Book Description

DIVAN OF SADI... Ghazals, Ruba'is, Masnavis, Qit'as, Pand-Nama. (Large Print & Large Format Edition) Revised, Centered Translation & Introduction Paul Smith. Sadi of Shiraz (1210-1291), a contemporary of Rumi who influenced him, was a Perfect Master Poet who expressed himself in the ruba'i form as well as many hundreds of ghazals in his beautiful Divan that often also contained images from dervish dancing. Sadi was a great traveller who spent forty years on the road throughout the Middle-East, North Africa and India and many of the incidents he experienced he wrote down in his two most famous works when he finally returned to his beloved birth-place. Sadi's mystical love poetry, his ghazals, although almost unknown in the West, are loved by his fellow-countrymen almost as much as those of Hafiz whom he greatly influenced. Here for the first time in English they can be read in all their beauty and power and spirit. The correct rhyme-structure has been kept as well as the beauty and meaning of these beautiful, mystical poems. All of the wonderful 603 ghazals and many of his ruba'is, some of his qit'as, masnavis, & his Pand-Nama (Book of Wisdom) have been translated in clear, modern, meaningful, correct-rhyming English. Introduction: Life & Times & Poetry of Sadi and his influence on the East and the West and on the form and meaning of the ghazal and the ruba'i and a Glossary and a Selected Bibliography. Large Print (16pt) and Large Format ("8.5 x 11") Edition. 558 pages. Comments on Paul Smith's Translation of Hafiz's 'Divan' "It is not a joke... the English version of all the ghazals of Hafiz is a great feat and of paramount importance. I am astonished. If he comes to Iran I will kiss the fingertips that wrote such a masterpiece inspired by the Creator of all." Dr. Mir Mohammad Taghavi (Dr. of Literature) Tehran. "Superb translations. 99% Hafiz 1% Paul Smith." Ali Akbar Shapurzman, translator of many mystical works in English into Persian and knower of Hafiz's Divan off by heart. "Smith has probably put together the greatest collection of literary facts and history concerning Hafiz." Daniel Ladinsky (Penguin Books author). Paul Smith (b.1945) is a poet, author and translator of many books of Sufi poets from the Persian, Arabic, Urdu, Turkish, Pashtu and other languages... including Hafiz, Sadi, Nizami, Rumi, 'Attar, Sana'i, Jahan Khatun, Obeyd Zakani, Mu'in, Amir Khusrau, Nesimi, Kabir, Anvari, Ansari, Jami, Omar Khayyam, Rudaki, Yunus Emre, Baba Farid, Shah Latif, Mu'in, Lalla Ded, 'Iraqi, Ghalib, Nazir, Bulleh Shah, Ibn 'Arabi, Ibn Farid, Rab'ia, Majnun, Mansur Hallaj, Rahman Baba, Jigar, Seemab and many others, as well as his own poetry, fiction, plays, biographies, children's books and a dozen screenplays. amazon.com/author/smithpa