Poetry. In A THOUSAND YEARS OF PERSIAN RUBAIYAT, Reza Saberi translates over 1,500 quatrains from more than a hundred Iranian poets from the beginning of written Persian poetry to the present. A ruba'i is a poem in four lines, which is complete in itself and expresses a single feeling or thought in a very concise and elegant language. The subjects of rubaiyat include divine love, the ecstasy of love, mystical knowledge, and the nature of life and existence.
REZA SABERI, now a resident of Fargo, North Dakota, was born and raised in Iran. He received his Bachelor's degree in English from Tabriz University in 1963. The following year he graduated from the Teachers' Training College in Tehran. He taught English in Iran for several years, translated scientific articles for the science magazine, Daneshmand, and published a novel in Persian.
After moving to the United States in 1973, he received his Master's Degree in English from Seton Hall University in New Jersey. He then attended NYU, CWRU, and NDSU, taking various courses in liberal arts and sciences.
His experiences as an educator, translator, author, and world-traveler in both the East and West, his interest in the various cultures of humankind, and his constant search for truth through various religions, philosophies and sciences all have been reflected in his books.
REZA SABERI has been in love with Persian poetry all his life. It was this lifelong love affair with Persian culture and poetry that motivated him to work several years on the translations of The Divan of Hafez, A Thousand Years of Persian Ruba'iya't, and An Invitation to Persian Poetry.
