Best middle eastern poetry books according to redditors

My contemporary Persian lit (in translation) class used this anthology for a lot of the short stories. There's also some modern poetry in there, too.

Man, do I love me some Darwish. There's a fantastic bilingual collection of his work that's a great resource for anyone who'd like to learn Arabic.

Arabic is such a rich language, Darwish translations definitely fail to capture his magic. Metrically, you just can't accomplish the same things in English. They do come admirably close, though! There's also a great collection of Palestinian poetry called A Bird Is Not a Stone that uses bridge translations. The Scottish and Palestinian poets involved are all immensely talented. Highly recommend you grab a copy if you like Darwish's work!

ISBN-10: 188381930X

ISBN-13: 978-1883819309

https://www.amazon.com/Shahin-Torah-Persian/dp/188381930X

See what a little Google-Fu will get you?

One of the best books on the political relationship between Iran and the US was written by someone who has lived it - Ambassador John Limbert. Negotiating with Iran. On the older history side, you should be aware of Shiraz in the age of Hafez.

I would also like to recommend Searching for Hassan: a Journey to the Heart of Iran by Terance Ward.

It is a pretty book! It's actually this book of poems by Rumi. I think it's wonderful!

I'm not really qualified to give you advice as I am Persian, but was born in the US. I just wanted to mention that Rumi does not translate well into English. A lot of it gets lost in translation. lol

Probably something like this is what you are looking for:

https://www.amazon.com/Rumi-New-Translation-Selected-Poems/dp/1628726970

Good luck!

The Book of Khaqani https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00PFA5IFM/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_tai_0FQezb94M330A