Cyrus Atabay

• Name — Cyrus Atabay • Born — 6 September 1929 • Birthplace — Sa'dabad Complex, Tehran, Iran • Died — 26 January 1996 • Place of death — Munich, Germany • Mother — Hamdam Saltaneh Pahlavi • Father — Hadi Atabay • Family — Pahlavi dynasty • Awards — *1957: Hugo-Jacobi-Preis • 1990: Adelbert von Chamisso Prize • Relatives — Reza Shah (grandfather) Mohammad Reza Pahlavi (uncle)

Cyrus Atabay was born in Tehran as the son of Hadi Atabay and Hamdam Saltaneh Pahlavi, the first daughter of Reza Shah. Before turning 8 years old, Cyrus was sent to Berlin by his father to attend school; he lived in Germany during World War II. After the war, he lived in Iran and Switzerland. In Switzerland, Cyrus's talent for poetry was noted by author Max Rychner, and in Germany by Gottfried Benn; both wrote positively about him. His works were published for the first time in 1948 in Die Tat ("The deed"), a Swiss journal. In 1951, Cyrus returned to Germany from Switzerland and studied literature at Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München (LMU) (1952–1960). As a student in Munich, his "first three poetry collections" were published, in 1956, 1958 and 1960 respectively. In 1965, Cyrus published his first work of translation, consisting of a selection of ghazals originally written by the Medieval Persian poet Hafez. In 1978, Cyrus moved to London where he met Elias Canetti and Erich Fried. He moved back to Germany in 1983 where he lived until his death.