Iran honors Japanese Khayyam scholar Emiko Okada

TEHRAN, May 18 (MNA) -- Japanese Khayyam scholar Emiko Okada was honored during a ceremony at the Silk Museum in the port city of Yokohama in the last week.

The event, organized by Iran’s Embassy in Japan, was attended by Iranian Ambassador to Japan Seyyed Abbas Araqchi and several other Iranian officials.

“We are proud of this Japanese lady and prominent university professor who has done her best in the dissemination of our culture,” Araqchi mentioned during the event.

She has translated the last 100 couplets of Khayyam’s poetry remaining untranslated from the original Persian. Khayyam’s writings have been translated into numerous languages around the world, he said.

Okada has previously conducted research on Ferdowsi and has translated his masterpiece the Shahnameh into Japanese too, he added.

Other Japanese scholars have translated parts of Khayyam’s poetry into Japanese but she is the first scholar who has translated the epic work in its entirety, he added.

The Iranian Embassy honored her lifetime achievements to introduce Persian literature and culture and her publications in this realm, he added.

At the ceremony, Okada spoke on Persian culture and literature in Japanese and read parts of Khayyam’s poetry.