Looking for stories in Persian that meet a few (seemingly) basic requirements

[Khayyam]

I'm looking for some stories in Persian that meet the following criteria:

--Free online

--There's both a written version and a well-done, preferably professional, narration

--There's a good written English or German translation

I'll read anything that meets these requirements (as demonstrated by the fact that I don't skip the parts of the Old Testament where they tell you how many cubits everything is), but I'd prefer something that's either really gripping, or an undisputed classic, or both.

[Khayyam]

Blahh, I quoted myself again instead of editing.

[guyome]

https://www.storybookscanada.ca/stories/fa/

[Khayyam]

https://www.storybookscanada.ca/stories/fa/

VERY cool! Thanks!

Edit: Although...it looks like even at level five (the highest), I'll still be in elementary school territory. I expect I'll be done with this site pretty fast. Can anyone recommend anything for adults? And preferably something that wasn't even created with learners in mind? I don't want to disparage people who are trying to teach languages--thanks for doing it at all--but stories written for learners tend to be so excruciatingly lame.

[MapleLeaf]

There seem to be several youtube channels carrying Persian stories, such as https://www.youtube.com/@PersianLearning has stories which has audio and english translations, and 'Persian Fairy Tales' but that one had only English subtitles and no Persian subtitles. Still, maybe you might like it?

There is an FSI course with audio and some written material: https://www.livelingua.com/project/fsi/persian . I wouldn't call it 'story' but it is audio with some written materials.

Deutsche Welle's Radio D is a learn German course, and it has Persian available as an option for a language.

https://gloss.dliflc.edu/ has some materials.

Mango Languages has Persian and some libraries provide free access to this for their members. I looked in Mango and there were no stories, but there were 200 lessons with audio and transcripts in both English and Farsi.

I also found this list of resources https://awesome.farsi.school/content, perhaps this might be of use?

Possibly there might be something on gutenberg (free books) and librovox (free audiobooks) for more advanced material.

Best of luck in finding materials!

[Khayyam]

There seem to be several youtube channels carrying Persian stories, such as https://www.youtube.com/@PersianLearning has stories which has audio and english translations, and 'Persian Fairy Tales' but that one had only English subtitles and no Persian subtitles. Still, maybe you might like it?

There is an FSI course with audio and some written material: https://www.livelingua.com/project/fsi/persian . I wouldn't call it 'story' but it is audio with some written materials.

Deutsche Welle's Radio D is a learn German course, and it has Persian available as an option for a language.

https://gloss.dliflc.edu/ has some materials.

Mango Languages has Persian and some libraries provide free access to this for their members. I looked in Mango and there were no stories, but there were 200 lessons with audio and transcripts in both English and Farsi.

I also found this list of resources https://awesome.farsi.school/content, perhaps this might be of use?

Possibly there might be something on gutenberg (free books) and librovox (free audiobooks) for more advanced material.

Best of luck in finding materials!

I appreciate you making so many suggestions, especially considering Persian isn't even on the list of languages you know or are learning! If you went out and found all that just for me, thank you--I REALLY appreciate it.

I actually follow PersianLearning on YouTube and highly recommend it. There's just not enough material there for me to grow as a reader-listener as fast as I want to.

I tried Persian Fairy Tales, but I'm annoyed by both the lack of Persian subtitles and the presence of English subtitles. I don't want to just be told outright what the English translation is; I want to test my Persian as I go along. Reading in the TL is always the backbone of my regimen (at least until I'm very advanced), regardless of what other things I may switch up, so the absence of written material in the TL is a deal-breaker.

I may look into the others, but for the most part, it doesn't look like they're going to offer me what I'm after, which is a full-fledged book that's a pleasure to read for its own sake (a native speaker would read it), plus an audiobook to go with it. I did check Librivox, but their Persian selection looks both slim and uninteresting. I expect Gutenberg will have a good selection, but then there's the problem of finding the audiobooks.

I was so spoiled with German! Any book under the sun, and at least an 80% chance I'd find the audiobook on YouTube!

[MapleLeaf]

I found a couple more that might be of interest:

• http://langmedia.fivecolleges.edu/culturetalk/iran - has video and transcripts in both Persian and English. The first video I checked was 4 minutes and looked interesting.
• https://www.coerll.utexas.edu/coerll/persian - has video and transcripts in both Persian and English. This site takes a little getting used to, to be able to navigate. The first video I checked was 1 minute and was for beginners.

It seems Youtube is the best source, and it might have autotranslate or autocaption for your target language. I found a playlist of Persian videos with Persian subtitles at https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=P ... X7NYKSeSAP , checked a random video from that list and I was able to switch between English and Persian subtitles by using the gear icon in the video.

Google Translate supports Persian, so it'd be possible to feed Persian subtitles extracted from Youtube, or a Persian transcript if you can find audio with a transcript (I failed to find transcripts at Radio Farsi--maybe they're there, but I didn't find them), to get English translations.

[MapleLeaf]

I was so spoiled with German! Any book under the sun, and at least an 80% chance I'd find the audiobook on YouTube!

How do you find these audiobooks on Youtube? I have a number of children's books in German, such as Madita by Astrid Lingren and Das Zweite Dschungelbuch by Rudyard Kipling, and I haven't any audio of these books on youtube, just trailers for movies.

[Khayyam]

I was so spoiled with German! Any book under the sun, and at least an 80% chance I'd find the audiobook on YouTube!

How do you find these audiobooks on Youtube? I have a number of children's books in German, such as Madita by Astrid Lingren and Das Zweite Dschungelbuch by Rudyard Kipling, and I haven't any audio of these books on youtube, just trailers for movies.

I guess maybe I was just lucky enough to choose books that happened to be there? Evidently, "anything under the sun" turned out to be something of an exaggeration. I should've said most everything I looked for.

Most of the books I chose were either ultra-famous (Harry Potter, Lord of the RIngs) or Geman classics, so maybe that's why. I was stupidly not thinking about how narrow my selection really was when I said "anything."

I appreciate your suggestions--truly, you must be one of the most helpful people I've ever met online--but I think I've figured out what I'm going to do for now. I found a book on ketab.com, an L.A.-based Persian bookstore, that I'm going to buy. There's an audiobook for it on YouTube, as well as an English version on Amazon if I decide I need it, so that covers all my bases. While I'm working through it, I'll poke around on the sites you mentioned and see what I think. Again, thanks.

I'm discovering that I absolutely must have physical books (so I can wantonly deface them with a pen that looks like a puppy got hold of it) to feel that I'm properly learning a language. While I was learning German this way, I didn't realize that I'd found the way for me. At least being deprived of that for a while with Persian has taught me how essential books are for me.

[DaveAgain]

How do you find these audiobooks on Youtube? I have a number of children's books in German, such as Madita by Astrid Lingren and Das Zweite Dschungelbuch by Rudyard Kipling, and I haven't any audio of these books on youtube, just trailers for movies.

Adding" horbuch" or "horspiel" to your search terms might help.

e.g. There are two Madita's on YouTube one, two.
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archive.org and ardaudiothek.de are good sources for German audio too.