Nezami Ganjavi (1141-1209) is considered the greatest romantic epic
poet in Persian literature. A Sunni Muslim born to a Persian father
and a Kurdish mother, he lived most of his life in his hometown of
Ganjeh, in present-day Azerbaijan. He was married three times; all
three of his wives predeceased him, and, rarely for a Persian poet
of his time, he wrote with apparently heartfelt and surprisingly
personal eloquence about his affection for them and his sorrow at
losing them. His introduction of an element of mysticism into his
romance narratives is an innovation that was followed by most of
his many imitators.
Dick Davis (translator/introducer) is the foremost English-speaking
scholar of medieval Persian poetry in the West and "our finest
translator of Persian poetry" (The Times Literary Supplement). A
fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and an emeritus professor
of Persian at Ohio State University, he has published more than
twenty books. His other translations from Persian include The
Conference of the Birds; Vis and Ramin; The Mirror of My Heart- A
Thousand Years of Persian Poetry by Women; Faces of Love- Hafez and
the Poets of Shiraz; and Shahnameh- The Persian Book of Kings, one
of The Washington Post's ten best books of 2006. Davis lives in
Columbus, Ohio.
“A highly engaging tale of impossible love . . . The first verse
translation of the 12th-century Persian poet Nezami . . . Davis’s
rhythmic translation is full of lush imagery.” ―Publishers
Weekly
“Nezami . . . paints a visionary world full of erotic tension and
trepidation which is both sublimated and enriched with
psychological chiaroscuro.” ―Italo Calvino
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