Friends,
I love this quote: “The universe is one long poem. I think some of us just tap into that poem and snatch little pieces of it and translate it into words.” The Iranian-American poet Sholeh Wolpé said this once, and it makes sense: she's a prolific translator of poetry just as much as a writer of it. I learned about her work a few years ago when she translated The Conference of the Birds, an anthology of mystical poems and parables by the Sufi poet Farīd ud-Dīn Attar.
The main narrative follows a group of birds as they take up the difficult journey to Mount Qaf, a mythical mountain where they can find enlightenment. As the progress through each valley, more and more birds decide to turn away. The journey is too long or too risky, the needs of home call others back, still others are distracted by their own desires. Of course, these birds are us, and this journey is our own spiritual lives. Recently, Wolpé translated the poem again, this time from a poem to a libretto, as she collaborated with composer Fahad Siadat on a new musical adaptation. At a performance in a Hollywood church, Siadat introduced the music and spiritual text this way:
The metaphor of this parable is relatively simple: we are the birds of the story. Not the thirty who endure, not the survivors who make their way through the seven spiritual valleys. We are those who stray along the way, make excuses, give into discouragement, cyncism, complacency, and doubt. And yet: no matter how far we have strayed, we are only ever one step away from getting back on the path....
The purpose of any spiritual practice, the purpose of this piece, and the secret agenda of all art is to cut through the noise and create an internal place of stillness and silence so we can answer that deep true inner calling. Every telling of this tale is a reminder for us to stay on the path. Every performance is a practice of remaining open and vulnerable, authentic and real. It's a reminder to let go of both our pride and our shame so that we may be fully present to the work in front of us and to the needs of those with us.
The purpose of spiritual or creative practice? To bring us back to stillness, and to help us keep moving forward along the path. What I love so much about Conference of the Birds is the reminder of just how old that path is. Attar wrote this epic poem in the 12th century, and now, over 900 years later, it’s still speaking to us, through the hard work of artists bringing these stories back to life through their creative work. In the forward to her translation, Sholeh writes,
I share this moving work with you not only as a poet and lover of poetry, but also as a soul who repeatedly attempts to walk the path toward the Beloved. I am always on the move, and it is this movement that Attar encourages. He warns us not to dry up our own puddle but instead to persevere in our journey toward the Divine. That Great Ocean is eternal. It is patient. It waits for us all. May we all arrive at its shores as drops of pure water. That's when we can join it, become it, and finally comprehend it.
I am almost brought to tears by how generous all this is, how she spent years of her career translating Attar's spiritual wisdom. And now, with the help of Siadat’s own creative efforts, it has new life again—a gift of Sufi spirituality brought back to life, from one soul to another. This widens the spiritual path for all of us, and it’s a generous gift. This is how we write that universal poem together—one word and action at a time, with the poets and mystics and composers and artists leading the way.
Take care,
Michael
“The Hoopoe Answers the Peacock” from The Conference of the Birds by Attar, translated by Sholeh Wolpé
You who have lost your way from your self,
everyone asks the Exalted One for a home.
The best home is closest to the Beloved;
it's best to live near that Great Source.
Fanciful desires live in the house of the ego,
but the only home for sincerity is the heart.
The Beloved is a grand ocean in which
the Garden of Paradise is both a tiny ball of dew.
If you have the Ocean, you have the drop.
Don't settle for less, don't seek anything but the Ocean.
If you can find your way to vast waters,
why rush toward a drop of dew?
if you can speak heart-to-heart with the sun,
why have a conversation with a dust mote?
If you can contain the whole,
why trouble yourself with the parts?
If you can be a soul, why bother with limbs?
If you want to be complete, then look for the whole.
Desire all, be all, become all.
Choose everything.
Choose everything.
Resonance Collective celebrates the “sacred and mystical experience” of the arts
The Conference of the Birds as an existential children’s book
The Long Journey Home: a Met Spotlight on Attar’s illuminated manuscripts
Here’s Lembit Beecher’s orchestral response to The Conference of the Birds