In Borrowed Ware, Dick Davis brings together a wide range of shorter poems by poets from the 'classic' period of Persian literature. It makes a fascinating introduction to a literature that is little known in the West, and incidentally provides insights into a vanished and extraordinary way of life. The book contains a lucid and entertaining introduction, and informative headnotes on each of the 68 poets whose work is included.
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Book Description
Editorial Reviews
From The New Yorker
Mr. Davis has put what he calls "Medieval Persian Epigrams" into easy, idiomatic English and provided an engaging introduction to the Persian world and an explanation of the code words that might otherwise puzzle modern readers. These authors were court poets, highly valued and well rewarded for wit, elegance, and a light touch. Originality of theme was not necessary, but there are surprises among the lovers' laments and financial complaints. Jahan Khatun, one of the few women poets, considered erotic reform but decided to "renounce renunciations." (A contemporary accused her of being a prostitute, but Mr. Davis points out that he "said this kind of thing" about everybody.) Vahshi requests,
Sweet breeze, inform my nobleThe poems are faced by versions in Persian script, making the collection pretty as well as amusing.
lord from me
That panegyrics are what I excel at,
And if he gets obstreperous and rude,
Say satire's also something I do
well at.
Review
"Dick Davis's translation of the best of Persia's medieval short poetry, borrowed ware, is a wonderful book, suffused with love, beautifully produced and with a comprehensive introduction to Persian courtly poetry." (The Independent, London)
"Many of the best poems in borrowed ware are mystical, and Davis is probably the first translator to have succeeded in conveying their intensity of focus. . . . Anyone doubting Davis's own mastery of [poetry] should turn to borrowed ware. This anthology is the most personal of Davis's excellent translations from the Persian. . . . Here, as in Western poetry of a similar period, the subjects are mostly religious and amorous, with some politics thrown in and a good deal of flattery for patrons. Yet these subjects, through their tone and imagery, invite into the book the whole range of that far-off culture's concerns." (Times Literary Supplement)
"Some of the best known Persian poets-Rudaki, Sa'di, Rumi, Hafez-are included in this book, but its virtue is that it has cast its net widely over a fascinating variety of writers from the tenth century to the seventeenth. . . . The epigrams are erotic, religious, and political (sometimes all three together!), and their tone sweeps from the tender to the scabrous, from the bitchy to the mystical." (Poetry Book Society Bulletin) -- Poetry Book Society Bulletin
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