8th Fajr International Poetry Festival opens

Tehran’s Arasbaran Cultural Center hosts the event in two sections; first section, presented by Saeed Yousefnia, a poet himself, had Seyed Ali Mousavi Garmaroudi, Khosrow Ehteshami, Afshin Ala, Fazel Nazari, Behzad Zarrinpour, Heshmat Mansouri, and Rati Saxena of India reciting their poems.

Mousavi Garmaroudi recited an ode composed by Morteza Amiri Esfandaqeh to eulogize himself, and then recited his ode composed in response to Esfandaqeh.

Khosrow Ehteshami recited two sonnets and dedicated it to martyrs’ families. Afshin Ala recited his elegy on the death of his mother. The first section had also Behzad Zarrinpour, a poet of Khorramshahr, recited a poem dedicated to his brother Behrouz Zarrinpour, a martyred soldier of Iran-Iraq War.

Fazel Nazari recited two poems. Heshmat Mansouri, a Kurdish-speaking poet recited ‘Rays of Beauty' and ‘Resplendent Flame’ in local Laki dialect. Saxena’s recital was a closing for the first section of the first day of the festival. Rati Saxena of India is a Vedic Scholar, poet, translator, editor and Director of Poetry Festival-Kritya.

Shahrokh Tondro Saleh presented the second section, where Mohammad Ali Bahmani recited a few sonnets. Baluch poet, Barakat Hut, also nicknamed ‘Barjan,’ rendered his poem. Mosfeq Kashani, the famous pro-Revolutionary poet, read two poems.

Mohammad Baqer Kolahi Ahari was next to recite his poems, and then it was Ali al-Shalah, Iraqi poet and the founder and secretary of Babylon International Poetry Festival and Al-Mutanabbi International Poetry Festival, who recited two poems.

In the final part of this section, Morteza Ale Kathir, bilingual poet of Khuzestan recited a poem in Arabic and one in Persian.


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