Sir Richard Francis Burton – explorer, writer, soldier, diplomat – is acclaimed for his vivid translation of two masterpieces; from Arabic, One Thousand Nights and A Night and from Sanskrit, The Kama Sutra. High-born, well-travelled and prodigiously multilingual, Burton enlisted in the East India Company army after expulsion from Oxford. Career and adventure enabled the learning of languages and the developing of disguises, through the colonial worlds of India, Arabia and Africa.

In Iliya Troyanov’s composition, a legendary Burton adventure is lyrically complemented by local narrators, whose accounts playfully layer Oriental scenes with themes from Burton’s epic life. In British India, a Scheherazade-like courtesan seduces Burton. In Arabia, Burton makes the pilgrimage to Mecca and Medica, among the first Englishmen to do so. In East Africa, Burton embarks on an expedition to the source of the Nile. Other narrators include Burton himself, writing to the Governor, and the disapproving appraisals of locals and colonials. Burton’s upbringing and sophisticated immersion across multiple cultures is justly matched by Troyanov’s geographical resume: a Bulgarian-born German who grew up in Kenya and journeyed in Burton’s footsteps.