Qeysar Aminpour Bust

AKA Kaiser Aminpour

Bio

Qeysar [aka Kaiser] Aminpour was one of the most outstanding, and perhaps the most popular, Post-revolutionary poets of Iran whose religiously-motivated poetry and creative prose witnessed wide readership including young adults (some of his poems have appeared in national schoolbooks) as well as the followers of the emerging school of Islamic Thought and Arts (the Hozeh Honari), where he started his literary career.

Aminpour was born on 23 April 1959 in Gotvand, a small town in the south of Iran near Dezful city, where he gained his diploma. Having tried and quit different university majors from veterinary to social sciences, he finally decided to pursue Persian Literature at the University of Tehran and received a PhD degree under the supervision of M.R. Shafi’i Kadkani. Meanwhile, he also worked as the editor-in-chief of Soroush Magazine for youngsters for years until 2003, when he resigned from the position, and was appointed in the following year as a member of the highly acclaimed Academy of Persian Language and Literature.

Having grown from the representative poet of the Islamic Revolution in the 1980s to a more secluded academician and lecturer yet with proliferating popularity in the 1990s – partially due to a sever car accident that caused serious damages to his kidneys and heart leading to his death on 31 October 2007, and partially due to inevitable post-war reformations that called for more gentle subject matters, Aminpour is best remembered today for his poems addressed to young readers. They are often praised for their simplicity, use of modern and everyday language, innovative conception of habitual objects, and diversity of poetic forms (quatrains, qhazals, couplets, and Nimaic free verse) and subjects.

Winner of Nima Youshij Award for Poetry (1989), he was posthumously awarded the title of “The Unforgettable Faces” by Iranian Science and Culture Hall of Fame in 2008.

Biblio Brief

• Breathing in Small Hours (Poetry). Hozeh Honari, 1984. [تنفس صبح]
• Storm in Parentheses (Literary Prose). Barg Pub, 1986. [طوفان در پرانتز]
• In the Alley of Sunshine (Selection of quatrains from 1979 to 1983 themed on the Islamic Revolution). Hozeh Honari, 1984. [در کوچه آفتاب]
• The Tenth Day’s Noon (Poetry for Young Adults). Barg Pub, 1986. [ظهر روز دهم]
• Like a Fountain, Like a Creek (Poetry for Young Adults). Soroush Pub, 1989. [مثل چشمه، مثل رود]
• Flying without Wings (Literary Prose). Ofoq Pub, 1991. [بی بال پریدن]
• Sudden Mirrors (Selection of poems from 1985-1992). Ofoq Pub: 1993. [آینه‌های ناگهان]
• According to the Swallow (Poetry for Young Adults). Zolal Pub, 1996. [به قول پرستو]
• Selectied Poems. Morvarid Pub, 1999.
• All Flowers Are Sunflowers (Poetry). Morvarid, 2oo1. [گل‌ها همه آفتابگردانند]
• The Grammar of Love (Poetry). Morvarid Pub, 2007. [دستور زبان عشق]

Academic Reception

This Song Does not Smell of Bread: The Stylistics of Qeysar Aminpour’s Lyrics [این ترانه بوی نان نمی‌دهد] authored by Dr Mehdi Firouzian has recently been released by Abi Publicaitons.