by MONAVAR KHALEJ
“Iranians have always kept a divan [collection of poems] of Hafez near their Korans,” says Mohammad-Ali Eslami-Nodoushan, a Persian literary critic, at the seminar.
In spite of frequent references to wine and to lust, the divans of Hafez and his peers Saadi and Omar Khayyam, are among the bestsellers of Iranian publishing. Even poorly educated Iranians recite Hafez poems out loud to console themselves. Collections by the classical Persian poets still sell up to 10,000 copies a year.
Financial Times for more
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