Gold

by Rumi, Haleh Liza Gafori (Translator), Haleh Liza Gafori (Editor)

Overview

A vibrant selection of poems by the great Persian mystic with groundbreaking translations by an American poet of Persian descent.

Rumi’s poems were meant to induce a sense of ecstatic illumination and liberation in his audience, bringing its members to a condition of serenity, compassion, and oneness with the divine. They remain masterpieces of world literature to which readers in many languages continually return for inspiration and succor, as wellas aesthetic delight. This new translation by Haleh Liza Gafori preserves the intelligence and the drama of the poems, which are as full of individual character as they are of visionary wisdom.

Marilyn Hacker praises Gafori’s new translations of Rumi as “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.”

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781681375342
Publisher:	New York Review Books
Publication date:	03/08/2022
Sold by:	Penguin Random House Publisher Services
Format:	eBook
Pages:	112
File size:	1 MB

About the Author

Rumi, Molana, Jalāl ad-Dīn Mohammad Balkhy (1207–1273), was born in or near the city of Balkh, in present-day Afghanistan. Considered the greatest poet of the Persian language, 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 descent born 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.

Table of Contents

Introduction vii

Let Love 3

Why paint night over nightless day? 4

Colorless, nameless, free 5

You shattered my cup 7

Just the other day 8

Your laughter turns the world to paradise 10

Don't think! 12

Who am I? Who is this I 13

Open your eyes to the four streams 15

Let's love each other 16

Salt dry land 17

I'm not that lion battling an enemy 19

You, leading the caravan, look at your camels 20

We exited the battleground and crooked valley of thorns 22

Where the water of life flows 24

Whatever the ways of the world 25

Friend, cave 27

How could I have known this longing would drive me mad 29

Here, it's spring, my friends 31

Ferment like wine 33

I saw myself sharp as a thorn 34

Sun and moon of mine, you've come 35

The moment you left me 36

The moon swooped down the dawn sky 37

I'm not that unrequited lover, so bitter I flee Love 39

If you quit thinking for one hour 41

Sufis arrive from the left and right 43

You found me once again 45

Lovers, why fear disgrace? 47

The spring of souls is here 49

I went to the doctor of the soul 51

Full of yourself 53

Take the cotton 54

Spring is here 55

Why plague your heart with indecision? 57

When I am, I am not 58

You wake the dead to life 59

Leave your tricks and schemes behind 61

The house overflows with drunkards 63

You're not a seeker? 64

For forty years, my mind drowned me in thought 65

Don't come without a drum 66

I don't know this nine-story house 67

You're ready for battle 69

Come out, come close! 70

Your naked freedom 72

This time, I am wrapped and entwined in Love 73

Music floats on wind 75

Between the curtains of blood 76

What else will a smiling bud do 78

Unless Love dyes you in its colors 79

I was a dust mote 80

If wheat sprouts from my grave 81

I am blasphemous and religious 83

Acknowledgments 84

Index of Poems 85

Editorial Reviews

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

From the Publisher

05/01/2022

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. With bracing stoic vigor ("Whatever the ways of the world, what fruits do you bring?") listeners are urged to break free from the fetters of greed, pride, desire, status, reason, duality, and selfhood, and surrender to an ultimate Truth that cannot be fathomed but is delineated through vivid elemental metaphors—earth, thorns, flowers, seas, flames, wine, and yes, gold. VERDICT Both the authority and musicality of Gafori's translation, and her artful selection of excerpts from Rumi's vast and intensely personal Divan-e Shams-e Tabrizi amply justify this book's place in any Rumi collection, where it is sure to provide seeds for contemplation and kindling for spiritual fire.

Library Journal