The edition I have has an introduction written by the woman who wrote ‘Possesion’ and ‘Angels and Insects’ (I can’t remember her name). Anyway, the intro was adequate. The illustrations though – they were fantastic.

Only the Edward Fitzgerald translation will do.

I read this out loud to myself on my eighteenth birthday as I walked from one end of the city to the other down to the ocean, sat on a rock for a while staring at the sea and the moon and the stars below, placed one little rose from my friend down on the stones, and smashed a clear glass bottle overtop of it.

Perfect.