Sohrab and Rustum

Sohrab and Rustum: An Episode is a narrative poem with strong tragic themes first published in 1853 by Matthew Arnold.[1] The poem retells a famous episode from Ferdowsi's Persian epic Shahnameh relating how the great warrior Rustum unknowingly slew his long-lost son Sohrab in single combat. Arnold, who was unable to read the original, relied on summaries of the story in John Malcolm's History of Persia and Sainte-Beuve's review of a French prose translation of Ferdowsi.[2] In Sohrab and Rustum, Arnold attempted to imitate the "grandeur and rapidity" of Homer's style which he was to discuss in his lectures On Translating Homer (1861).[3] The poem consists of 892 lines of blank verse.

Sohrab and Rustum fighting:from "The Shahnama of Shah Tahmasp" (circa 1522)

The poem gave the title and place names to a notable work of children's literature, The Far-Distant Oxus, written by Katharine Hull (1921–1977) and Pamela Whitlock (1920–1982) while they were still children themselves. They were entranced by the poem, and their characters adventure over Exmoor by pony and raft during the holidays, re-naming the places they visit from the poem.[4][5]

Notes
  1. Arnold, Matthew Poetical Works Oxford University Press, 1950.
  2. Poetical Works, pp.488–493
  3. Craig W. Kallendorf A Companion to the Classical Tradition (John Wiley & Sons, 2010) p.87
  4. Carpenter and Prichard, 182.
  5. Carpenter and Prichard, p. 569.
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