Love in Another Language: Collected Poems and Selected Translations

by Dick Davis

In Love in Another Language Dick Davis is shown to be the outstanding formal poet of his generation, a master of rhyme and metre, a poet worthy of keeping company with the best lyric writers in our tradition. His Collected Poems draws on eight previous publications and includes a section of new work. Davis has also established himself as 'the leading translator of Persian literature in our time' (Washington Post) and this volume includes a selection of his celebrated translations. Davis's original poems evoke the experiences of travel and of living in a culture in which one is a stranger, where empathy is at once difficult and necessary. His translations can be read as a record of his attempts at such empathy, in poetic terms, across centuries and cultures.

Genres: Poetry

Kindle Edition

Published December 15, 2017

About the author

Dick Davis is an English-American poet, university professor, and translator of verse, who is affiliated with the literary movement known as New Formalism in American poetry.
Born into a working class family in Portsmouth shortly before the end of World War II, Davis grew up in the Yorkshire fishing village of Withernsea during the 1950s, where an experimental school made it possible for Davis to become the first member of his family to attend university.

Shortly before graduating from Cambridge University, Davis was left heartbroken by the suicide of his schizophrenic brother and decided to begin living and teaching abroad.

After teaching in Greece and Italy, in 1970 Davis fell in love with an Iranian woman, Afkham Darbandi, and decided to live permanently in Tehran during the reign of the last Shah. As a result, he taught English at the University of Tehran, and married Afkham Darbandi, about whom he has since written and published many love poems, in 1974.

After the Islamic Revolution turned Dick and Afkham Davis into refugees, first in the United Kingdom and then in the United States, Davis decided to begin translating many of the greatest masterpieces of both ancient and modern Persian poetry into English. Davis is a vocal opponent of the ruling Shia clergy of Iran and has used his talents as a scholar and literary translator to give a voice to critics and foes of Islamic fundamentalism and Sharia Law from throughout the history of Iranian literature. Despite expressing a fondness for Christian music, Davis has said that his experiences during the Iranian Revolution have made him into an Atheist and that he believes that religion does more harm than good.

Davis is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, and has been called, by The Times Literary Supplement, "our finest translator from Persian." Davis' original poetry has been just as highly praised.

Reviews

[Zach M. · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've made my way through some of Davis' work in translation (Shahnameh, Conference of the Birds, etc.) and after reading through some of his original poetry and being refreshed by the wordsmithery and tenor (neither too heavy, nor too light), I decided to give this collection a go. Glad I did. His poetry is like a good meal—thoughtful in its original flavors, but without a need to prove anything...

added note: just finished the 274 pages of Davis' original poetry (there's another 60 or so pages of his translated work, which is what I was more familiar with). a brilliant poet if you're not scared of verse. such a skillful craftsman. his allegiance to meter either flows by unnoticed or it serves to magnify the sentiment of the poem. I imagine it might take trying your own hand at this to know truly how remarkable it is. bravo Davis.