I heard the news of Dr. Hassan Honarmandi's suicide in Paris with utmost sadness a few days ago. I met him on several occasions during 1970-72, when he had returned to Iran and was trying to get a French language lectureship at Tehran University.
Honarmandi was a shy, small, self-contained man who was held in high regard by the intellectuals of my generation. After all, he had edited Sokhan magazine at its infancy and was credited for introducing several great French literary figures to Iranians.
In my article about the development of modern Persian poetry (see “For good” ), I explained the appearance of an off-shoot of modern Persian poetry called Sokhan school, which was in the Nima style.
Honarmandi was one of the initiators of the Sokhan School but was unable to exceed its boundaries for new ventures of creative free forms. I have explainend the position of this school in my book on the history of modern Persian poetry. See excerpt
As a poet, Honarmandi belongs to 1950s. His translations were also published during at the period. Here are two poems and two rubaies, which now, after his sad death, have attained new, interesting meaning.
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