page_title: Siavash Kasrai
section_title: Literary work
hierarchical_section_title: Siavash Kasrai / Literary work
caption_attribution_description: English: Siavash Kasrai
context_page_description: Siavash Kasrai was an Iranian poet, literary critic, and novelist. An active supporter of the Communist Tudeh Party of Iran from the late 1940s to the mid 1980s, he distanced himself from its leadership in 1988–1990, and turned into an outspoken critic in the mid 1990s.
context_section_description: Kasrai’s works were first published in the following volumes (with only the 2003a reference including both previously published and unpublished materials):
  1957. Ava. Tehran: Nil.
  1959. Arashe Kamangir. Tehran: Andishe.
  1962. Khune Siavash. Tehran: Amir Kabir.
  1966a. Ba Damavande Khamush. Tehran: Sa’eb.
  1966b. Sang o Shabnam. Tehran: Sa’eb.
  1967a. Ba’d az Zemestan dar Abadiye Ma. Tehran: Kanune Parvareshe Fekriye Kudakan va Nojavanan.
  1967b. Khanegi. Tehran: Bina.
  1975. Chehreye Mardomiye She’re Nima. University of Zahedan. Duplicated.
  1976. Be Sorkhiye Atash, be Ta’me Dud. Sweden (unknown city): Tudeh Party of Iran. (Published under the pseudonym Shabane Bozorg Omid.)
  1978. Az Ghorogh ta Khoruskhan. Tehran: Maziar.
  1979. Amrika, Amrika. Tehran: Elm o Honar.
  1981. Chehel Kelid. Tehran: Tudeh Party of Iran.
  1983. Tarashehaye Tabar. Kabul: Pohantun Cultural Assembly.
  1984a. Hediyei baraye Khak. London: Bina.
  1984b. Peyvand. Kabul: Tudeh Party of Iran.
  1989. Setaregane Sepidedam. London: Bina.
  1995. Mohreye Sorkh. Vienna: Kara.
  2003a. Dar Havaye Morghe Amin: Naghdha, Gofteguha, va Dastanha. Tehran: Ketabe Nader Publications.
  2003b. Havaye Aftab: Vapasin Sorudeha. Tehran: Ketabe Nader Publications.
  These are all books of poetry, except the 1967a (a children book), 1975 (a piece of literary criticism), and 2003a (including literary criticism, interviews, and novels) publications. Kasrai’s complete collection of poems was published as a 773 pages octavo in 2005 in Tehran by Ketabe Nader Publications, under the title Az Ava ta Havaye Aftab.
  The second publication, Arashe Kamangir, brought public recognition to Kasrai. Arash is a legendary figure saving his country from the humiliation and misery of defeat by putting his soul into an arrow, which will travel over and gain back lost territory. Kasrai’s version is the first epic poem in Nima Yooshij’s style, or more generally the first epic instance of Persian new poetry. The poem was dedicated to Khosro Roozbeh, a radical leftist executed in early 1958. In spite of what appeared to some as technical weakness, and in spite of the authors’ proposed dissident interpretation, Kasrai’s Arashe Kamangir was one of the few contemporary poems to find its way in schoolbooks.
  Mohreye Sorkh, Kasrai’s last publication (in his lifetime), is a mirror image of Arashe Kamangir. Like Arashe Kamangir, Mohreye Sorkh is an epic in the new poetry style, indeed a modern follow up to Ferdowsi’s Rostam and Sohrab, with a proposed political interpretation. But whereas Arashe Kamangir is a tale of sacrifice and salvation, Mohreye Sorkh is one of compromise and loss. Published after Kasrai’s break up with the Tudeh Party and a move from Moscow to Vienna, Mohreye Sorkh is an expression of regret or repentance over decades of Communist activity. Indeed, connecting his poem to current suffering in his country, Kasrai's preface speaks of  “the serious mistakes of benevolent people whose actions proceeded from fascination instead of knowledge, hurried and shortsighted, leading to the verge of destruction, and now facing the heavy price to pay.”
caption: Siavash Kasrai
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