Poetry Translation Centre has organised a Persian Poets’ Tour featuring five acclaimed poets from three countries, all of whom will take part in a series of readings and events across the UK alongside their British poet co-translators.

Persian poetry is rightly famed for the richness of its heritage and many classical Persian poets, such as Rumi and Hafez, are famous across the world. But little is known about how contemporary Persian-language poets have continued to enrich and enliven their tradition, a gap that our forthcoming tour hopes to address.

The Persian language, with local variations, is spoken today in three countries: Afghanistan (Dari), Iran (Farsi) and Tajikistan (Tajik) and our tour will feature poets from each of these countries.

Returning to the UK for the first time since his participation in the PTC’s first World Poets’ Tour in 2005, will be Partaw Naderi (translated by Sarah Maguire) from Afghanistan. He will be joined by Farzaneh Khojandi (translated by Jo Shapcott) from Tajikistan, who took part in our second World Poets’ Tour in 2008. The London-based Afghan poet, Reza Mohammadi (translated by Nick Laird), will also be taking part; as will two poets new to the PTC, Azita Ghahreman (translated by Maura Dooley) from Iran and Shakila Azizzada(translated by Mimi Khalvati) from Afghanistan.

Contemporary Iranian is helping Poetry Translation Centre to create audience for their tour, so please feel free to contact us if yo have a question regarding Persian Poets’ Tour.

– For more info please visit Poetry Translation Centre’s website.

– Please click here to view their event page on facebook.