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The Mirror Of My Heart: A Thousand Years of Persian Poetry by Women Hardcover – October 1, 2019

by Dick Davis (Author)
4.6 4.6 out of 5 stars 105 ratings
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I gaze into the mirror of my heart, / And though it's me who looks, it's you I see. So speaks one of the many distinctive voices in this new anthology of verse by women poets writing in Persian, most of whom have never been translated into English before; this is especially true of the pre-modern poets, such as the unnamed author of the lines above, known simply as the "daughter of Salar" or "the woman from Esfahan."

One of the very first Persian poets was a woman (Rabe eh, who lived over a thousand years ago) and there have been women poets writing in Persian in virtually every generation since that time until the present. Before the twentieth century they tended to come from society's social extremes. Many were princesses, a good number were hired entertainers of one kind or another, and they were active in many different countries Iran of course, but also India, Afghanistan, and areas of central Asia that are now Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, and Tajikistan. Not surprisingly, a lot of their poetry sounds like that of their male counterparts, but a lot doesn't; there are distinctively bawdy and flirtatious poems by medieval women poets, poems from virtually every era in which the poet complains about her husband (sometimes light-heartedly, sometimes with poignant seriousness), touching poems on the death of a child, and many epigrams centered on little details that bring a life from hundreds of years ago vividly before our eyes.

In the nineteenth century we begin to see political poems, often very angry ones, by women demanding both the independence of Middle-Eastern countries from Western governments and women s emancipation.Perhaps the most personal and intensely emotional poems are those of the last hundred years, in which we see local sensibilities rooted in a millennium of literary and social tradition responding to, and embracing or rejecting, the myriad multi-cultural strands that make up the modern world.

The Mirror of My Heart is a unique and captivating collection introduced and translated by Dick Davis, an acclaimed scholar and translator of Persian literature as well as a gifted poet in his own right. In his introduction he provides fascinating background detail on Persian poetry written by women through the ages, including common themes and motifs and a brief overview of Iranian history showing how women poets have been affected by the changing dynasties. From Rabe'eh in the tenth century to Fatemeh Ekhtesari in the twenty-first, each of the eighty-four poets in this volume is introduced in a short biographical note, while explanatory notes give further insight into the poems themselves.

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  1. Print length
    344 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    Mage Publishers
  4. Publication date
    October 1, 2019
  5. Dimensions
    5.8 x 1 x 8.7 inches
  6. ISBN-10
    1949445054
  7. ISBN-13
    978-1949445053
  8. See all details
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Editorial Reviews

Review

As well as being an admired poet in his own right, Dick Davis is widely regarded as our leading translator from Persian. Every page of "The Mirror of My Heart" shows why, whether through the limpid beauty of the poems themselves or in his command of a diction that ranges from the elegant to the slangy...In every respect, "The Mirror of My Heart" is outstanding. Reading it one discovers a whole tradition of love poetry, epigram and elegy, movingly brought into English and then beautifully printed and bound by Washington's own Mage Publishers. Most important now, this anthology reminds us how much we all share the same joys, the same sorrows.--Michael Dirda --The Washington Post, October 2019

Review

Davis, a poet, scholar, and translator of Persian literature, delivers an anthology that provides ample context for readers looking to explore Persian poetry written by women from the Middle Ages to the present. “A significant feature of Persian poetry,” Davis writes, “that distinguishes it from most verse written in European language is that almost all of it—from the earliest poems, to the present day—remains relatively accessible to a contemporary speaker.” Among the contemporary poets included in the anthology is Pegah Ahmadi (born in 1974), an Iranian political refugee and one of the translators of Sylvia Plath into Persian. “Why in the depths of no-progress is nothing moving?” she asks in an untitled poem. “Language is a cutting off of terror/ look, blood doesn’t flow from the wrist,/ and neither does it clot/ and I, whose eye was an open history of intensity,/ throw a razor into the abyss.” With its subtle, comprehensive history of how female poets have responded to political upheaval throughout the centuries, this work provides readers with a thoughtful and thorough introduction to Persian poetry, and the important role that women have played in shaping it. (Oct.) Publishers Weekly.

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Mage Publishers; 1st edition (October 1, 2019)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 344 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1949445054
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1949445053
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.27 pounds
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.8 x 1 x 8.7 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.6 4.6 out of 5 stars 105 ratings

Customer reviews

4.6 out of 5 stars
4.6 out of 5
105 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Erica Leigh Durian
5.0 out of 5 stars Absolutely Delightful
Reviewed in the United States on July 9, 2023
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The title of the anthology says it all. You get a vast, varied collection of absolutely beautiful and inspiring poetry by Persian women poets from long past to near present. Of course, there are also notes and references included for context and history, including a brief biography of each featured poet. Any poetry-lover would enjoy this immensely.
3 people found this helpful
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Christina C.
5.0 out of 5 stars Superb collection of poetry
Reviewed in the United States on November 26, 2021
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A fascinating and thought provoking collection of poetry by women writing in Persian - poets from Persia, Afghanistan, and India and covering over a millenia. Many of these poets I had never heard of but I am oh so glad I can read them now. Poignant, political, maternal, melancholy - they cover a range of emotions, eras - with a voice that is often un-expected - a mirror into other worlds. The collection has a great introduction that covers much of the history of women poets in the Persian speaking world and excellent notes. A real find for any poetry lover; especially those who want to hear long hidden voices.
4 people found this helpful
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PoohBear
4.0 out of 5 stars A nice collection of poems
Reviewed in the United States on July 30, 2020
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This is a nice collection of poems. A bio of each poetess is given and it's interesting that some of them were murdered because they were aligned with or part of the ruling family and then another family took over.
Several of the poems are similar to ancient Chinese poems. As a collection only the ancient Japanese poetry collection Kokinshu ( also called Kokin Wakashu) gets five stars.
4 people found this helpful
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Ajax
1.0 out of 5 stars Pretty cover
Reviewed in the United States on November 6, 2023
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The cover was lovely, maybe one day will get to see what the rest of the book was like. The book arrived without blemish, because it was invisible, may order it again, probably wouldn’t recommend
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MMRudy
4.0 out of 5 stars I have several books of Persian and Iranian poetry.
Reviewed in the United States on December 12, 2019
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I like this one very much.
3 people found this helpful
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zohreh Ghavamshahidi
5.0 out of 5 stars Beautiful poetry
Reviewed in the United States on April 3, 2023
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It is easy to resd
One person found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

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Gabriela
3.0 out of 5 stars Damaged item
Reviewed in Brazil on March 27, 2023
Verified Purchase
I haven't read it yet but it arrived in a bad condition

Ainda não li, mas chegou em péssimas condições, com danos na capa.
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Gabriela
3.0 out of 5 stars Damaged item
Reviewed in Brazil on March 27, 2023
I haven't read it yet but it arrived in a bad condition

Ainda não li, mas chegou em péssimas condições, com danos na capa.
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Mary Jane
5.0 out of 5 stars Poetry book
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on February 16, 2023
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And interesting selection of poems from an interesting culture.
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DJ
5.0 out of 5 stars Meaning not lost in translation
Reviewed in India on January 23, 2023
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A friend introduced me to this book...I quite liked the poignant words.

Although translated...the poems have the impact.

In terms of quality of the book...the paper is soft and the print is eye-friendly.
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DJ
5.0 out of 5 stars Meaning not lost in translation
Reviewed in India on January 23, 2023
A friend introduced me to this book...I quite liked the poignant words.

Although translated...the poems have the impact.

In terms of quality of the book...the paper is soft and the print is eye-friendly.
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Brian Griffith
5.0 out of 5 stars Fantastic translation of the world's greatest lineage of female poets
Reviewed in Canada on November 17, 2020
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Dick Davis is perhaps the world’s greatest translator of Persian classics into English, capturing the nuance, beat, rhyme, and passion in a way that does justice. In this volume he showcases the female side of a civilization that has prized poetry like no other. He selects great poems by about 85 women spanning over a thousand years, from Rabe’eh in the 900s CE to Fatemeh Ekhtesari a few years ago. Let me mention just two of them.

Mahsati Ganjavi (1089–1159) published famous quatrains, celebrating joy and love as the greatest aims in life. She lived her dream of personal fulfillment on a public stage, as an intellectual associate of Omar Khayyam and a companion of the Seljuq Sultan Sanjar. She aroused controversy condemning the dogmatism of professional clerics, and writing odes to freedom:

No force can bind us: pull of moment, arrows flying home,
Nor any wild nostalgia that seized our hearts whilom
Though my soft braids turned chains of steel and anchored in your heart,
Could any chain keep me home if I should wish to roam?

Her city of Ganja, which is now in the Republic of Azerbaijan, has a beautiful center for art and literature devoted to her memory.

Jahan Malek Katun (1324–1382) lived in Shiraz during the same decades as the great Hafez, and these poets seemed to interact in a dance of sometimes stylistically mirroring lyrics. She was approximately three times more prolific than Hafez, although the love she expressed was less ecstatic than profoundly compassionate. In 1353 the warlord Mobarez al-Din invaded Shiraz and killed all her male relatives. She wrote 23 heartbroken elegies to a deceased infant daughter. Her works included hundreds of odes, quatrains, and 1,413 gazal love poems, the earliest manuscripts of which are embellished with gold or illuminated with fine artwork, preserved as treasures of world heritage in Paris, Istanbul, and Cambridge.
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Ghazaleh afkhami naeini
5.0 out of 5 stars Persian poets
Reviewed in Singapore on February 25, 2023
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Bought this as a gift for a friend to get to know more about female Persian poets. She loved it and is excited to start reading it
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