Mehdi Sahabi Explained

Death Date:November 9, 2009 (aged 66)
Death Place:Paris, France
Occupation:translator, painter, and author
Language:Persian
Nationality:Iranian
Mehdi Sahabi
Birth Date:February 1944
Native Name:مهدی سحابی
Native Name Lang:fa
Birth Place:Qazvin, Iran

Mehdi Sahabi (Persian: مهدی سحابی; February 1944 in Qazvin (Iran) – November 9, 2009 in Paris (France)) was an Iranian intellectual, translator, painter, and writer. Born in the provincial Iranian capitol of Qazvin in 1944, Sahabi translated novels originally in English, French, and Italian into Persian.[1] He left his studies at the Faculty of Fine Arts of Tehran University and Rome University of Fine Arts unfinished.

His translation of Marcel Proust's In Search of Lost Time, which he spent 11 years on, is considered his finest. He also translated Gustave Flaubert's Madame Bovary and Sentimental Education, Charles Dickens' David Copperfield, All Men are Mortal by Simone de Beauvoir, Stendhal's The Red and the Black, The Baron in the Trees by Italo Calvino and Louis-Ferdinand Céline's Death on Credit.

Sahabi was awarded Iran's Book of the Year award, after which no translator won for 18 years. He died in Paris of a heart attack on November 9, 2009. His funeral took place in Tehran.

Notes and References

  1. News: Iranian translator Mehdi Sahabi dies at 66. November 11, 2009. Tehran Times Culture Desk. Tehran Times. 2009-11-11.