[pohaku]

The continuing popularity in Iran and the Persophone world of Classical poets such as Hafez and Rumi, and of poetry in general, has no equal that I know of in the West. I suspect that this tends to slow down language change to some extent. People continue to know the old texts because they are constantly exposed to them in vital, modern contexts. Perhaps it's something like the position that Shakespeare and the King James Bible held in Protestant English-speaking lands, though they were widely understood for a shorter length of time (maybe 350 years?) than the Persian classics (700-1000 years and counting, as far as I can tell). I'm afraid that Shakespeare and the Bible are now slipping beneath the waves of comprehension for non-specialists.