The French version of Ferdowsi's Shahnameh the "Persian Book of Kings" was published in France with translation of Pierre Lecoq by Les Belles Lettres publications.
Lecoq, born in 1939, is a Belgian Iranologist and a professor at Sorbonne Université.
Abuqasem Ferdowsi Tusi (c. 940–1020), or Ferdowsi, was a Persian poet and the creator of Shahnameh, the world's longest epic poem ever created by a single poet.
Called 'the Savior of Persian Language', Ferdowsi is celebrated as the most influential figure in Persian literature and one of the greatest in the world. Shahnemeh has already been translated into several languages. Parts of the Persian epic book were first translated into French by Louis-Mathieu Langlès, then Jules Mohl was ordered by the French government to do the job. He spends 40 years but passed away before finishing the task.
Shahnameh is the national epic of Greater Iran (the regions of the Caucasus, West Asia, parts of south and central Asia, which have been deeply influenced by Iranian culture).
Writing in the preface of his translation of the masterpiece that translating poems is betrayal because poems are musical and rhythmic, Lecoq has also written that he had tried to translate the book in the original meter of its verses.
Ferdowsi's grave in Tus was registered as an Iranian national heritage on April 1, 1963. The building has been repeatedly destroyed by historical and natural events and reconstructed again. The presently-standing building was made in early 1930s. There is also a Museum and a library adjacent to the building.
Source: IRNA News Agency
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