Persian Poetry

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Poetry is such an integral part of the Persian literary tradition that it would be futile to attempt to teach the Persian language without touching on some key poetic works and themes.

On this page you will find links to a variety of Persian poets, starting with the classics, with more modern poets soon to be added. We have chosen a select number of excerpts from each poet in order to introduce the Persian learner to the joys of poetry in a way which we hope will be accessible and not overwhelming. Each excerpt is accompanied by an audio recording, a transliteration in the Latin alphabet, an English translation, and vocabulary notes. The English translations are rather literal, in order to help you better understand the original Persian text.