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SALÁMÁN AND ABSÁL. AN ALLEGORY.
(London: J. W. Parker and Son, 1856). 214 x 150 mm. (8 1/2 x 6"). xvi, 84 pp. FIRST EDITION.
Publisher's blue cloth with gilt titling, rebacked using most of the original cloth (rear hinge reinforced with translucent library tape. Frontispiece after a Persian miniature depicting a group of Persian noblemen playing polo. Prideaux, pp. 14-16. Corners quite worn, front endpapers a little smudged and frayed, faint soiling to cloth, but the binding solid, and internally fine.
This scarce work is Edward FitzGerald's first poetical translation from the Persian, released three years before his famous translation of the "Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam." Written by the Persian poet and mystic Jámi (1414-92), "Salámán and Absál" is an allegorical romance in which the prince Salámán rejects the snare of the senses personified by his nurse and lover Absál, opting instead to move on the path toward Sufi enlightenment. (The story ends with an immolation that consumes Absál but spares her lover, now sufficiently purified to become king.) The narrative is enlivened with much exotic and picturesque detail along the way. The translator FitzGerald (1809-93) spent his entire adult life devoted to literature, especially translation. According to Prideaux, this is the first Persian poem Fitzgerald ever read, having been introduced to the language and poem by his friend, the linguist Edward Cowell. It paved the way for his translation of the Rubaiyat, first published in 1859, on which his literary fame rests. This first edition of "Salámán and Absál" seems to be uncommon in the marketplace: we were able to trace only four copies (one defective) at auction since 1974. (ST17640-1037)
Price: $650.00