Ahmad Shamlou-Master Poet of Liberty (DVD)

Ahmad Shamlou (December 12, 1925 – July 24, 2000) was a Persian poet, writer, and journalist. Shamlou’s poetry is complex, yet his imagery - which contributes significantly to the intensity of his poems - is simple. For infrastructure and impact, he uses a kind of everyday imagery in which personified oxymoronic elements are spiked with an unreal combination of the abstract and the concrete unprecedented in Persian poetry before him. He is considered as the founder of Persian blank poetry. It is said that you cannot find a literate household in Iran where there is none of his poetry books available. He is an “engaged” poet in the sense that his poetry addresses socio-political issues of his time, with a prophetic emphasize on Liberty and Human Rights.

He has also written and translated numerous articles and books on a spectrum of subjects, from political to literary. His voluminous Ketab-e Koucheh (The Book of the Allies) is a major contribution to understanding Iranian folkloric beliefs and language. In 1984 he was nominated for the Noble Prize in Literature.