized in a Tehran hospital since last Tuesday due to respiratory issues until Monday afternoon when the Islamic Republic News Agency, IRNA, reported, citing Mehdi Akhvat, a friend and housemate of Sepanlou, that he was in a state of artificial coma. Akhvat also stated, 'Doctors have said we must wait to see if his vital condition returns to normal.' However, on Monday evening, Asadollah Amraei, a literary translator and friend of Sepanlou, announced the poet's death on his Facebook page, a news that was later confirmed by Sepanlou's daughter, Shahrzad Sepanlou, on her own Facebook page. Shahrzad, who is also a singer and an artist, wrote: 'Goodbye, dear father, poet of Tehran. A walking poet / with your stream / with a simple message / may your days be good / not this sad time.' Mohammad Ali Sepanlou, born in 1940, was the author of several poetry books including 'Ms. Time', 'The Epic of Soil', 'Hour of Hope', and 'Autumn on the Highway'. Among these, 'Ms. Time' and 'Soil', along with two other epics titled 'Sidewalks' and 'Dark Figure', formed a collection called 'Tehran Epic'. Sepanlou also translated works from French into Persian, including the epic 'Anabase' by Saint-John Perse, 'The Myth of Sisyphus' by Albert Camus, and 'The Childhood of a Chief', a collection of stories by Jean-Paul Sartre. His efforts earned him the Legion of Honor, France's highest distinction. He also acted in the film 'Calmness in the Presence of Others' directed by Nasser Taghvai, which was based on one of Gholamhossein Saedi's stories before the Iranian Revolution.