Vesta Sarkhosh Curtis

This is certainly an attractive little book, with color reproductions of Iranian art and Persian script accompanying each of the translated poems. I found the poems themselves a little simple, however. It may spur interest in pursuing either individual poets, or reading Firdausi’s Shahnama (‘The Book of Kings’), from which there are several excerpts.

Here are a few poems from across the centuries:

As soon as I saw you, I died
I am in turmoil, filed with passion and sorrow.
I cannot see the clear light of day for pain, and so
The sun has turned into lapis lazuli for me.
Just make me happy in secret
And return my youth to me.
- Firdausi, from Shahnama (Sudaba and Siyavush); ~1010

Around Vis, Ramin put his arm
Like a golden necklace around a tall fair cypress.
If they were seen from Paradise
No one would have been more beautiful.
The bed full of flowers and precious stones
The pillows full of musk and amber
Lips upon lips, and face turned to face
Playful like a ball in a field
The closeness, holding the beloved,
Turned their two bodies into one –
If rain had fallen on these two fair bodies
A raindrop would not have moistened there chests.
- Gurgani, from Vis and Ramin (1040-1054)

Last night, from the palm of the love-selling beauty,
I drank the wine of union until the morning.
Tonight, with a hundred thousand screams and cries,
I wait – when will there be another night like that?
- Anvari (died 1169)

Though I am old, hold me tight in your arms at night
So at dawn I will rise beside you as a young man.
- Hafiz (1325-1390)

Today, separated from my love, I am
Without companion, sweetheart and friend, I am
The one who did not sleep in the darkness of night, I am
In short, entangled in every sorrow, I am.
- Nasibi Gilani (died 1537)… (meer)