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| Borrowed Ware | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Medieval Persian Epigrams | ||||||||||||||||||||||
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In Borrowed Ware, poet and translator Dick Davis brings together a collection of epigrams by poets from the "classic" period of Persian literature. It makes a fascinating introduction to a literature that is little known in the West, and incidentally provides insight into a vanished and extraordinary way of life. Davis's prodigious scholarship of Persian poetry has enabled him to select a wide range of poems, from both famous and little-known poets. The result is some of the best English translations of Persian poetry ever. Davis has maintained exceptional faithfulness to the original Persian while recasting the poems' grace and drive in English. The book also contains a lucid and entertaining introduction, and informative notes on each of the sixty-eight poets whose work is included. Each poem is faced by the text in delicate Persian nasta'liq calligraphy by Amir Hossein Tabnak.
The Independent: "Dick Davis's translation of the best of Persia's medieval short poetry, borrowed ware, is a wonderful book, suffused with love, beautifully produced and with a comprehensive introduction to Persian courtly poetry."
The Atlantic Monthly: "Mr. Davis has put what he called "Medieval Persian Epigrams" into easy, idiomatic English and provided an engaging introduction to the Persian world and an explanation of the code words that might otherwise puzzle modern readers. These authors were court poets, highly valued and well rewarded for wit, elegance, and a light touch. Originality of theme was not necessary, but there are surprises among the lovers' laments and financial complaints. Jahan Khatun, one of the few women poets, considered erotic reform but decided to "renounce renumerations." (A contemporary accused her of being a prostitute, but Mr. Davis points out that he "said this kind of thing" about everybody.) The poems are faced by versions in Persian scripts, making the collection pretty as well as amusing."
Times Literary Supplement: "Many of the best poems in borrowed ware are mystical, and Davis is probably the first translator to have succeeded in conveying their intensity of focus. . . . Anyone doubting Davis's own mastery of [poetry] should turn to borrowed ware. This anthology is the most personal of Davis's excellent translations from the Persian. . . . Here, as in Western poetry of a similar period, the subjects are mostly religious and amorous, with some politics thrown in and a good deal of flattery for patrons. Yet these subjects, through their tone and imagery, invite into the book the whole range of that far-off culture's concerns."
Poetry Book Society Bulletin: "Some of the best known Persian poets--Rudaki, Sa'di, Rumi, Hafez-are included in this book, but its virtue is that it has cast its net widely over a fascinating variety of writers from the tenth century to the seventeenth. . . . The epigrams are erotic, religious, and political (sometimes all three together!), and their tone sweeps from the tender to the scabrous, from the bitchy to the mystical."
Kirkus Reviews: "Whatever these short and witty epigrams sound like in their original language--which is included here for those who can read such calligraphy!--they are delightful as re-created in English by Davis, a poet and professor of Persian. All drawn from the classic period of Persian poetry (the 10th through 16th centuries), these public and formal poems--whether capturing a moment's mood or praising a courtier--come alive in Davis's scrupulous translations, invigorated with a user-friendly scholarly apparatus."
A Geographical and Historical Note
Poems by: Abu Sa'id Abul Khayr · Afzaladdin · Aghaji · Ama'q · Amareh · Amir Shahi · Anonymous · Anvari · Ashhari · Atai Razi · Ayesheh · Azraqi · Bulfaraj · Daqiqi · The Daughter of Salar · Ebn Yamin · Emadi · Eraqi · Faghani · Fakhraddin Mobarak Shah · Fayzi (of Agra) · Fayzi (of Torbat) · Hafez · Jabali · Jahan Khatun · Jamaladdin Esfahani · Kamaladdin Esmail · Kesa'i · Khaghani · Khaju · Khosravani · Khosrow Dehlavi · Mahasti · Majd-e Hamgar · Manjik · Mas'ud Sa'd · Mohammad Abdah · Mojir · Mokhtari · Naser Khosrow · Onsori · Qatran · Rabe'eh Qozdari · Rafi' Marvazi · Rashidi · Rokn-e Sayen · Rudaki · Rumi · Sa'd Gilani · Sa'di · Saber · Sadr-e Zanjani · Sadr Khojandi · Sahabi · Sama'i · Sana'i · Semnani · Seraji Segzi · Seyed Hasan-e Ghaznavi · Shahab Kaghazi · Shahid · Shams-e Sojasi · Sharafaddin · Shatranji · Sifaddin · Tajaddin · Vahshi · Zahir Faryabi
Index
You want proof I'm not just a
pampered brat?
pampered brat?
You've no idea of what it is I do?
Bring me a horse, a bow,
a book, some poems,
a book, some poems,
A pen, a lute, dice, wine, a chess set too.
A Note on the Text
The texts for the poems translated here are taken from the following books:
Ganj-e Sokhan, ed. Zabihollah Safa, 3 vols., Tehran, n.d.
Tarikh-e Adabiyat dar Iran, ed. Zabihollah Safa, 5 vols., Tehran,
reprinted 1366/1987
Hezar Sal She'r-e Parsi, ed. Ja'far Ebrahimi et al., Tehran,
1365/1986
Nozhat al-Majales, ed. Mohammad Amin Riahi, Tehran,
1366/1987
Pishahangan-e She'r-e Parsi, ed. Mohammad Dabirsiaqi, Tehran
2536/1978
Kolliyat-e Eraqi, ed. Sa'id Nafisi, Tehran, n.d.
Divan-e Onsori-ye Balkhi, ed. Mohammad Dabirsiaqi, Tehran,
1363/1984
Sokhanan-e Manzoum-e Abu Sa'id Abul Khayr, ed. Sa'id Nafisi,
Tehran, n.d.
Kolliyat-e Sa'di, ed. Mohammad Ali Foroughi et al., Tehran, n.d.
Kolliyat-e Obayd-e Zakani, ed. Parviz Atabeki, Tehran,
1343/1964
Divan-e Qatran-e Tabriz, ed. Hasan Taqizadeh et al., Tehran,
1362/1983
Divan-e Anvari, ed. Sa'id Nafisi, Tehran, 1364/1985
Kolliyat-e Divan-e Shams-e Tabrizi, ed. Badi'alzaman Forouzan far et al., Tehran, 1351/1972
Divan-e Vahshi-ye Bafeghi, ed. Hosayn Nakha'i, Tehran,
1366/1987
Divan-e Mas'ud-e Sa'd, 2 vols., ed. Mehdi Nuryan, Esfahan,
1365/1986
Divan-e Kh'ajeh Hafez-e Shirazi, ed. Seyyed Abu'l Qasem Anjavi-Shirazi, Tehran, 1346/1967.
In preparing the brief notes on individual poets my chief debt is to Dr. Zabihollah Safa's Tarikh-e Adabiyat dar Iran ('History of Literature in Iran', 5 vols., Tehran, reprinted 1366/1987). I have also made use of Dr. Mohammad Amin Riahi's introduction to his edition of the 14th-century anthology of rubaiyat, the Nozhat al-Majales ("Pleasure of the Assemblies"), as well as using material from other sources.
DICK DAVIS was born to English and Italian parents in 1945 and educated at King's College, Cambridge (B.A. and M.A. in English Literature). In 1970 while pursuing a career in poetry and literature and teaching in Greece he visited a friend in Iran. While there, he fell ill and was nursed to health by a Persian woman, whom he eventually married. Davis fell in love with the country as well, and stayed for eight years, learning Persian and teaching at the University of Tehran. After the revolution in 1979 the Davis family returned to England where he pursued his love of the Persian language, earning his Ph.D. in Medieval Persian Literature from the University of Manchester.
Since then, he has emerged as the foremost translator of Persian as well as having published numerous volumes of his own poetry to critical acclaim, including: Touchwood, A New Kind of Love, Devices and Desires, and Covenant. He is currently professor of Persian at Ohio State University and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. His other translations from Persian include The Lion and the Throne: Stories from the Shahnameh of Ferdowsi (Mage, 1997), My Uncle Napoleon (Mage, 1996), The Legend of Seyavash (Penguin Classics, 1992), and with Afkham Darbandi, The Conference of the Birds (Penguin Classics, 1984). He has also written a groundbreaking interpretation of the Shahnameh, Epic and Sedition: The Case of Ferdowsi's Shahnameh (Mage, 1998).
There are any number of translations into English of Persian poetry, but Borrowed Ware is the only one which focuses on the epigram form. Note that these other translations are of varying quality.
The Hand of Poetry : Five Mystic Poets of Persia : Translations
from the Poems of Sanai, Attar, Rumi, Saadi and Hafiz
translated by Coleman Barks (Omega, 1993).
Persian Calligraphic Designs
by Mehry Motamen Reid (Stemmer House, 1997)
If you like the poetic epigram form, check out the Emily Dickenson Random Epigram Machine. If you are looking for a specific poem, try Poemfinder which claims to be "the ultimate poetry reference on the web."
Try this for a quick overview of Persian calligraphy.
There are a number of haphazard pages of Persian poetry including one at Farsinet which has links to others.
©Copyright Mage Publishers 1994-2003
