Plant Friendship’s Tree: Essays on Persian Literature and Poetry

In this remarkable collection of essays and talks spanning four decades, acclaimed translator and poet Dick Davis explores the literary richness of Persian poetry and prose with a clarity, empathy, and aesthetic insight that have made him one of the foremost interpreters of Persian literature for the English-speaking world.

Plant Friendship’s Tree gathers together thirty-four wide-ranging pieces that delve into classical epics such as Ferdowsi’s Shahnameh, mystical masterpieces like Rumi’s Masnavi, romantic verse from Nezami and Gorgani, and the lyrical brilliance of poets like Hafez and Jahan Malek Khatun. With characteristic elegance, Davis examines the evolution of heroes and heroines, the aesthetics of narrative, the complex intersections of religion and identity, and the subtle power of poetic metaphor in the Persian literary tradition.

Equally at home with the nuances of medieval Persian and the cadences of English verse, Davis also reflects on the art of literary translation – its triumphs, pitfalls, and transformative potential across cultures. His essays are not only scholarly but deeply personal, written with the sensibility of a practicing poet and a devoted reader. Whether writing for fellow scholars, general readers, or complete newcomers, Davis seeks to share the beauty, depth, and humanity of Persian literature with a wide audience.

Comprehensively annotated, and suffused with intellectual curiosity and a deep affection for its subject matter, Plant Friendship’s Tree is both a landmark contribution to Iranian literary studies and a celebration of the enduring friendships that literature cultivates across languages, centuries, and borders. Download a pdf copy of the press release here.

Introduction xiii

Acknowledgments xix

PART ONE: ON THE SHAHNAMEH

1. The Problem of Ferdowsi’s Sources, 3
           Afterword, 23
2. Interpolations to the Text of the Shahnameh, 27
3. The Changing Nature of the Hero in the Shahnameh, 55
4. Rejected Narratives and Transitional Crises within the Shahnameh and Their Implications, 77
5. Rostam: The Trickster In The Tiger Skin, 97
6. Rostam and Zoroastrianism, 113
           Rostam’s Provenance, 115
           Rostam’s Actions, 122
           Rostam in Medieval Texts Other than the Shahnameh, 24
7. Women In The Shahnameh: Exotics And Natives, Rebellious Legends and Dutiful Histories, 133
8. Sekandar, Skordion, and Dārāb’s Queen’s Bad Breath, 67
9. The Aesthetics of the Historical Sections of the Shahnameh, 175
10. Iran and Aniran: The Shaping of a Legend, 89
11. The Shahnameh and Persian Poetry , 209
12. Shahin, Judeo-Persian Poetry, and the Shahnameh, 227

PART TWO:  ON LOVE AND PERSIAN POETRY – 243

1. Narrative and Doctrine in the First Story of Rumi’s Masnavi , 245
2. The Journey as Paradigm: Literal & Metaphorical Travel in Manteq Al-Tayr, 265
3. Attar as a Poet or as a Sufi?, 281
4. The Vale of Soul-Making: Persian Verse Romance from Gorgani to Jami, 297
5. Forgiveness for What? Vis and Ramin and Troilus and Criseyde, 317
6. Greek and Persian Romances, 331
7. Hafez and Nasta‘liq: Lines of Beauty, 341
8. How to Read a Persian Poem Introduction, 363
           Conclusion, 96
9. Common Metaphors in Medieval Persian Poetry for Parts of the Body, 399
   

PART THREE: INTRODUCTIONS TO THE TRANSLATIONS – 403

1. The Shahnameh, 405
           The Poem’s Structure, 406
           The Historical Background, 409
           Ferdowsi and His Sources, 412
           Themes, Preoccupations, and How the Poem Changes, 414
           The Poem’s Reception, 428
           The Translation, 430
2. The Conference of the Birds, 435
3. Vis and Ramin, 451
           The Social World of Vis and Ramin, 454
           The Aesthetics of Vis and Ramin, 460
           The Poem, 467
           The Poem’s Afterlife, 469
           In Persian Culture, 469
           In Europe, 470
           This Translation, 477
           Addendum, 479
4. Nezami’s Khosrow and Shirin, and Layli and Majnun, 483
5. Faces of Love: Hafez and the Poets of Shiraz, 523
           The Conventions of Fourteenth-Century Persian Lyric Poetry, 529
           Hafez, 540
           Jahan Malek Khatun, 549
           Obayd-e Zakani, 562
           The Translations, 569
           Poems on Translating Hafez, 575
6. The Mirror of My Heart: A Thousand Years of Persian Poetry by Women, 579
           The Medieval Period, 587
           From 1500 to the 1800s, 597
           From the 1800s to the Present, 605
           Selecting the Poems in this Volume, 623
           Translator’s Note, 631
           A Note on the Sources, 632
           References, 632
7. My Uncle Napoleon, 635
8. At Home and Far from Home, 643

PART 4: VOICES IN TRANSLATION – 645

1. On Not Translating Hafez, 647
2. Da’i Jan Napelon as a Comic Masterpiece, 663
3. Edward FitzGerald, 671
4. Bārbad’s Song, 681
5. Veiled Voices: Who Speaks in a Translation?, 713

Provenance of the Essays and Talks, 733
Bibliography, 737
General Index, 757