Cyrus Atabay

Iranian-German poet

Hadi Atabay (father)
Hamdam Saltaneh Pahlavi (mother)

RelativesReza Shah (grandfather)
Mohammad Reza Pahlavi (uncle)FamilyPahlavi dynastyAwards

1957: Hugo-Jacobi-Preis
1990: Adelbert von Chamisso Prize

Cyrus Atabay (Persian: سیروس آتابای, 6 September 1929 – 26 January 1996) was a Persian-German poet. He mostly wrote in German and also translated works of Persian literature into German.^[1] Atabay was decorated on numerous occasions for his literary efforts, including the Adelbert von Chamisso Prize in 1990 and the Hugo-Jacobi-Preis in 1957.^[1]

Biography

Cyrus Atabay was born in Tehran as the son of Hadi Atabay and Hamdam Saltaneh Pahlavi, the first daughter of Reza Shah.^[1] Before turning 8 years old, Cyrus was sent to Berlin by his father to attend school; he lived in Germany during World War II.^[1] After the war, he lived in Iran and Switzerland.^[1] In Switzerland, Cyrus's talent for poetry was noted by author Max Rychner, and in Germany by Gottfried Benn; both wrote positively about him.^[1] His works were published for the first time in 1948 in Die Tat ("The deed"), a Swiss journal.^[1] In 1951, Cyrus returned to Germany from Switzerland and studied literature at Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich (1952–1960). As a student in Munich, his "first three poetry collections" were published, in 1956, 1958 and 1960 respectively.^[1] In 1965, Cyrus published his first work of translation, consisting of a selection of ghazals originally written by the Medieval Persian poet Hafez.^[1] In 1978, Cyrus moved to London where he met Elias Canetti and Erich Fried. He moved back to Germany in 1983 where he lived until his death.^[1]

Awards

1957: Hugo-Jacobi-Preis^[1]
1983: full member of the Bayerische Akademie der Schönen Künste (Bavarian Academy of Fine Arts))
1990: Adelbert von Chamisso Prize^[1]
1993: Member of Deutsche Akademie für Sprache und Dichtung (the German Academy for Language and Literature)

Publications

Die Worte der Ameisen. Düsseldorf: Classen Verlag, 1971, 100 pp.
Gesange von Morgen: Neue Iranische Lyrik. Hamburg: Classen Verlag, 1968, 126 pp.
Hafis, Rumi, Omar Chajjam; übertragen von Cyrus Atabay: Die schönsten Gedichte aus dem klassischen Persien. Herausgegeben und mit einem Nachwort Versehen von Kurt Scharf. 4th ed. Munich: C. H. Beck, 2015.