Layli and Majnun

<b>The Persian epic that inspired Eric Clapton's unforgettable love song Layla and that Lord Byron called the <i>Romeo and Juliet</i> of the East in a masterly new translation <p/>A Penguin Classic</b> <p/>The iconic love story of the Middle East by a twelfth-century Persian poet who has been compared to Shakespeare for his subtlety inventiveness and dramatic force <i>Layli and Majnun</i> tells of star-crossed lovers whose union is tragically thwarted by their families and whose passion continues to ripple out across the centuries. Theirs is a love that lasts a lifetime and in Nezami's immortal telling erotic longing blends with spiritual self-denial in an allegory of Sufi aspiration as the amenities of civilization give way to the elemental wilderness desire is sublimated into a mystical renunciation of the physical world and the soul confronts its essence. This is a tour de force of Persian literature in a translation that captures the extraordinary power and virtuosity of the original.