Customer Reviews

Vis and Ramin (Penguin Classics)

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Before Romeo and Juliet, before Paolo and Francesca, before Tristan and Isolde, Vis and Ramin sighed and suffered. This gorgeous poem, beautifully rendered in rhyming couplets by the poet Dick Davis, tells a story that is both familiar and completely foreign to the western reader. Vis falls in love with her husband's brother... there's a sly nurse who orchestrates secret trysts... But the greatest pleasure in this poem, beyond the thrill of discovering a precedent we didn't know existed, is the sheer glory of the language. I quote from a description of a battle, early in the poem: "And, elsewhere, sudden arrows entered eyes / Like sleep that takes a warrior by surprise; / Like love, spears pierced through hearts, and like good sense / Axes split open heads and arguments. / It seemed that swords found out exactly where / God placed the soul with such abundant care, / And where men's flesh was opened by the blade / The soul fled through the gaping wound it made."

It may be of interest to have some historical Background and context to what Dick Davis took on as a project when he decided to translate this Masterpiece:
(Vis o Ramin) is an ancient Persian love story. The epic was composed in poetry by the Persian poet Asad Gorgani in 11th century.

The story dates from pre-Islamic Persia. Gorgani claimed a Sassanid origin for it, however it is now being regarded as a Parthian dynastic origin, probably the first century AD.

The Vis and Ramin story has had a noticeable influence on Persian literature. Significantly, Nezami, himself a major poet of Persian romantic traditions, took the bases of much of his rhetoric from Gorgani.

The romance also has had its influence beyond Persian culture. The story became very popular also in Georgia through a 12th-century free translation in prose known as Visramiani which proved to have a long-lasting effect on the Georgian literature. Being the oldest known manuscript of the work and better preserved than the original, it is of great importance for the history of the Persian text and helped restore several corrupted lines in the Persian manuscripts.

Some scholars have strongly suggested that Vis and Ramin may have influenced the Tristan and Iseult legend, and the two plots have distinct resemblances.

Thank God Dick Davis was up for the task and has masterfully translated the poem into an easy reading and wonderfully sweet book. Vis and Ramin has been largely ignored for far too long and has not been given its deserved recognition as probably one of the most influential books ever written that still remains largely unknown. We all owe a debt of gratitude to Prof. Davis for this fantastic revival.

Translation isn't easy, especially from a language whose aesthetic is as far from that of English as is Persian's. Dick Davis has mastered the art of translating Persian epic into sprightly rhymed couplets. Davis' translation of Attar's "Conference of the Birds" is a classic, and "Vis and Ramin" is even better, a wonderful love story with vivid characters. You'll read it like a novel.

An extra treat is that this story comes from the time before all Persian love stories came to be mixed up with mysticism: it's just a deeply human love story.

After having read other tranlations by Dick Davis, I couldn't wait for this book to be published. This book once again astound me, both the story & the translation. Even though it has many pages, I carried it throughout my international trip & I couldn't put it down until I finished it. Thanks to the author, this beautiful story is now accessible to a much larger population & many can enjoy one of the best love stories. The only trajedy in the story, is that it ends... I wish there was a second and third volume to this book.

I am enjoying the transalation of this story from Persian to English. Nicely done.