Ferdowsi’s Shahnameh in Poland in the context of friendly Polish - Persian relations

Poland and Persia have had a long although not well-known to the contemporary public tradition offriendly relations. Persia, although geographically distant, used to be a source of inspiration for Polesin various fields; they enjoyed Persian luxurious artefacts, followed fashion, and last but not least, theelite showed interest in sophisticated literature which gave rise to a prolific translation output. In thispaper I would like to present attempts made by Polish translators to familiarise Polish languagereaders with stories from the Šāh-nāma - the masterpiece by a Khorrasan s well-known figure inPersian literature - Ferdowsi. These attempts were undertaken first by amateurs who not knowingPersian translated indirectly from source texts in European languages they knew, then passionatepoets without a philological background and finally, professionals, academics from Persiandepartments at Polish universities who have succeeded in translating and publishing the completebook, appending it with explanatory notes which enabled Polish readers both to enjoy and understandhistoric and cultural intricacies of this fascinating and complex masterpiece.

کلیدواژه ها:

Ferdowsi ، Polish ، Persian ، Shah-nama ، translation