In linking and debunking the link between the Middle East and violence arise a truly magnificent examination of the rich culture of Persian poetry and art. Both Vesta Sarkhosh Curtis and Sheila R. Canby are astute scholars of the region and its art, and this compilation of love poems is testament to that expertise. Curtis’s earlier works examined Persian mythology, art, and archaeology, while Canby’s analyzed paintings of Persian royal paintings. Together, Curtis and Canby have created a fantastic tour of Persian culture that will benefit both experts of the region and its art, and novices interested in expanding its borders.
Curtis and Canby introduce the reader to the language and its changes. period, the poetic forms are unique to the Persian style, and above all, powerful artists whose works transcend time and culture. The great figures in Persian poetry, as well as history, mythology, and fables, are covered in brief but complete biographies; Men like Rumi, Hafiz and Gurgani and women like Parvin Etesami and Raba’a Qazdari. These figures are important not only to Persian society, but also to world culture, as Curtis and Canby prove in their opening poem by Goethe (p. 7):
He who wants to understand poetic art. /p>
He must go to the land of poetry
Who wants to understand the poet
The poet must go to the country.
Both poems throughout the book with Persian art works, some of which perfectly echo the style of the poem; others omit the meaning or moment captured by the poem. The poems themselves are expressed not only of romantic love but of all kinds of love in all its incarnations; the pre-Islamic Sasanian epic (P. 24), the courtly love of Farrukhi Sistani (P. 26), the lost love of Jahan Malik Khatun (P. 60), and the sensual and fiery as Raba’a Qazdari’s forbidden love (P. 16). Passion, allegories, and emotions are all conveyed in an excellent translation of the original New Persian text, a gift for those who cannot read Farsi.
Persian Love Poetry > illustrates the ideas of the universality of love, the beauty of poetry and the timelessness of true art, regardless of its origin, which are sorely needed in this increasingly uncertain and rhetorical age. It may be surprising to some who are not from Iran that poets such as Hafiz, about whom Goethe wrote so eloquently, are still revered and honored in their country, and their poetry is considered a national treasure. Aren’t there poets laureate in every culture, whose words reflect the emotions and psyche of their time and place? So why is Iran different? Curtis and Canby in their first scholarly works developed Persian art, poetry and literature into a work that can be enjoyed by any audience and made a vital, spiritual and artistic connection between the Persians and the world. Review: Persian Love Poetics Vesta Sarkhosh Curtis and Sheila R. Canby Northhampton, Massachusetts: Interlink Books, 2006 95 p. $16.95 ISBN: 1-56656-628-2
