The 13th century mystic and sage Rumi was dedicated to unshackling his mind, opening his heart, and accessing deeper levels of serenity, compassion, and generosity. His poetry was meant to induce ecstatic illumination and liberation in listeners. Since his passing, readers across the world have returned to his text for inspiration and nourishment.
In this “previously recorded” online workshop, Haleh Liza Gafori will recite new translations of poems brimming with mystical insights and leaping images. She will unpack Sufi mystical terms that recur in his poetry but have no one-to-one equivalent in English, and she will share lesser-known biographical anecdotes to further elucidate and contextualize the poems.
Short excerpts of the original Persian text will give us glimpses into the astonishing rhythm, rhyme, and wordplay that grace the poetry in Persian.
We will consider and discuss how his insights on love, ego-death, mortality, generosity, and compassion dialogue with our lives and our times. As we allow the honesty, humor, wisdom, and ecstasy that pervade his poems to pervade us, the “path of Love” may become less abstract and more walkable. There will be time to free write in response to a writing prompt, to ask questions, and to discuss themes in break-out rooms.
“Rumi’s beautiful melding of wildness, insight and untrammeled joy has found a true, unerring voice in Haleh Liza Gafori, whose own fine abilities as a poet bring these hallowed Persian, poetic gifts anew into 21st century English.”
– David Whyte
