Bunting's Persia

Poetry. Middle Eastern Studies. Persian Translation. Edited by Don Share, this slim anthology collects Basil Bunting's translations from Persian poetry by Rudaki, Ferdowsi, Manuchehri, Sa'd?, Hafiz, and Obaid-e Zakani, including some that are previously unpublished. Bunting, who is widely regarded as one of the most important British poets of the twentieth century, proved unusual in his deep and abiding interest in Middle Eastern culture. Here, he renders poetry of remarkable tonal and emotional range in characteristically clear and resolute language. As Dick Davis, translator of The Shahnameh: The Persian Book of Kings, comments: Reading Bunting's translations, I am struck again by how fresh and strong they are, how vivid in their feeling, and how he digs into the spirit of the originals--a kind of passionate excavation work.