It has been established by a number of scholars (such as Amīr Hasan ‘Ābidī, Sunil Sharma or Carl Ernst) that translation, rewriting and adaptation (from Sanskrit, or the vernacular languages to Persian and the other way round) played an important role in the cultural shaping of persianate South Asia. Persian literary translations/adaptations (tarjuma) of narrative literature, composed in Neo-Indo-Aryan vernacular languages (be it Avadhī, Braj Bhāṣā or others), thanks to the intricacies of the narration, the details of the cultural context and the literary references scattered in the compositions, allow us to glimpse directly into the multilingual society that was South Asia during the Mughal period. Following the intuitions and scholarly works of a number of researchers (such as Syed Hasan Askari, Thibaut d’Hubert or Francesca Orsini), I would argue that a literary analysis, focused on stylistics, imagery and narratology, of the Persian masnavīs translated or adapted from the vernacular, is the key to understand some of the techniques used by the translators/adapters to please their patrons and address efficiently a Persian-speaking audience. I would like to focus on the work of a 17th century poet, Mīr ‘Alī ‘Askarī also known as ‘Āqil Khān ‘Rāzī’ (1026?-1108 AH, 1617?-1696 AD), who translated into Persian two Avadhī romances (premākhyān): Madhumālatī (1545 AD), translated under the title Mihr-u Māh (1654/55 AD) and Padmāvat (1540 AD), translated under the title Sham’-u Parvāna (1658/59 AD). I wish to demonstrate that these works are, on many aspects, rewritings of the Hindavī originals, meant to persianize the romances by adapting both the imagery and the style to the canons of classical Persian poetry. The concept of persianization (tafrīs) is borrowed from the field of Indo-Persian lexicology that, I would argue, played an important part in the poetic reflection of ‘Āqil Khān ‘Rāzī’, being the core model of the translation technique he developed. Rāzī resorted also to other literary practises, one of which is the ‘narrative contraction’ (kōtahī) or ‘summarizing’ of the Indian tales, used by many Persian-knowing readers as some Avadhī manuscripts inscribed with Persian ‘summarizing’ titles (surkhiyān) above each stanza testify. As such, my intention is to show that ‘Āqil Khān’s compositions, being the locus of multiple translation techniques, are not only interesting pieces of ‘rewritten’ literature but also testimonies of persianate reading practices of vernacular South Asian poetry.