The Mirror of My Heart: A Thousand Years of Persian Poetry by Women

I would buy this just for the Introduction to the text written by Davis.

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.

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.

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.

I like this one very much.

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

It is easy to resd

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.

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

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.

Book was a gift, arrived on time, lovely book excellent condition

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.