A Note on the Edition

This English reading edition contains the English material in Reynold A. Nicholson’s 1898 Selected Poems from the Dīvāni Shamsi Tabrīz: his preface, bibliography, introduction, original corrigenda, forty-eight translated poems, notes, additional notes, four appendices and English index.

Persian and Arabic script have been omitted. Repeated notices for omitted quotations, longer original-script texts and their source-page continuations are suppressed throughout. Original source references are retained. Bracketed notices for individual words, phrases and textual variants remain where needed to make the commentary intelligible; they are editorial additions. Latin-letter transliterations, Greek quotations and Nicholson’s historical English wording remain. Readers seeking the original script, Persian metre headings, manuscript variants and original-script index should consult the historical edition.

The poems retain their original logical lines. Long lines wrap with a hanging indent, and the two lines of each couplet are kept together. Small linked couplet numbers have been added to connect the poems with Nicholson’s Notes. His separate verse versions remain in Appendix II; they do not replace the main translations. The language has not been modernized.

In Poem I, couplet 7, ‘Adhrā follows Nicholson’s original corrigendum. Other alternative readings and corrections remain in his commentary and corrigenda, rather than being silently substituted in the main poems.

Nicholson’s references use historical page, poem and couplet numbers. The print edition has new pagination; ebook page markers identify the original pages. Footnotes appear at each section’s end. Body calls and notes share labels such as [xli.2], meaning note 2 on original page xli. The editorial Guide to the References explains how to locate his citations.