Ali Abdollahi, prolific poet and translator,  was born in Birjand, Iran. He has published seven collections of poetry,  translated more than ninety books on literature and philosophy, and written biographies of Rainer Maria Rilke and Günter Grass, A gifted translator from German, Abdollahi has introduced a large number of poets and writers to Iranians, including Rilke, Nietzsche, Brecht, Kafka.  Abdollahi has published collections of ancient Egyptian poetry, ancient Indian poetry, contemporary Japanese poetry and Lithuanian poetry. His German poems have been published in an anthology called Hier ist Iran by Sujet Verlag. Abdollahi is the Iranian moderator of the German Lyrikline poetry website www.lyrikline.org.