Nectar and Ambrosia

This booklet comprises a collection of motley pieces of Persian poetry in English translation. The purpose is to preserve a memento an early interest in "high piping Pehlavi". // Most of the selections are quatrains (rubaiyaat): a difficult poetic genre as the poet has to compress his thoughts into four lines with a special rhyme scheme (i.e. AABA or AAAA) and lead to a logical crescendo in the last one. The most famous practitioner of this genre is Omar Khayyam - immortalized in English by Edward FitzGerald. // Of the pieces translated here, most are strongly flavoured with Islamic mystical symbolism. Most of the poets belong to the subcontinent while some are from Persian-speaking areas. (Syed Munir Wasti in Prefactory.