Ferdowsi’s Shahnameh in Poland in the context of friendly Polish - Persian relations

Poland and Persia have had a long although not well-known to the contemporary public tradition of friendly relations. Persia, although geographically distant, used to be a source of inspiration for Poles in various fields; they enjoyed Persian luxurious artefacts, followed fashion, and last but not least, the elite showed interest in sophisticated literature which gave rise to a prolific translation output. In this paper I would like to present attempts made by Polish translators to familiarise Polish language readers with stories from the Šāh-nāma - the masterpiece by a Khorrasan s well-known figure in Persian literature - Ferdowsi. These attempts were undertaken first by amateurs who not knowing Persian translated indirectly from source texts in European languages they knew, then passionate poets without a philological background and finally, professionals, academics from Persian departments at Polish universities who have succeeded in translating and publishing the complete book, appending it with explanatory notes which enabled Polish readers both to enjoy and understand historic and cultural intricacies of this fascinating and complex masterpiece.