Thanks for the kind words. Unfortunately, I don’t know any strictly prose renderings, but if you go here, I believe you will find a couple of chapters of Ilahi-Nama rendered in a kind of lineated, biblical sounding prose. I say “I believe” because, as far as I know, there is only one translation of Ilahi Nama into English and so probably that’s what’s there, but I could be wrong.

Just out of curiosity, have you tried Dick Davis’ verse translation of Attar’s The Conference of the Birds. It is, to me, quite readable, and the poetry is generally quite good. (I don’t think that of some of his other verse translations.) I actually don’t disagree, in general, with what you say about translating “poetry into poetry.” If I have to choose between a mediocre verse translation and a prose translation, I will choose the prose translation almost every time.

Thanks for writing this. I came here because I am looking for prose translations of Farid al-Dan Attar verse. My experience of reading translations of poems is that they are easier in prose. The feat of constructing verse translations is admirable in one sense and I know it is an attempt to get across the fact that the original is in verse. However it requires the translator to be as good a poet as the original author. And of course the accuracy of the translation must suffer.

Anyway enough of my own views. Do you know of any prose translations?

thanks,

Richard