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from Vol. #7, Issue 1: Spring 2016
translated from Persian by Ralph T. H. Griffith
Selections from Yúsuf and Zulaikha
by Jámí
These selections are drawn from the verse translation published by Trübner & Co. of London in 1882. The staff of Pusteblume has typeset and proofed this text from a public domain source scan provided to Archive.org by one of its institutional partners, the University of Toronto.
About the author (quoting the Preface to the 1882 Trübner & Co. edition): "Núru-d-dín Abdu-r-Rahmán was born in the year 1414 A.D., at Jám, a little town in Khurásán, from which he took the poetic name, Jámí, by which he is generally known. At the age of five he received the name of Núru-d-dín, or, Light of the Faith; and in later life his learning, fame, and sanctity gained for him the title of Mauláná, or, Our Master. He studied at Herát and Samarkand, where he not only outstripped the ablest and most diligent of his fellow-students, but puzzled the most learned of his teachers. The fame of his learning soon spread to the most distant provinces of Persia, and into other Asiatic countries. Sultan Abu Sa’íd, Tímur’s uncle, invited him to his court at Herát, and all the princes, nobles, and learned men of the time sought the company of the distinguished poet. In 1472 A.D., Jámí performed the pilgrimage to Mecca, and, after some stay at Baghdad, returned in the following year to Herát, where he died in 1492."
About the translator: Ralph Thomas Hotchkin Griffith (1826–1906) was a scholar of Indology. Educated at Queen's College, over his career he produced translations of the Ramayana, the Kumara Sambhava of Kalidasa, and the Vedic scriptures.
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