Nezami Ganjavi (Author) Nezami Ganjavi (1141-1209) was a twelfth-century Persian poet. His accessible, realist style transformed Middle Eastern epic poetry, and he is now widely considered to be the greatest romantic poet in all of Persian literature.
Dick Davis (Translator) Dick Davis is an English-American poet and translator. Before the Islamic Revolution, Davis lived in Iran and taught English at the University of Tehran. Davis is now a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, and is considered to be one of the world's foremost translators of Persian literature.
One of the great works of Persian literature in a masterful new translation
Called 'the Romeo and Juliet of the East' by Lord Byron, Layli and Majnun is a classic tale of forbidden love that gained widespread popularity following its depiction in this twelfth-century narrative poem. Much like the lovers in the Shakespearean classic, Layli and Majnun's star-crossed lovers have become icons of both Persian literature and popular culture thanks to Nizami's accessible narrative poem, which is translated here in rhyming couplets by the acclaimed poet and scholar of Persian literature Dick Davis.
