TEHRAN – Reciting his poems “Arghavan” and “Sepideh”, Iranians bade farewell to their beloved poet Amir-Hushang Ebtehaj in front of Tehran’s Vahdat Hall on Friday.The 94-year-old Ebtehaj, who wrote under the pseudonym of “Sayeh”, died in his home in Cologne, Germany, on August 10.His body was transferred to Tehran on Thursday by his family to let his devotees say goodbye to the literary icon. Prior to the poetry recitation, he was brought to his former home in Tehran to allow him to say his final farewell to his beloved Judas tree there, for which he composed the poem “Arghavan” (“Judas Tree”).Speaking at the gathering, Ebtehaj’s daughter Yalda said, “We are here now to share this great grief.”“I congratulate you and hope you would accept this weighty thing to preserve in the earth,” she added.“Although his body will be buried, he will remain in this country with his poetry… he always was with the Iranian people in their sorrows and happiness; his heart was full of the love of Iranian people,” she noted.“By his poetry, he maintained his love of Iran, its culture and indemnity, and now, his poems have become part of our cultural inheritance, and I hope we will contemplate his poems,” asserted Yalda who used to live with her father in Cologne.The body was then sent to Rasht where his funeral will be held Saturday in Mohtasham Garden of the northern Iranian city, which is the hometown of Ebtehaj.“Father always said, ‘I wanted to return to Rasht, where I belong’,” Yalda said.“He said, ‘People realize a person who talks honestly,’ and today, the Iranian people with different thoughts responded to this comment with their great presence at this gathering,” she added.He is also survived by daughter Assia, and sons Keyvan and Kaveh.A German court previously prevented repatriating Entehaj’s body due to a complaint lodged by Assia.

However, earlier last week, the court ruled that the poet's remains may return home after his children reached an agreement to bury their father in his hometown.Photo: A man holds a picture of Amir-Hushang Ebtehaj at a gathering held in front of Tehran’s Vahdat Hall on August 26, 2022 to bid farewell to the renowned Persian poet.

(ISNA/Amid Farahi)MMS/YAW