La-Udri, Habib Sahir

Habib Sahir (1903-1985), a poet hailing from Tabriz with the nom de plume La’adri. His grandfather and his family had, prior to his birth, departed from the village of Turk Miyana and settled in the Duhchi neighborhood in Tabriz. His father, Mir Qawam, lost his life in the civil strife which broke out in Tabriz in the durring the Constitutional Revolution in a trench in Surkhab and his considerable wealth was seized by his brother. He spent his childhood in poverty. He received his early education at a traditional school where his teacher forced him to commit Gulistan and Bustan to heart whereas he did not have a good knowlage of Persian. In high school, he was a classmate of Shahriyar and it is widely believed that in his hemistich ‘O Shahriyar! You did not travel without your Habib (lit. ‘friend’)’, he alluded to Habib Sahir. After graduating from high school and having held literary associations with Shahriyar, he departed for Kurdestan. In 1927 he traveled to Istanbul to furthered his studies and he obtained his BA in geography in 1933. He stayed for six years at an American club in Istanbul where he established friendship with two French Catholic priests who were knowledgeable about Modern French literature. He learned a lot from them about Modern French poetry and translated the works of some modernist poets, e.g. Baudelaire, into Persian. He was introduced to modern Turkish poetry (and the ideals of Young Turks) in Istanbul, though he regards Taqi Raf’at as his main teacher of poetry who published, together with Shams Kasma’i, the periodical Azadistan as ‘the organ of literary modernism’ in Tabriz at the time of Khiyabani. After his six year stay in Istanbul, Sahir departed for Baku and after a while he went to Tehran. He found an employment as a teacher at the Education Administration in Tehran and was transferred as a geography teacher in 1934 to Zanjan, but since he taught his students in their mother tongue (Turkish) and ignored the reminders sent to him, he was sent into exile to Mazandaran, where he contracted malaria and returned to Tehran. Then he departed for Qazwin and finally resumed teaching in Tabriz. The strangulation under Reza Shah came to an end in 1941 and many cultural and literary activities began in Iran, particularly in Azerbaijan. Sahir also escalated his literary activities and published some of his books. Sahir wrote school text books in Turkish during Pishihwari’s ephemeral republic in Tabriz. After the return of the Pahlavi rule to Azerbaijan in the late 1946, Sahir was sent into exile to Ardabil where he taught and ignoring that he was under supervision, he published his Persian collection of poetry, Ash’ar-i Jadid, in a limited circulation. After his three year settlement in Ardabil, he was transferred once again to Qazwin and resumed his teaching career there. It was in those years that he clandestinely distributed his Turkish books, Ku’ushan and Lirik Shi’rlar, and later published his Persian collections of poetry, Khushih-ha; Asatir; and Ash’ar-i Barguzidih (Selected Poetry). After 13 years of settlement in Qazwin, he was transferred to Tehran and lived there to his last days. In Tehran, he published Kitab-i Shi’ir-i 1, Kitab-i Shi’ir-i 2, Miwih-yi Gas, Nimunih-ha’I az Adabiyyat-i Manzum-i Turk, and Sahar Ishiqlanir. Many of his poetical compositions appeared after the Revolution in journals published in Tabriz, Zanjan, Tehran, and elsewhere. His articles, poetry, and other works have been published in Persian with the noms de plume Sahir Habib Sahir, Mir Habib Sahir, Sahir Tabrizi, and in Turkish with noms de plume Sahir, Uliklar, La’adri, Aydini, Aqjinabli, and Surkhabli. Sahir was a fiction writer and poet of vigor. His works have appeared in Turkish, Persian, and French. He composed modern poetry in Persian, established a novel style in Turkish poetry, and was accorded the title ‘father of modern Turkish poetry of Iran’ as a contemporary of Mirza Taqi Khan Raf’at and prior to Nima. Habib Sahir’s innovations, although not reflected as much in contemporary literary milieu, are of significance in the history of development of Persian poetry, since his innovations in breaking from classical forms were independent of Nima Yushij. On the other hand, his adaptations and translations from the literary works of the poets from Turkey, in terms of quality and quantity, enriched Persian literature. A three credit course on him poetry, Sahir Shinasaliq, is being offered in graduate Turkish literature programs in Turkey and the Republic of Azerbaijan. The literary delicacies of Sahir’s Turkish poetry, like Shahriyar’s Hiydar Babaya Salam, are widely used by Turkish speakers. He made translations in verse of the last section (juz’) of the Holy Qur’an, selected ghazals of Hafiz, sixty original quatrains by Khayyam, Sa’di’s Gulistan, and many other works into modern Turkish. Having led a life of struggle for the cause of establishment of truth and serving people, the combatant and popular poet of the people of Azerbaijan died on the eve of 14 December 1985 and was buried at Bihisht-i Zahra Cemetery. His Persian works include a collection of classical and modern poetry titled Shaqayiq (1943); Sayih-ha (1945); Ash’ar-i Barguzidih (1947); Afsanih-yi Shab (1946); Khushih-ha (1954); Jughrafiya-yi Ayalat-i Khamsih (1956); a scholarly study on geography (1956); Asatir (1966); Ash’ar-i Barguzidih (1968); Kitab-i Shi’r-i Sahir 1 (1974); Kitab-i Shi’r-i Sahir 2 (1975); Mivih-yi Gas (collection of stories and memoirs, 1975); Adabiyyat-i Manzum-i Turki (anthology, including the biographical accounts of more than one hundred Turkish speaking poets from Turkey, 1977). His Turkish works include: a collection of poetry, titled Lirik (1965); Sahar Ishiqlanir (1979); translations of selected classical Persian works into Turkish, titled Su’namin Guneshlar (1982); a collection of memoirs titled Daghiniq Khatirihlar (1982). Most of his works are in Turkish and they have appeared in different periodicals. In his last years, he mainly published two or three volumes of memorable Turkish works and contributed to Turkish periodicals, including 200 poems, articles, stories, and memoirs published in Turkish periodicals like the Varliq; the Azadliq; the Yi’ni Yul; the Inqilab Yulunda. Some of his books have been translation into Persian, e.g. six poems with an introduction titled Nimunih-ha’i az Shi’ir-i Sahir (1968); a folkloric poetical composition titled Arzi ve Qember (1976); Qissih-yi Dars-i Gulistan from a collection of seven stories, titled Majmu’ih-yi Haft Qissih. Many of his Turkish and Persian works have are unpublished.

Ba Khilvat-guzidigan-i Khak: Gushih-ha’i az Tarikh-i Adabiyyat-i Mu’asir دید از نوآوری‌های ساهر (48-62).