[pohaku]

Yes, but on the other hand, original lyrics by Hafez, Rumi, and others are commonly used, unchanged, as lyrics for contemporary Persian songs, even for full-on rock songs, dance music, love songs, etc. I haven't heard any songs in the Hot 100 using lyrics by Chaucer lately.

[dalbasal]

In part, this is probably because old Persian poetry/song traditions were more modern, compared to english poetry from the same period. They had a strong, very old literary tradition. The English didn't, until a bit later. Chaucer was part of building it.

The musical/poetic sensibilities of old/middle English are way too different to ours.

The Bible (especially in Hebrew) can also easily be plagiarized, and you'll find lots of lines/poems that work "as is" in a pop song.

Eg, rivers of babylon, boney m.

[walrus01]

As a cultural reference, poetry is such a big deal that the largest and most popular tv station in Kabul (Tolo TV), operating in the Dari dialect of Farsi, regularly hosts what could basically be described as poetry slams during prime time tv hours.

They have a fairly active youtube channel if anyone wants to take a look.