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Layli & Majnun Nezami Ganjavi ; translated from the Persian with an introduction and notes by Dick Davis

Catalog Data

Author:
Niẓāmī Ganjavī 1140 or 1141-1202 or 1203  Search this
Writer of added text:
Davis, Dick 1945-  Search this
Author:
Container of (expression): Niẓāmī Ganjavī 1140 or 1141-1202 or 1203 Laylī va Majnūn English  Search this
Subject:
Niẓāmī Ganjavī 1140 or 1141-1202 or 1203 Laylī va Majnūn  Search this
Niẓāmī Ganjavī 1140 or 1141-1202 or 1203 Criticism and interpretation  Search this
Nizami Ganjavi 1140 or 1141-1202 or 1203 Layli va Majnun  Search this
Ni₃αm+ Ganjav+ 1140 or 1141-1202 or 1203 Criticism and interpretation  Search this
Physical description:
xxxvi, 280 pages 21 cm
Type:
Translations into English
Text
Poetry
Criticism, interpretation, etc
Translations
Persian poetry
Poésie
Place:
Neupersisches
Date:
2020
12th century
Geschichte Mittelalter
Notes:
Translation of: Laylī va Majnūn
Contents:
Introduction -- The beginning of the story -- Layli and Majnun fall in love with one another -- A description of Majnun's love -- Majnun goes to Layli's home and sings there -- Majnun's father goes to ask for Layli's hand in marriage -- Majnun's love for Layli drives him into the wilderness -- Majnun's father takes him to Mecca -- Men from Layli's tribe turn against Majnun -- Majnun's father advises his son -- Majnun's reply to his father -- Layli's beauty -- A description of Layli ; Layli visits a palm grove -- Ebn Salam asks for Layli's hand in marriage -- Nofal sympathizes with Majnun -- Nofal fights Layli's tribe on behalf of Majnun -- Majnun's anger against Nofal -- Nofal's second battle -- Majnun frees deer from a hunter's trap -- Majnun frees another deer from a huntsman -- Majnun talks to a raven -- Majnun deliberately becomes an old woman's prisoner -- Layli's father gives her to Ebn Salam -- Majnun learns of Layli's marriage -- Majnun complains of Layli to the wind -- Majnun's father goes to see his son -- Majnun answers his father -- Majnun's father bids him farewell -- Majnun learns of his father's death -- Majnun among the animals -- A tale -- A description of night ; Majnun's invocation to the heavens -- A message from Layli reaches Majnun -- Majnun reads Layli's letter -- Majnun's letter reaches Layli -- Majnun's uncle, Salim Amiri, comes to see Majnun -- A tale -- Majnun is told of his mother's death -- Layli sends a message to Majnun -- Majnun sings in Layli's presence -- Salam Baghdadi comes to see Majnun -- On the greatness of Majnun -- Zayd's love for Zaynab -- The death of Layli's husband, Ebn Salam -- Zayd tells Majnun of Layli's husband's death -- Layli prays to God -- Layli and Majnun come together again -- A description of autumn ; the death of Layli -- Majnun learns of Layli's death -- Salam Baghdadi comes to visit Majnun for the second time -- Majnun dies on Layli's grave -- Zayd dreams that he sees Layli and Majnun in heaven -- Notes
Summary:
"For its subtlety, inventiveness, and dramatic force, the verse of the twelfth-century Persian poet Nezami has been compared to that of Shakespeare, and in the same way that Shakespeare's "Romeo and Juliet" has become the archetypal Western love story, so Nezami's "Layli and Majnun" occupies an equally uncontested place as the iconic love story of the Middle East. The works have many similarities besides their central status in their respective cultures: in both, the lovers are thwarted by their families' opposition; in both, the heroine's family chooses another husband for her; in both, the vehemence of the lovers' emotion wreaks social havoc and leads to their deaths. But where Romeo and Juliet's love is characterized by its precipitous speed, that of Layli and Majnun lasts a lifetime, and where Shakespeare gives us a blaze of incandescent adolescent passion, Nezami weaves a tale of prolonged absence, ascetic denial, and spiritual longing, as well as of man's paradoxical relationship with the wilderness as the place where the amenities of civilization are replaced by the soul's solitary confrontation with its own essential needs and nature. Because of its emphasis on asceticism and absence, Nezami's masterpiece has often been interpreted as an allegory of Sufi aspiration, and much of the richness of his telling of the tale lies in the way that it blends the psychology of erotic longing with that of spiritual self-denial, so that the poem can be read simultaneously as a tale of tragically thwarted lovers and as a mystical renunciation of the physical world and of everyday human society. Dick Davis is an accomplished poet and scholar; he is also the finest translator of Persian poetry. With Layli and Majnun, he brings Nezami's classic to life for the first time in brilliant and moving English verse that captures all the extraordinary power and ingenuity of the original poem. Meanwhile, an introduction and copious explanatory notes shed a fascinating light on Nezami's life and work, and the astonishing virtuosity of his poetic style, that help set the stage for the reader's enjoyment of this tour de force of Persian literature."--Back cover
Topic:
Persian poetry  Search this
Romances, Persian--History and criticism  Search this
Romances, Persian  Search this
Epos  Search this
Call number:
PK6501.L33 D38613 2020
Data Source:
Smithsonian Libraries
EDAN-URL:
edanmdm:siris_sil_1157301