Ahmad Shamlu was born in 1925 in Tehran, but spent his childhood in various provincial towns. A follower of Nima Yushij (1897–1960), Iran’s first modernist poet, Shamlu went on to develop his own distinct style, publishing over 20 volumes of poetry. He translated Western poetry into Persian, including the work of Langston Hughes and Federico Garcia Lorca. He also edited and founded several artistic and literary journals, and translated both fiction and poetry from the French.
For over 30 years, he collected the folk ballads, tales, games, and common street lore of the Persians, particularly natives of Tehran, to form his Dictionary of Street Language. To date, his Book of the Alley, along with much of his work, has never been published due to censorship.
Shortly before the revolution, Shamlu lived in exile in the United States and England for almost three years, but returned to Iran early in 1979. Between 1979 and his death in 2000, he remained in Iran and continued to write poetry and criticism, despite severe pressure from the authorities. His accomplishments and the influence he has had on a younger generation of Persian-speaking poets have made him one of the most revered literary figures in modern Iranian history.
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