TEHRAN – A group of seven Russian literati and scholars attended a meeting with Iranian professors and students of the Persian language in Shiraz on Friday evening during a program entitled the Iranian-Russian Literary Bridge.
This program has been organized by Tehran’s Book City Institute to boost literary connections between Iranian and Russian literati.
The meeting was held at the Hafez-e Shiraz Institute for Higher Education on Friday.
At the meeting, Center for Study of Sadi Director Kurosh Kamali Sarvestani spoke about the affinities between Persian and Russian literature.
Afterwards, some of the Russian literati spoke about classical Persian literature and commonalities between literary works written by Iranian and Russian authors.
Professor Marina L. Reisner talked about the influence of the Persian language over the literature of the Middle East and Russia.
Persian poets Hafez and Sadi are renowned literary figures in Russia and their works have influenced great authors like Pushkin, she said.
The meeting went on with a speech of Natalia Chalisova, another member of the Russian group.
She described Hafez as a poet of all times and all places and added that the subject of Hafez poetry is the beauty and elegance of human beings, which has been presented well in the Russian translations of his poems.
Russian novelist Ildar Abouzyarov also delivered a speech about the influence of Persian stories on his writings.
“My father had a box, which was full of Persian and Arabic stories. He had read them for me when I was a child, and this developed the dream within me of being an author” he added.
The Iranian-Russian Literary Bridge is part of a five-year plan, which has been organized by Book City to boost the cultural ties between Iranian and Russian literati.
The plan is also supported by Iran’s cultural attaché’s office in Moscow, the Center for Study of Sadi, the Islamic Culture and Relations Organization and the Fars Encyclopedia.
Book City celebrated the birthday anniversaries of Sadi and Alexander Pushkin during two separate congresses in spring 2012.
SB/YAW
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