HSE Publishing House

The book is designed to help students read and translate Persian poetry and prose, as well as acquire the skills of philological analysis and commentary. A Text Reading Guide consists of an introduction, thirty- three lessons and Appendix. Each lesson includes a main text (a fragment of Persian poetry or prose of the 9th–15th cc.), provided with lexical and grammatical commentary, a grammar theme extensively illustrated with examples, one or two exercises on the grammar of the lesson, and additional text intended for students’ homework. The Appendix provides essential information on the metrics of ‘arūż and patterns of rhyme used in Persian poetry; it gives basic metric paradigms for all the poems included in the texts of the lessons.
The book is intended for students enrolled in the programs in Persian language and Literature who have already mastered the basics of the modern Persian language, and for Iranologists who are studying premodern primary sources.