John Payne (23 August 1842 – 11 February 1916) was an English poet and translator. Initially he pursued a legal career, and associated with Dante Gabriel Rossetti. Later he became involved with limited edition publishing, and the Villon Society.
He is now best known for his translations of Boccaccio's Decameron, The Arabian Nights and the Diwan Hafez.
After completing his translation of Omar Khayyam, Payne returned to the rendition of Hafiz eventually published in 3 vols. in 1901. Payne argues that Hafiz takes the "whole sweep of human experience and irradiates all things with his sun-gold and his wisdom".
Payne once said that Hafez, Dante and Shakespeare were the three greatest poets of the world.
The Masque of Shadows and other poems (1870)Intaglios; sonnets (1871)Songs of Life and Death. (1872)Lautrec: A Poem (1878)The Poems of François Villon.(1878)New Poems (1880)The Book of the Thousand Nights and One Night (1882–4) translation in nine volumesTales from the Arabic (1884)The Novels of Matteo Bandello, Bishop of Agen (1890) translation in six volumesThe Decameron by Giovanni Boccaccio (1886) translation in three volumesAlaeddin and the Enchanted Lamp; Zein Ul Asnam and The King of the Jinn: (1889) editor and translatorThe Persian Letters of Montesquieu (1897) translatorThe Quatrains of Omar Kheyyam of Nisahpour (1898)Poems of Master François Villon of Paris (1900)The Poems of Hafiz (1901) translation in three volumesOriental Tales: The Book of the Thousand Nights and One Night [and other tales]. (1901) verse and prose translation in 15 volumes, edited by Leonard C. Montesquieu SmithersThe Descent of the Dove and other poems (1902)Poetical Works (1902) two volumesStories of Boccaccio (1903)Vigil and Vision: New Sonnets (1903)Hamid the Luckless and other tales in verse (1904)Songs of Consolation: New Poems (1904)Sir Winfrith and other poems (1905)Selections from the Poetry of John Payne (1906) selected by Tracy and Lucy RobinsonFlowers of France: Romantic Period (1906)Flowers of France, The Renaissance Period (1907)The Quatrains of Ibn et Tefrid (1908, second edition 1921)Flowers of France: the Latter Days (1913)Flowers of France: The Classic Period (1914)The Way of the Winepress (1920)Nature and Her Lover (1922)The Autobiography of John Payne of Villon Society Fame, Poet and Scholar (1926) 
