THE BOOK OF PARVIN ETESAMI Translation & Introduction Paul Smith Parvin Etesami (1907-1941) was one of Iran's greatest female poets. She left Tabriz for Tehran with her family in 1912 and then lived in Tehran. She learned Arabic and Persian literature from her father, a well-known literary figure. She composed her first poems in the classical style at eight and knew most Iranian poets by the time she was eleven, having a remarkable memory. She passed high school and taught for two years and was then a librarian in Tehran University. She refused to work in the royal court. Her first collection of poems was published in 1935 and she received a Medal of Art and Culture in 1936. Her poems had mainly social or mystical subjects, often being about the tyranny of the rich and the rights of the poor and the downtrodden and the role of women. She married in 1934 and divorced two months later. She died in 1941 from Typhoid fever in Tehran and was buried in Qom. The first edition of her Divan of 156 poems appeared in 1935... masnavis, qasidas, ghazals, qit'as, musammats. In her short life she achieved much fame among Iranians. This is the only English selection her poems translated in the correct form. Introduction on her Life, Times & Poetry & the Forms in which she wrote. Selected Bibliography. Appendix On her Life etc. Illustrated. Large Format Paperback 7" x 10" Pages 112. COMMENTS ON PAUL SMITH'S TRANSLATION OF HAFIZ'S 'DIVAN'. "It is not a joke... the English version of ALL the ghazals of Hafiz is a great feat and of paramount importance. I am astonished.." Dr. Mir Mohammad Taghavi (Dr. of Literature) Tehran. "Smith has probably put together the greatest collection of literary facts and history concerning Hafiz." Daniel Ladinsky (Penguin Books author). Paul Smith is a poet, author and translator of many books of Sufi poets of the Persian, Arabic, Urdu, Turkish, Pashtu and other languages... including Hafiz, Sadi, Nizami, Rumi, 'Attar, Sana'i, Jahan Khatun, Obeyd Zakani, Nesimi, Kabir, Anvari, Ansari, Jami, Khayyam, Rudaki, Yunus Emre, Iqbal, Ghalib, Makhfi, Lalla Ded, Nazir and many others and his own poetry, fiction, plays, biographies, children's books. memoir and a dozen screenplays. www.newhumanitybooks.com