The Conference of the Birds

By -
The Conference of the Birds, by Farid ud-Din Attar, with Rafiq Abdulla

It was only after I read this book--introduction and all--that I figured out that it's really selections from a longer poem.  It's only mentioned in one spot that I nearly missed!  So now I feel kind of dumb, but I did enjoy the poetry and maybe someday I'll find the whole thing.  I have no idea how long it is.


The Conference of the Birds is a Sufi poem, a sort of allegory of humanity's journey to God.  All the birds of the world meet together, and the hoopoe encourages them all to look for the Simurgh, the King of Birds--that is, God.  The hoopoe is their spiritual leader, wiser than the rest, and he tells them that the journey is long and difficult, but nothing else is worthwhile.

The birds are at first happy enough to look for the Simurgh, but when they realize how arduous the quest will be, they start dropping out and giving excuses.  The sparrow is afraid, the owl doesn't have the energy, the duck finds satisfaction enough in his water, the nightingale is a romantic more interested in poetry and roses than religion.  Each has a common failing, and the hoopoe sees through every one of them and tells them what they need to hear.  There are also birds who honestly dedicate themselves to the journey from the start, and a large group sets out.


It's a long trip.  Some birds die along the way.  There are seven allegorical hazardous valleys to cross, and I don't really get how exactly they work (Sufi steps to enlightenment, I suppose), but they are Love, Understanding, Detachment, Unity, Bewilderment, Deprivation and Death.  Those that cross all the valleys--only a few out of the many that started--get to the Simurgh's palace....where at first they are denied entrance.  Only when they insist that they will never leave are they allowed to enter and become one with their Beloved.

Though I'm not a Sufi, there is plenty here for anybody to think about and the poem is a stirring one as well as great literature.  The volume of selections I read is lavishly illustrated with illustrations from illuminated manuscripts held by the British Library, which was neat.  I enjoyed the artwork.


Comments

  1. FaithAugust 10, 2016 at 2:11 PM

    Cool! If I were going to be Muslim, I'd be Sufi. I love their mysticism.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Esther | Chapter AdventuresAugust 10, 2016 at 8:33 PM

    It sounds beautiful and the illustrations look so... rich. I don't know how to explain it, the word I'm looking for is not coming to me, but they are lovely. I would truly love to read this! I'm going to add it to my TBR and hopefully find the complete work.

    ReplyDelete
  3. looloolooweezAugust 14, 2016 at 1:00 PM

    I think yours is the third review of this classic I've seen this year, and everyone seems to really enjoy it and find some meaning in it. This is a sign that this should definitely go on my to-read list!

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

I'd love to know what you think, so please comment!

Popular posts from this blog

The Four Ages of Poetry

By -
Image
  "The Four Ages of Poetry," by Thomas Love Peacock I am becoming fond of Thomas Love Peacock.  Besides his unbeatable name, he was a lot of fun.  Peacock was a minor literary figure of the early 19th century; he tried his hand at poetry but mainly succeeded in satire.  I read his short novel Nightmare Abbey last year, but at the time I didn't know that the young hero of the story, Scythrop, was modeled on Peacock's good friend Percy Shelley.  He and Shelley were quite close and Peacock was the executor of Shelley's will. Thomas Love Peacock Percy Bysshe Shelley "The Four Ages of Poetry," a tongue-in-cheek essay on the history and development of poetry, was published in 1820 in a new magazine called Literary Miscellany , which promptly died.  It would probably have been completely obscure and unknown--it nearly is anyway--but for Shelley.  Peacock sent a copy to his friend, who I guess didn't really have much of a sense of
Read more

A few short stories in Urdu

By -
Image
 Back in August, I got hold of a book of Urdu short stories translated into English.  It's a large book, so I wanted to read just the women authors for WIT, and that would still be a good amount.  August got away from me, and I only read one or two stories back then, but I've continued reading them since.  I've now finished all the short stories in the book that were written by women (luckily for me, there are short biographies in an appendix, since I could only tell from the name about half the time).  I'll just highlight a couple: "The Wagon," by Khalida Asghar, is a hallucinatory, apocalyptic story.  The narrator meets three strange men who are watching the evening sky and point out that it has become red.  No one had noticed until they said so, but the sky is now strangely red.  Then a smell arrives, so offensive and sickening that it causes real pain -- but only once it's pointed out.  And finally, a mysterious wagon, which may be the source of the s
Read more

Faerie Queen Readalong I: Redcrosse, the Knight of Holiness

By -
Image
I did it, I read all of Book I!  My minimum requirement was two cantos a day, but I managed three a couple of times.  I'm hoping to read ahead, because I'll be gone for two weeks in the middle of this event and I'd like to be able to prep a post ahead of time...but the schedule is already pretty demanding.  The reading is not terribly difficult, but it is slow.  I keep thinking that I've read a large chunk, only to look back and realize that in fact I have read six verses.  So here we go with analysis... Each book in the Faerie Queene features a knight, and a story, about a particular virtue.  The Redcrosse Knight, to be known as St. George after he accomplishes his feats, is all about Holinesse .  This does not mean that Redcrosse already exemplifies holiness; he doesn't.  Holiness is what he's working towards and struggling with.  His foes symbolize various forms of unholiness, and he falls into their clutches at least as often as he defeats or avoids th
Read more