16 Facts About Nima Yooshij

Nima Yooshij or Nima Yushij, called Nima, born Ali Esfandiari, was a prominent Iranian poet.

Nima Yooshij is considered the father of modern Persian poetry.

Nima Yooshij was the eldest son of Ibrahim Nuri of Yush.

Nima Yooshij was a Tabarian, but had Georgian roots on his maternal side.

Nima Yooshij grew up in Yush, mostly helping his father with the farm and taking care of the cattle.

Nima Yooshij was a truant student and the mullah often had to seek him out in the streets, drag him to school, and punish him.

At the age of twelve, Nima Yooshij was taken to Tehran and registered at the St Louis School.

In other words, even though Nima Yooshij continued to write poetry in the tradition of Saadi and Hafez for quite some time his expression was being affected gradually and steadily.

Consequently, Nima Yooshij began to replace the familiar devices that he felt were impeding the free flow of ideas with innovative, even though less familiar devices that enhanced a free flow of concepts.

In general, Nima Yooshij reformed the rhythm and allowed the length of the line to be determined by the depth of the thought being expressed rather than by the conventional Persian meters that had dictated the length of a bayt since the early days of Persian poetry.

In other words, Nima Yooshij realized that while some readers were enthused by the charms of the lover and the coquettish ways of the beloved, the majority preferred heroes with whom they could identify.

Nima Yooshij actually wrote quite a few poems in the traditional Persian poetry style and as critiqued by Abdolali Dastgheib, showed his ability well.

Furthermore, Nima Yooshij enhanced his images with personifications that were very different from the "frozen" imagery of the moon, the rose garden, and the tavern.

The venues in which Nima Yooshij published his works are noteworthy.

Radical in nature, Nima Yooshij was attracted to the new papers and published many of his groundbreaking compositions in them.

Ali Azimi in his former band, Radio Tehran used one of Nima Yooshij's poems titled When Crying Begins in their hit song Tamume Chiza.