TEHRAN, Nov. 17 (MNA) – French ambassador to Tehran has awarded Mahmoud Dowlatabadi the prestigious award France's Chevalier of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres.
Mr. Bruno Foucher, the ambassador, presented Dowlatabadi with the award on Sunday evening during a ceremony in French embassy in Tehran.


Mr. Foucher welcomed the small click of literature celebrities and delivered a short speech on Mahmoud Dowlatabadi’s works and life; “since the first printing of his works in France, the intellectual community of readers in France came to know Dowlatabadi more and more,” added the ambassador.


Mr. Foucher then went on a depiction of Dowlatabadi’s works and art of storytelling and theatre. Next speaker was Darioush Shayegan who delivered his speech first in French and then in Persian. “Dowlatabadi doubtless to say, is one of the greatest novelists of the contemporary Iran; unlike Honoré de Balzac, Dowlatabadi did not drink 50,000 cups of coffee to create his lifelong as well as the 19th century masterpiece The Human Comedy; however, he penned one of the most mesmerizing pastoral epics of modern Iran, Kelidar in the course of 15 years through thick and thin; Dowlatabadi is born in Khorasan, the cradle of Iran’s litters and wisdom; the greatness of this land as well as its wounds have been crystallized in him,” he read from his notes on paper.


“What is most entrapping in his exceptional character, apart from his special talent, for me, is his moral rectitude, honesty in intellectuality, and his perfect originality against a world where media propaganda has triumphed over; Dowlatabadi, like any other true artist is sensitive and full of anxiety; bearing the wounds of the pains inside himself; and disturbed by the souls of those whose audacious dreams had not reconciled with the vulgar realities of their times; a world ignorant of the wants of truth-seeking hearts,” Shayegan went on to distinguish Dowlatabadi.


Dowlatabadi expressed gratitude to French ambassador, Culture Minister, and cultural attaché in Tehran. He recited excerpts from Eugène Ionesco and Marcel Proust, and described French civilization and literature as outstanding in the world.


By Mehr News Agency





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