TEHRAN -- The eminent Western scholar of Persian poetry, Peter Avery is planning to translate the divan of Kamal Khujandi, the 15th century Persian poet, into English.

Kamal Khujandi was born in Khujand, Tajikistan, but after his travels to Mecca he chose to settle in Tabriz where from then on he lived and was buried. Although composing poetry was not his main profession, his divan contains about 8,000 couplets.
Avery has recently translated the lyrical poems of Hafez which have been published in London in a volume named “The Collected Lyrics of Hafez of Shiraz”. This complete collection comprises 486 poems which have been translated into English for the first time with the cooperation of The Iran Heritage Foundation.
Avery previously contributed to the books “The Age of Expansion and Medieval Persia” and “Modern Iran”.
One of Avery’s best known works is a translation of the Persian text of The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam which he carried out in collaboration with the poet John Heath-Stubbs.