Fables & Other Poems

Book excerpt: FABLES & OTHER POEMS Parvin E'tesami Translation & Introduction Paul Smith Parvin E'tesami (1907-1941) was one of Iran's greatest female poets. She left Tabriz for Tehran with her family in 1912 and then lived in Tehran. She learned Arabic and Persian literature from her father, a well-known literary figure. She composed her first poems in the classical style at eight and knew most Iranian poets by the time she was eleven, having a remarkable memory. She passed high school and taught for two years and was then a librarian in Tehran University. She refused to work in the royal court. Her first collection of poems was published in 1935 and she received a Medal of Art and Culture in 1936. Her poems had mainly social or mystical subjects, often being about the tyranny of the rich and the rights of the poor and the downtrodden and the role of women. She married in 1934 and divorced two months later. She died in 1941 from Typhoid fever in Tehran and was buried in Qom. The first edition of her Divan of 156 poems appeared in 1935... masnavis, qasidas, ghazals, qit'as, musammats. In her short life she achieved much fame among Iranians. This is the largest English selection her poetic fables and other poems poems translated in the correct form. Introduction on her Life, Times & Poetry & the Forms in which she wrote. Selected Bibliography. Large Print (16pt) & Large Format Paperback (8" x 10") Pages 429. Paul Smith is a poet, author and translator of many books of Sufi & other poets of the Persian, Arabic, Urdu, Turkish, Pashtu and other languages... including Hafiz, Sadi, Nizami, Rumi, 'Attar, Sana'i, Jahan Khatun, Obeyd Zakani, Nesimi, Kabir, Anvari, Ansari, Jami, Khayyam, Rudaki, Yunus Emre, Iqbal, Ghalib, Makhfi, Lalla Ded, Nazir and many others and his own poetry, fiction, plays, biographies, children's books and a dozen screenplays. amazon.com/author/smithpa