BELL, Gertrude Lowthian (trans.).

£550 · Offered by Peter Harrington · No longer available

Poems from the Divan of Hafiz. First edition of Bell's widely respected translation of Hafiz, the 14th-century Sufi poet whose work is considered to represent "the zenith of Persian lyric poetry" (Encyclopaedia Iranica). Her second published work, it was also the first to appear under her own name. This copy is from the later issue; the first issue has the spine lettered and decorated in gilt.In 1892, Bell (1868-1926) set out on what proved to be a formative journey to Tehran, where her uncle, Sir Frank Lascelles, was British minister. "Having studied Persian with the oriental scholar Sandford Arthur Strong during the winter prior to her journey, she embarked on a verse translation of the mystical poet Hafiz... She brought an insightful interpretation of the East's cultural depth and of the underlying ambiguities of Hafiz's poems. Her translation received a favourable critical reception on its publication and was long regarded as the best free-verse translation into English" (ODNB).

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