Why two Iranians set out to translate 125,000+ lines of Persian poetry — line by line — and make them available to the world for the price of a cup of coffee.
The idea behind this project comes from a simple observation: the Farsi language is being quietly transformed. Authentic Farsi words — words used by Ferdowsi, Hafez, Rumi, and Khayyam — are being replaced, one by one, with their Arabic equivalents.
We call this drift Farsi-Tazi (فارسیِ تازی). When we try to read modern Farsi blogs, newspapers, and publications, we find them crowded with Arabic and English loanwords. The pure Farsi of the classical poets has become difficult — sometimes impossible — for younger Iranians to read.
This is why we started translating. Not just to bring Persian poetry to English readers, but to preserve the original Farsi — the real language of the great poets — in a form that future generations can access, read, and learn from.
Ferdowsi spent thirty years writing the Shahnameh specifically to preserve the Persian language after the Arab conquest. He succeeded — and the Shahnameh has kept Farsi alive for a thousand years. This project continues that tradition.
Tazi (تازی) is the old Persian word for Arab. Farsi-Tazi refers to the gradual replacement of authentic Farsi vocabulary with Arabic equivalents — a process that accelerated dramatically after the Arab conquest of Persia in the 7th century and has continued in different forms ever since.
The great poets — Ferdowsi, Hafez, Rumi, Khayyam, Attar — wrote in a Farsi that was deliberately resistant to this drift. Ferdowsi in particular is said to have avoided Arabic words almost entirely in the Shahnameh. Reading their original texts is now difficult for many modern Iranians precisely because the pure Farsi vocabulary has been displaced from everyday use.
Our bilingual editions preserve this original vocabulary. We do not modernise or simplify the Farsi text. We present it exactly as the poets wrote it — and translate it faithfully into English, line by line.
Existing English translations of Persian poetry fall into two categories — neither of which serves readers who want to read Farsi alongside English, line by line.
Academic editions of the Shahnameh, Hafez, or Rumi can cost $80–$150 per volume — placing them out of reach for most readers, especially diaspora Iranians and young students.
Famous translations like FitzGerald's Khayyam are beautiful English literature — but they are interpretations. A reader cannot follow the Farsi original alongside them line by line.
Most translations present the English poem separately from the Farsi. Readers who want to study both languages simultaneously have no accessible resource.
Every book in the Farsi-Poems series is designed for one purpose: to let any reader follow the Farsi original and the English translation simultaneously, line by line.
Published on Amazon KDP in Kindle and paperback. Priced to be accessible to the Iranian diaspora, students, and curious readers worldwide.
We translate every line as accurately as possible — prioritising fidelity to the original Farsi over English literary polish. The goal is understanding, not paraphrase.
Farsi original and English translation presented together on every page — enabling students, diaspora readers, and poetry lovers to read both simultaneously.
Since the project began, Yahya and Faraz have translated the equivalent of several complete literary works across six poets spanning more than a thousand years of Persian literature.
The Book of Kings — 60,000 couplets narrating the mythology and history of the Persian Empire from creation to the Arab conquest.
The complete ghazals of Hafez of Shiraz — the supreme master of the Persian lyric and the most memorised poet in Iranian history.
Rumi's 3,230-ghazal lyrical masterwork — ecstatic poetry of divine love and mystical longing.
All 158 of Khayyam's philosophical quatrains alongside FitzGerald's celebrated paraphrase — enabling direct comparison of both interpretations.
The complete 852-ghazal Divan of Attar — the Sufi master who inspired Rumi and authored the Conference of the Birds.
673 ghazals of lyric wisdom and beauty — the poet whose couplet about human brotherhood is inscribed at the United Nations, and whose ghazals were the primary model for Hafez.
Hedayat's surrealist masterpiece — the most celebrated work of Iranian fiction, translated paragraph by paragraph in bilingual format.
Browse the full collection of bilingual editions — from Ferdowsi's epic Shahnameh to Hedayat's surrealist Boof Koor. Every book is available on Amazon KDP in paperback and Kindle.