TEHRAN – A Persian translation of Lord Byron’s “Cain: A Mystery: There Is No Instinct Like That of the Heart” has been published by Ney.

Hossein Qodsi is the translator of the book originally published in 1821.

George Gordon Byron, 6th Baron Byron but more commonly known as just Byron, was a leading English poet in the Romantic Movement along with Keats and Shelley. 

Byron was born on January 22, 1788. He traveled extensively across Europe, spending many years in Italy and much time in Greece. 

With his aristocratic indulgences, flamboyant style, debts, and a string of lovers, he was the constant talk of society. 

In 1823 he joined the Greeks in their war of Independence against the Ottoman Empire, both helping to fund and advise on the war’s conduct. 

It was an extraordinary adventure, even by his own standards. But for us, it is his poetry for which he is mainly remembered even though it is difficult to see where he had time to write his works of immense beauty. 

But write them he did. He died on April 19, 1824, after having contracted a cold which, on the advice of his doctors, was treated with blood-letting. 

This caused complications and a violent fever set in. Byron died like his fellow romantics, tragically young and on some foreign field.

Photo: Front cover of the Persian edition of Lord Byron’s “Cain: A Mystery”.

MMS/YAW