A selection of original translations of the great Persian poet by an up-and-coming American translator and musician.
Rumi, Molana, Jalal ad-Din Mohammad Balkhy (1207-1273), was born in
or near the city of Balkh, in present-day Afghanistan.Considered
the greatest poet of the Persianlanguage, Rumi's major works are
the Masnavi, a six-volume collection of mystical teachings in
rhyming couplets, and the Divan-e Shams-e Tabrizi, a collection of
lyric poetry dedicated to his spiritual mentor. He died and was
buried in Konya.
Haleh Liza Gafori is a poet, translator, and musician of Persian
descentborn in New York City. Her poems have been published by
Columbia University Press and Rattapallax. As a vocalist, she has
performed at events such as David Byrne's One Note at Carnegie Hall
and Bonnaroo. She teaches workshops on Rumi's poetry at
universities and festivals across the country.
“Bound to go on nourishing generations to come…[Gold] is a dazzling
selection of Rumi’s poetry, including poems never previously alive
in English, translated and inspirited by poet and musician Haleh
Liza Gafori…Magnetic in his eloquent devotion and his soulful
intelligence, Rumi [is] ancient and eternal.” —Maria Popova,
”Favorite Books of 2022”
“Haleh Liza Gafori’s Gold is everything Rumi was himself—sacred,
profane, laugh out loud funny, deeply earnest, demotic, and yes,
Persian. There’s a rich fluency here not just in idiom but in
gesture, in spirit. What a gift this is, what gold.” —Kaveh
Akbar
“Haleh Liza Gafori’s translations of Rumi are exquisite. Gorgeous,
fluent, faithful translations, rendering Rumi’s voice on the page
with an original integrity that is as skilled as it is
unforgettable.” —Padraig O’tuama, host of On Being’s Poetry
Unbound
“Haleh Liza Gafori’s energetic translation highlights the
timelessness of Rumi’s work, delivering unforgettable phrases.
Rumi’s introspective nature…cosmic vision…and deeply contemplative
yet accessible poems star in this worthy translation.” —Publishers
Weekly
“In this eloquent, faithful translation of the popular 13th-century
poet and mystic Rumi, Persian American poet and musician Gafori
opens a fresh window on Rumi’s spiritual quest and his urgent
invitation to readers to embrace a more enlightened existence.
Ecstatic, spinning lines wind through mystical paradoxes—wordless
speaker, footless runner, placeless place—toward a sense of wonder
and oceanic love.” —Library Journal
“Haleh Liza Gafori’s ecstatic and piercing translation has lifted a
veil, bringing Rumi closer into the quick of our present. Each poem
is a divine invitation. Free your mind. Drown in love.” —V
(formerly Eve Ensler)
“These are the Rumi translations we’ve been waiting for! In Gold,
translated by Persian-American poet/singer Haleh Liza Gafori,
meanings and images hurtle us towards love and ecstasy, just as
Rumi intended. You won’t read these words so much as dance with
them. Hang on tight as they begin whirling. Unbuckle your seat belt
as they take flight. Pure Gold!” —Bob Holman
“Haleh Liza Gafori’s translations are the work of someone who is at
once an acute and enamored reader of the original Farsi text, a
dedicated miner of context and backstory, and, best of all, a
marvelous poet in English.” —Marilyn Hacker, Academy of American
Poets Chancellor 2008-2014
“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
“I have been longing for this gorgeous book, this specific
translation of Rumi’s poems my whole life. As Rumi says in one of
the book’s poems, ‘Wherever the soul soared/Fire was there first.’
Haleh Liza Gafori has taken Rumi’s original Farsi text and
unleashed its fire. My soul soars reading each poem. She has given
us a great and graceful gift.” —Elizabeth Lesser
"Thoughtfully translated, the poems in Gold are spectacularly
beautiful and in some cases hilarious poems you can really chew on”
–Tim Ferriss
“Gold selects from the lyric reveries of Rumi’s metamorphosis, the
fruit of altered states. . . .Rhythmic, intuitive arrangements
revive the conditions in which this poetry came into being. . .
.Far from new-age quietism, these poems urge the heart to be alert,
amazed, to meet the ‘sour world’ awake.” —Yasmine Seale,
4Columns
“Translating a 13th-century Persian poet whose work is deeply
rooted in Islamic theology and Qur’anic language, infused with
mystical vision, and laced with heretical imagery, is not a project
for the faint of heart. Many of Rumi’s recent English translators
or ‘para-translators,’ have no knowledge of Persian, the work’s
cultural context, or Islam. Many speakers of modern Persian lack
the literary gifts to craft English poems of equivalent power. It
gives me great pleasure, and relief, to say that I think Haleh Liza
Gafori’s translations are the closest an English translator has
come to bringing it all together. . . . Gold is a perfect
introduction to the illuminations in Rumi’s work, or an important
addition to your Rumi bookshelf.” —Elizabeth T. Gray, Jr.,
Hyperallergic
“In clear, shimmering language, neither simplified nor
obscurantist, Gafori renders the ecstatic core of Rumi’s vision in
an American idiom that both honors the Islamic background of the
poems and insists that what we mean by ‘surrender’ cannot be
delimited by any psychology or religious tradition.” —Leonard
Schwartz
“Whether you wolf it down in a single exuberant sitting like we did
or parcel these poems out, one a day over 80 days, you can’t help
but be caught up with what I think we can all agree by this point
are timeless sentiments. . . We got an almighty kick out of Haleh
Liza Gafori’s translation and reckon you will too.” —Bookmunch
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