Plant Friendship's Tree
1st Edition
Published on 24. March 2026
978-1-949445-98-5 (ISBN)
Description
In this remarkable collection of essays and talks spanning four decades, acclaimed translator and poet Dick Davis explores the literary richness of Persian poetry and prose with a clarity, empathy, and aesthetic insight that have made him one of the foremost interpreters of Persian literature for the English-speaking world.Plant Friendship's Tree gathers together thirty-four wide-ranging pieces that delve into classical epics such as Ferdowsi's Shahnameh, mystical masterpieces like Rumi's Masnavi, romantic verse from Nezami and Gorgani, and the lyrical brilliance of poets like Hafez and Jahan Malek Khatun. With characteristic elegance, Davis examines the evolution of heroes and heroines, the aesthetics of narrative, the complex intersections of religion and identity, and the subtle power of poetic metaphor in the Persian literary tradition.Equally at home with the nuances of medieval Persian and the cadences of English verse, Davis also reflects on the art of literary translation ? its triumphs, pitfalls, and transformative potential across cultures. His essays are not only scholarly but deeply personal, written with the sensibility of a practicing poet and a devoted reader. Whether writing for fellow scholars, general readers, or complete newcomers, Davis seeks to share the beauty, depth, and humanity of Persian literature with a wide audience.Comprehensively annotated, and suffused with intellectual curiosity and a deep affection for its subject matter, Plant Friendship's Tree is both a landmark contribution to Iranian literary studies and a celebration of the enduring friendships that literature cultivates across languages, centuries, and borders.
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03/2026
Mage Publishers
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Person
Among the qualities that distinguish Dick Davis's poetry and scholarship are exacting technical expertise and wide cultural sympathy?an ability to enter into distant cultural milieus both intellectually and emotionally. In choosing his volume of poems Belonging as a ?Book of the Year? for 2006, The Economist praised it as ?a profound and beautiful collection? that gave evidence of ?a commitment to an ideal of civilized life shared by many cultures.? The Times Literary Supplement has called him ?our finest translator of Persian poetry.
Content
Introduction xiii
Acknowledgments xix
PART ONE: ON THE SHAHNAMEH- The Problem of Ferdowsi's Sources, 3 Afterword, 23
- Interpolations to the Text of the Shahnameh, 27
- The Changing Nature of the Hero in the Shahnameh, 55
- Rejected Narratives and Transitional Crises within the Shahnameh and Their Implications, 77
- Rostam: The Trickster In The Tiger Skin, 97
- Rostam and Zoroastrianism, 113 Rostam's Provenance, 115 Rostam's Actions, 122 Rostam in Medieval Texts Other than the Shahnameh, 24
- Women In The Shahnameh: Exotics And Natives, Rebellious Legends and Dutiful Histories, 133
- Sekandar, Skordion, and Darab's Queen's Bad Breath, 67
- The Aesthetics of the Historical Sections of the Shahnameh, 175
- Iran and Aniran: The Shaping of a Legend, 89
- The Shahnameh and Persian Poetry , 209
- Shahin, Judeo-Persian Poetry, and the Shahnameh, 227
- Narrative and Doctrine in the First Story of Rumi's Masnavi , 245
- The Journey as Paradigm: Literal & Metaphorical Travel in Manteq Al-Tayr, 265
- Attar as a Poet or as a Sufi?, 281
- The Vale of Soul-Making: Persian Verse Romance from Gorgani to Jami, 297
- Forgiveness for What? Vis and Ramin and Troilus and Criseyde, 317
- Greek and Persian Romances, 331
- Hafez and Nasta'liq: Lines of Beauty, 341
- How to Read a Persian Poem Introduction, 363 Conclusion, 96
- Common Metaphors in Medieval Persian Poetry for Parts of the Body, 399
- The Shahnameh, 405 The Poem's Structure, 406 The Historical Background, 409 Ferdowsi and His Sources, 412 Themes, Preoccupations, and How the Poem Changes, 414 The Poem's Reception, 428 The Translation, 430
- The Conference of the Birds, 435
- Vis and Ramin, 451 The Social World of Vis and Ramin, 454 The Aesthetics of Vis and Ramin, 460 The Poem, 467 The Poem's Afterlife, 469 In Persian Culture, 469 In Europe, 470 This Translation, 477 Addendum, 479
- Nezami's Khosrow and Shirin, and Layli and Majnun, 483
- Faces of Love: Hafez and the Poets of Shiraz, 523 The Conventions of Fourteenth-Century Persian Lyric Poetry, 529 Hafez, 540 Jahan Malek Khatun, 549 Obayd-e Zakani, 562 The Translations, 569 Poems on Translating Hafez, 575
- The Mirror of My Heart: A Thousand Years of Persian Poetry by Women, 579 The Medieval Period, 587 From 1500 to the 1800s, 597 From the 1800s to the Present, 605 Selecting the Poems in this Volume, 623 Translator's Note, 631 A Note on the Sources, 632 References, 632
- My Uncle Napoleon, 635
- At Home and Far from Home, 643
- On Not Translating Hafez, 647
- Da'i Jan Napelon as a Comic Masterpiece, 663
- Edward FitzGerald, 671
- Barbad's Song, 681
- Veiled Voices: Who Speaks in a Translation?, 713
Provenance of the Essays and Talks, 733 Bibliography, 737 General Index, 757
