Tuesday 13 October 2009 - 08:01 
President unveils Bosnian translation of Hafez Divan

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad here Monday evening unveiled a Bosnian translation of Divan of Hafez.

According to IRNA’s dispatched reporter, President Ahmadinejad who is in Shiraz to take part at the commemoration ceremony of the great Iranian poet, held by the side of his mausoleum, unveiled the versified Bosnian translation of Dian of Hafez on the sidelines of the ceremony.
Croatia’s ambassador to Iran was present at the ceremony.
President Ahmadinejad in his day long visit of Shiraz also opened the Fars Province National Library and Documents Center and gave a lecture at the commemoration ceremony of Hafez.
Published by the Tehran-based Ibn Sina Research Institute in Sarajevo, the divan was first translated into prose by Basir Jaka, but a group of Persian literature scholars of Bosnia turned it into poetry, said an official from Mohammad-Hossein Abbasi Institute.
He noted that the divan has been ready for publication since two years ago. “We preferred to publish the book in Iran, but there wasn’t much interest or support in the country. So we negotiated with several publishing houses in Bosnia and finally came to an agreement with a firm there that gave us a good discount. It is interesting to note that the director of the publishing house stated that publishing book wouldn’t be profitable, however it would give them the honor of publishing a great masterpiece.”
The Bosnian translation of the divan has been warmly received in Bosnia. Dr. Mustafa Ceric, the Reisu-l-Ulema of Islamic Community in Bosnia and Herzegovina regards the work as a great success there.
Abbasi later expressed his appreciation to all the Iranian and Bosnian scholars who assisted the institute in the publication of the great work.
Every year on October 12th Hafez experts and scholars from across the country and abroad gather at the Hafez Mausoleum to mark the Hafez National Day.
This year, Bosnian scholar Nusret Isanovic, the director of Zenica Islamic Pedagogic Academy participated in the ceremony and delivered a speech entitled “Hafez in the Mind of the Bosnian People of Today”.