Renowned Iranian Translator Dead at 66

 

Iranian translator, theater critic and writer, Jahed Jahanshahi passed away on December 15 in the city of Tehran at the age of 66 years old. The scholar's widow confirmed reports that he died due to cardiac arrest.  He passed away while the couple was walking along the mountains of northern Tehran.  

His works were published as recently as a month ago, when the articles he translated by Columbian novelist Gabriel Garcia Marquez between 1961 and 1984 were published. 

He is most known for introducing renowned German authors to Iranian book lovers, such as Bertolt Brecht, Thomas Bernhard and Theodor Boll.  His most noteable translations were his Persian translations of Bernhard's 'President', Brecht’s ‘Mother’, Boll’s ‘Bread of Those Early Years’, Grass’s ‘Peeling the Onion’ and Fernando Pessoa’s ‘Book of Disquiet’. Many German plays performed in Iran are based on the works he translated. 

He is remembered by Ali Abdollahi, a Persian translator of German literature, who said, "“He was one of the few prolific and expert translators of German literature in Iran."

First reports of his death were covered by a number of Iranian and Persian news agencies.