TEHRAN - A new translation of the poetry of Iranian poet Hafez has been published in Spanish. It was highly acclaimed by the Spanish media.

The EFE news agency called the book the 'height of Persian literature'.

The Spanish poet Clara Juans translated the book from Persian into Spanish.

She told EFE, "Translating Hafez was an extremely difficult task. It is hard to try to be loyal to the original text while avoiding a translation favorable to Western culture tastes." The report adds that Hafez wrote philosophical and mystical poems and that his book is the second most popular book in Iran after the Quran. The daily ***A.B.C.*** wrote in its cultural column, "The translation of the poetry of Hafez closely resembles the original Persian version and Clara Juans' attempt to stay loyal to the original text has been successful. Hafez started to compose poems at a time when the Islamic literary world had already experienced the pleasure of the poems of great men such as Nezami and Anvari."

In their cultural programs, Spanish Radio Channel One and Channel Five honored Hafez by broadcasting some of his poems as well as Iranian traditional music.

Iranian translator Ahmad Taheri helped Clara Juans translate the book into Spanish.