Jaleh Esfahani spent most of her life in exile from her native Iran, but she became one of the most prolific and active voices in Iranian literature. For six decades, first in the Soviet Union and most recently in Britain, she won respect for her heartfelt but controlled verses on exile, happiness and hope.

Jaleh Esfahani was born in Esfahan, Iran, in 1921. From early childhood, she had a natural talent for poetry. She published her first book of poetry at 23. In 1946, when the first congress of Iranian poets and writers was convened in Tehran, Esfahani was the only woman, and she recited a piece in front of an audience of 2,000.

Her literary activities in Iran were cut short after she married a young army officer, Shams-al-din Badie, who was an opponent of the Pahlavi regime and suffered persecution for his political views. The couple fled to the Soviet Union in 1947. Initially they settled in Baku, where Esfahani learnt Azeri and graduated from Azerbaijan State University with a BA. Later, in Moscow, she learnt Russian and got her PhD in Persian literature from Lamanosov University. For many years she worked at the Maxim Gorky International Academy of Literature. In 1981, amid the turmoil of revolution, she returned to Iran, but two years later she came to London, where she remained until her death.

During her stay in Russia, Esfahani was known as the sole female face of Persian literature. She often travelled to Tajikistan and Afghanistan and other Middle Asian countries to attend congresses and conferences and presented numerous talks and papers to promote, encourage and highlight the importance of literary co-operation among the Farsi-speaking peoples.

Poetry was Esfahani's first love. She published more than 20 volumes of poetry, most of which had been translated into Russian and various European and other Asian languages. She also translated the works of many Azari poets of the early 20th century into Farsi. Her autobiography The Shadow of Years was published in 2000.

In 2006 the first English translation of a selection of Esfahani's poetry was carried out by her friend, Rouhi Sahfii, and published by Shiraz Press under the title Migrating Birds.

Esfahani was an artist unconstrained by boundaries or country, whose worked painted the rich variety of life. “I am/ Therefore, I think./ My thoughts are sometimes simple,/ sometimes deep./ I am the commander of / my own will./ I strive, I write and read/ the inscriptions of/ empowerment/ letter by letter, line by line.”

Esfahani spoke out against the tyrants and oppressors who have ruled her country for so long, but for her, humanism was not confined to a particular country. She dedicated a substantial part of her work to liberty and free thinking.

Veils, walls and the unheard voices of confined women all have a strong presence in her work, which speaks also of movement, turmoil and the corresponding drive to sail away from it. Esfahani was often called the poet of hope, and that emotion is in abundance in her work. Her verses are suffused by love and the joy of life is the centre stage.

“To be joyous is an art,/ should other hearts beat with the/ drum of happiness/ inspired by us/ life would be a unique scene of art.”

Jaleh Esfahani is survived by her two sons.

Jaleh Esfahani, Iranian poet, was born in 1921. She died on November 29, 2007, aged 86