Salaman and Absal

Edward FitzGerald, renowned world-wide for his translation of the Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám, began his foray into the Persian language with this poem: Salámán and Absál, an Allegory by the fifteenth century Sufi poet-theologian, Jámí. Whatever fine qualities Jámí's Persian possessed in the fifteenth century, FitzGerald's remarkable nineteenth century translation into English reflects the influences of his own time. Of course, if Allegory is not to your taste, as it was famously not to the taste of J. R. R. Tolkien, this slender volume is not for you. For the rest, those "few who are worth interesting"(in FitzGerald's words), this Allegory of love, loss, wisdom and destiny will, with only a little effort, transport you to a charming and exotic world far removed from our still young twenty-first century.