Hafez is among the most celebrated of Persian mystic poets, thriving alongside such towering figures as Rumi and Saadi. Ubiquitous in Iran, he has also been hugely influential in the West. Interpreted variously as ardent mystic and lover, he fuses earthly and divine love with an intense constancy as momentously productive as Dante's courtly adoration for Beatrice. Across intimidating obstacles of time and culture, Beloved delivers an accessible yet authentic modern rendering of the Persian originals. Few translations of Hafez have matched his beauty, musicality and rich complexity. Combining vigour with ingenuity, Mario Petrucci reanimates for the English reader all of the moral clarity and sensual abundance of a spiritual and literary master. 'Petrucci's adaptations are a delight to read. They are fresh, candid, subtly humorous, and elegant. They have that audacious and multilayered richness one finds in the originals. Above all, they are uncompromising.' - Fatemeh Keshavarz, Director and Chair, Roshan Institute for Persian Studies, University of Maryland 'Mario Petrucci's new versions of Hafez are nuanced and thoughtful, embracing both the depth and the beauty of the original.' - Sasha Dugdale, Editor, Modern Poetry in Translation 'Petrucci bases his engagement with Hafez on a special awareness... Everywhere, his delicate but probing selection of word and phrase uplifts and inspires.' - Michael Hakuzan Wenninger, Zen monk

When it comes to those we love, even our most yearned-for states of union are subject to change. afterlove endures the swarming devastations of loss as consummately as it enters love's raptures, ever alive to devotion's flow and ebb. From domestic paean centred on the beloved, through a father's unabashed affection for his children, to the sometimes savage realisations of love's dissolution, these poems succeed in spanning relationship heaven and hell. Mario Petrucci generates love (and non-love) poetry that refuses to squint in the glare of experience. With characteristic candour and inventiveness, whether through light-filled lyric or a murderous remaking of myth, Petrucci takes us just about everywhere love can go.

On 26 April, 1986 at 1.23 am, in the cool dark of an early Saturday, the fourth reactor of the Chernobyl nuclear complex exploded. "Heavy Water" is based on eyewitness accounts of the Chernobyl disaster. Petrucci takes up the challenge confronting society in every age: to attempt the difficult task of exploring its most terrible events. His poem unites the concerns of artist, humanitarian and historian at a common source: the desire not to forget. This poem stands to remind us that those who have been exposed to the invisible should never become so.Each segment paints an intimate picture: some elements of everyday life remain unchanged, others are profoundly altered. The collection's recurring motifs of black and white signal how all are silenced, reduced to anonymity - which in turn engenders fierce solidarity. Meanwhile, men and machines toil side by side to tackle the insurmountable. Petrucci's use of scientific and medical terminology makes his descriptions chillingly precise. In contrast, we hear, from a deeply personal angle, the simply expressed accounts of real people who struggle to cope with the enormity of the disaster. This poem is at once deeply shocking yet pervaded by an uplifting beauty.