Hi, apologies if this doesn't fit the sub, but I've been recently hunting for an English version of the Iranian epic, the Shahnameh, by Ferdowsi, since I want a proper read of the tale. I've been looking around the net but I'm unsure which English version is the most accurate? I was hoping for some help from someone properly qualified
I was also hoping any people with more experience here could recommend me other Iranian pre-modern works of literature that I could read, both pre-Islamic and post-Islamic.
Thank you!
For this type of book I usually go with the Penguin Classics editions unless there's an obvious better choice - in this case, the poet Dick Davis' translation in Penguin classics format is both reasonably comprehensive and written in an appealing style. There's apparently a complete three-volume publication of Davis', but I don't think it's easy to find. You can see the Encyclopaedia Iranica page for other options and some critical evaluations. There are always considerations to be made - do you care the most about precision in the philological sense, or do you want the translator to try and convey the sense of reading the poem in Persian in a way that flows well? Davis' translation is of the latter kind, but if the former type is what really interests you, chances are you'd be reading a critical edition in Persian rather than a translation anyway. Here's an excerpt:
These battles that I fought, I fought, alone,
No man has shown the valour I have shown.
But we have talked enough: if you agree,
Take up your wine, and slake your thirst with me.
As for other works, the obvious suggestions are Vis & Ramin and Khosrow & Shirin I don't think the latter has been translated, but Vis & Ramin is available as a Penguin tome. Though it is a bit tangential to your chosen category of "Iranian pre-modern works of literature", I'd be remiss not to mention Babur Namah, the autobiography of the 16th-century Timurid ruler Babur, generally regarded as founder of the Mughal Empire. I'm currently reading it myself; it's actually written in Chagatai Turkic (literary predecessor to Uzbek) with a heavy Persian vocabulary and some Persian verse. It's just a wonderful book.
For an indepth review of classical Persian literature, see this Iranica page
For pre-Islamic Iranian literature (though bear in mind that e.g. Vis & Ramin goes back to the pre-Islamic age even though it was written down in Classical Persian) you should take a look at http://avesta.org/ , there are all kinds of interesting works there, from the Gathas of Zarathustra to early modern Zoroastrian epistles.
I hope that was to some help!