Professor Dick Davis and Shahnameh, The Persian Book of Kings
I recently finished reading Shahnameh, the great epic poem written over 1,000 years ago by Abolqasem Ferdowsi. This is considered the finest poetic work in the Persian language.
Professor Dick Davis, the English-speaking world's most brilliant translator of and authority on medieval Persian literature, has produced an English translation that is beautiful and truly epic.
How does this fit in with the 20th Century's Pacific War? Shahnameh tells the story of generations of kings--their ambitions, their attempts to spread justice throughout their empire, the wars of conquest that are designed to achieve universal peace, their deadly and murderous rivalries with tribal enemies, sons and brothers, their loves and lust--and the delicate balance that too often tips peaceful rivalries into wars of annihilation.
If you like grand, sweeping stories of war and peace, you will love Professor Davis' epic work, Shahnameh.
As a side note, he has also translated Vis & Ramin, an epic poem about star-crossed lovers who were probably the source for the Tristan & Isolde and Romeo & Juliet love stories. Davis' translation is filled with lines that will make you sigh and make you cry.
The only criticism I have is that one of his footnotes makes a back-handed comment comparing a bandit tribe in his poem to the borderland Scots marauding and pirating England. My wife is from the Kingdom of Fife, Scotland, home of James VI of Scotland, destined to become James I, first King of the United Kingdom. Some Scots were invited - and stayed. My apologies, Dick
