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sidharthvardhan's review against another edition
5.0
”The Moths had long been exiled from the Flame
They worship: so to solemn Council came,
And voted One of them by Lot be sent
To find their Idol. One was chosen: went.
And after a long Circuit in sheer Gloom,
Seeing, he thought, the TAPER in a Room
Flew back at once to say so. But the chief
Of Mothistan slighted so slight Belief,
And sent another Messenger, who flew
Up to the House, in at the window, through
The Flame itself; and back the Message brings,
With yet no sign of Conflict on his wings.
Then went a Third, and spurr'd with true Desire,
Plunging at once into the sacred Fire,
Folded his Wings within, till he became
One Colour and one Substance with the Flame.
He only knew the Flame who in it burn'd;
And only He could tell who ne'er to tell return'd.
(Parliament of Birds)
Devotion and Love are such mass emotions that even if you frown at most of them, there will always be a few such poets for these emotions that you shall end up loving.
Of all religious schools, I love Sufism the best. I find them really cool among all saints. They would spend their lives going around singing devotional songs. They are sort of rebels - breaking rules instead of making them. They are still really popular in Punjab and Pakistan – and are equally loved among Hindus, Muslims and Sikhs (Majority of population in on the planet is Christians, that of my country is Hindu, that of my state is Sikh and that of my town is Muslim and I’m an atheist.) Sufism is now an important branch of Islamic and Indian music. Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan was a popular singer.
Sufism strives for ihsan or perfection of worship. The focus is on the emotion – your love for the God rather than the object iself – God. As to how perfect the emotion, the answer varies among different schools of Sufism.
Still basic rule is that there are no rules – and even that is not a rule. Look at a poem from Buleh Shaw:
“Not a believer in the mosque am I,
Nor a disbeliever with his rites am I.
I am not the pure amongst the impure,
I am neither Moses nor Pharaoh.
Bulleh, I know not who I am.
Not in the holy books am I,
Nor do I dwell in bhang or wine,
Nor do I live in a drunken haze,
Nor in sleep or waking known.
Bulleh, I know not who I am.
Not in happiness or in sorrow am I found.
I am neither pure nor mired in filthy ground.
Not of water nor of land,
Nor am I in air or fire to be found.
Bulleh, I know not who I am.
Not an Arab nor Lahori,
Not a Hindi or Nagouri,
Nor a Muslim or Peshawari,
Not a Buddhist or a Christian.
Bulleh, I know not who I am.
Secrets of religion have I not unravelled,
I am not of Eve and Adam.
Neither still nor moving on,
I have not chosen my own name!
Bulleh, I know not who I am.
From first to last, I searched myself.
None other did I succeed in knowing.
Not some great thinker am I.
Who is standing in my shoes, alone?
Bulleh, I know not who I am.”
(by Buleh Shah)
Poems and Parables
Sufi saints won’t give you commandments but would rather write poems like lovers. They are very generous in challenging traditions of all religions (look at the Buleh Shaw poem) but they are equally generous in picking up their material from parables from those very same religions - and even love stories. Yes, they are not afraid of what all fanatics are afraid of – being romantic (no doubt they have been repeatedly under terrorist attacks in Pakistan). They will quote examples of Arabic Laila-Majnu and Indian Heer-Ranjha; both stories of stars-crossed lovers.
There is actually this one Punjabi Sufi song where a saint, upon seeing a beautiful girl, would always go “oh my God! What a nice piece of work you have done.” It sounds more poetical when he says it. When asked, why wouldn't he worship the beauty he enjoys seeing so much; his reply is; “I don’t count the beads of my rosary. The beautiful faces are beads in my rosary. Devotion is automatically done as they pass through my sight."
You see the metaphor of moth and flame above, another metaphor used in this poem is that Nightingale – who stands for lover singing for his beloved, Rose. When Nightingale asks waht does he need God for, when he has his rose. He is replied as follows:
'O watering with thy melodious Tears
Love's Garden, and who dost indeed the Ears
Of men with thy melodious Fingers mould
As David's Finger Iron did of old:
Why not, like David, dedicate thy Dower
Of Song to something better than a Flower?
Empress indeed of Beauty, so they say, 230
But one whose Empire hardly lasts a Day,
By Insurrection of the Morning's Breath
That made her hurried to Decay and Death:
And while she lasts contented to be seen,
And worshipt, for the Garden's only Queen,
Leaving thee singing on thy Bough forlorn,
Or if she smile on Thee, perhaps in Scorn.'
Like that fond Dervish waiting in the throng
When some World-famous Beauty went along,
Who smiling on the Antic as she pass'd—240
Forthwith Staff, Bead and Scrip away he cast,
And grovelling in the Kennel, took to whine
Before her Door among the Dogs and Swine.
Which when she often went unheeding by,
But one day quite as heedless ask'd him—'Why?'—
He told of that one Smile, which, all the Rest
Passing, had kindled Hope within his Breast—
Again she smiled and said, 'O self-beguiled
Poor Wretch, at whom and not on whom I smiled.'
The Allegory
Birds of all kind gather to search for Khalif-king for them. Tajinder the wise and our Sufi coach for the poem tells them that he know of their lord (read God) but they must journey out to see him:
”Were you indeed not blinded by the Curse
Of Self-exile, that still grows worse and worse,
Yourselves would know that, though you see him not,
He is with you this Moment, on this Spot, 60
Your Lord through all Forgetfulness and Crime,
Here, There, and Everywhere, and through all Time.
But as a Father, whom some wayward Child
By sinful Self-will has unreconciled,
Waits till the sullen Reprobate at cost
Of long Repentance should regain the Lost;
Therefore, yourselves to see as you are seen,
Yourselves must bridge the Gulf you made between
By such a Search and Travel to be gone
Up to the mighty mountain Kaf, …
Different birds represent people of different nature. Nightingale is the lover; Peacock is vain about its beauty, Owl is the miser etc. Each of them have their doubts and are in turn answered by Tajinder or other birds by advice and through parables. I have already quoted Tajinder’s answer to Nightingale. It is circular - birds should use human parables, while we , humans are using them as `parables.
The journey of birds is symbolic of human search for God:
”Not to be reach'd, if to be reach'd at all
But by a Road the stoutest might apal;
Of Travel not of Days or Months, but Years—
Life-long perhaps: of Dangers, Doubts, and Fears
As yet unheard of: Sweat of Blood and Brain
Interminable—often all in vain—80
And, if successful, no Return again
And
”A voice from Heav'n amid the stillness said:
'The Royal Road is not for all to tread,
Nor is the Royal Palace for the Rout,
Who, even if they reach it, are shut out.
The Blaze that from my Harim window breaks
With fright the Rabble of the Roadside takes;
And even of those that at my Portal din,
Thousands may knock for one that enters in.”
Poet’s philosophy is that God is the greater whole of which we are parts ( and it is stupid to consider a part to be the whole) like rain drops are a part of sea. It is our destination to submerge/ submit ourselves to God (Islam means submission to God). Of course important difference here is that God does not go around giving us sets of rules. Submission here means giving up yourself aesthetically to God – selflessness to point of fault. Look at the moth and flame parable quoted in the beginning.
And now, after a difficult journey only thirty birds dare able to reach their destination only to see in God their own reflection:
They That, That They: Another, yet the Same:
Dividual, yet One
Which again explains that God and people are same material:
”Rays that have wander'd into Darkness wide
Return, and back into your Sun subside.'
They worship: so to solemn Council came,
And voted One of them by Lot be sent
To find their Idol. One was chosen: went.
And after a long Circuit in sheer Gloom,
Seeing, he thought, the TAPER in a Room
Flew back at once to say so. But the chief
Of Mothistan slighted so slight Belief,
And sent another Messenger, who flew
Up to the House, in at the window, through
The Flame itself; and back the Message brings,
With yet no sign of Conflict on his wings.
Then went a Third, and spurr'd with true Desire,
Plunging at once into the sacred Fire,
Folded his Wings within, till he became
One Colour and one Substance with the Flame.
He only knew the Flame who in it burn'd;
And only He could tell who ne'er to tell return'd.
(Parliament of Birds)
Devotion and Love are such mass emotions that even if you frown at most of them, there will always be a few such poets for these emotions that you shall end up loving.
Of all religious schools, I love Sufism the best. I find them really cool among all saints. They would spend their lives going around singing devotional songs. They are sort of rebels - breaking rules instead of making them. They are still really popular in Punjab and Pakistan – and are equally loved among Hindus, Muslims and Sikhs (Majority of population in on the planet is Christians, that of my country is Hindu, that of my state is Sikh and that of my town is Muslim and I’m an atheist.) Sufism is now an important branch of Islamic and Indian music. Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan was a popular singer.
Sufism strives for ihsan or perfection of worship. The focus is on the emotion – your love for the God rather than the object iself – God. As to how perfect the emotion, the answer varies among different schools of Sufism.
Still basic rule is that there are no rules – and even that is not a rule. Look at a poem from Buleh Shaw:
“Not a believer in the mosque am I,
Nor a disbeliever with his rites am I.
I am not the pure amongst the impure,
I am neither Moses nor Pharaoh.
Bulleh, I know not who I am.
Not in the holy books am I,
Nor do I dwell in bhang or wine,
Nor do I live in a drunken haze,
Nor in sleep or waking known.
Bulleh, I know not who I am.
Not in happiness or in sorrow am I found.
I am neither pure nor mired in filthy ground.
Not of water nor of land,
Nor am I in air or fire to be found.
Bulleh, I know not who I am.
Not an Arab nor Lahori,
Not a Hindi or Nagouri,
Nor a Muslim or Peshawari,
Not a Buddhist or a Christian.
Bulleh, I know not who I am.
Secrets of religion have I not unravelled,
I am not of Eve and Adam.
Neither still nor moving on,
I have not chosen my own name!
Bulleh, I know not who I am.
From first to last, I searched myself.
None other did I succeed in knowing.
Not some great thinker am I.
Who is standing in my shoes, alone?
Bulleh, I know not who I am.”
(by Buleh Shah)
Poems and Parables
Sufi saints won’t give you commandments but would rather write poems like lovers. They are very generous in challenging traditions of all religions (look at the Buleh Shaw poem) but they are equally generous in picking up their material from parables from those very same religions - and even love stories. Yes, they are not afraid of what all fanatics are afraid of – being romantic (no doubt they have been repeatedly under terrorist attacks in Pakistan). They will quote examples of Arabic Laila-Majnu and Indian Heer-Ranjha; both stories of stars-crossed lovers.
There is actually this one Punjabi Sufi song where a saint, upon seeing a beautiful girl, would always go “oh my God! What a nice piece of work you have done.” It sounds more poetical when he says it. When asked, why wouldn't he worship the beauty he enjoys seeing so much; his reply is; “I don’t count the beads of my rosary. The beautiful faces are beads in my rosary. Devotion is automatically done as they pass through my sight."
You see the metaphor of moth and flame above, another metaphor used in this poem is that Nightingale – who stands for lover singing for his beloved, Rose. When Nightingale asks waht does he need God for, when he has his rose. He is replied as follows:
'O watering with thy melodious Tears
Love's Garden, and who dost indeed the Ears
Of men with thy melodious Fingers mould
As David's Finger Iron did of old:
Why not, like David, dedicate thy Dower
Of Song to something better than a Flower?
Empress indeed of Beauty, so they say, 230
But one whose Empire hardly lasts a Day,
By Insurrection of the Morning's Breath
That made her hurried to Decay and Death:
And while she lasts contented to be seen,
And worshipt, for the Garden's only Queen,
Leaving thee singing on thy Bough forlorn,
Or if she smile on Thee, perhaps in Scorn.'
Like that fond Dervish waiting in the throng
When some World-famous Beauty went along,
Who smiling on the Antic as she pass'd—240
Forthwith Staff, Bead and Scrip away he cast,
And grovelling in the Kennel, took to whine
Before her Door among the Dogs and Swine.
Which when she often went unheeding by,
But one day quite as heedless ask'd him—'Why?'—
He told of that one Smile, which, all the Rest
Passing, had kindled Hope within his Breast—
Again she smiled and said, 'O self-beguiled
Poor Wretch, at whom and not on whom I smiled.'
The Allegory
Birds of all kind gather to search for Khalif-king for them. Tajinder the wise and our Sufi coach for the poem tells them that he know of their lord (read God) but they must journey out to see him:
”Were you indeed not blinded by the Curse
Of Self-exile, that still grows worse and worse,
Yourselves would know that, though you see him not,
He is with you this Moment, on this Spot, 60
Your Lord through all Forgetfulness and Crime,
Here, There, and Everywhere, and through all Time.
But as a Father, whom some wayward Child
By sinful Self-will has unreconciled,
Waits till the sullen Reprobate at cost
Of long Repentance should regain the Lost;
Therefore, yourselves to see as you are seen,
Yourselves must bridge the Gulf you made between
By such a Search and Travel to be gone
Up to the mighty mountain Kaf, …
Different birds represent people of different nature. Nightingale is the lover; Peacock is vain about its beauty, Owl is the miser etc. Each of them have their doubts and are in turn answered by Tajinder or other birds by advice and through parables. I have already quoted Tajinder’s answer to Nightingale. It is circular - birds should use human parables, while we , humans are using them as `parables.
The journey of birds is symbolic of human search for God:
”Not to be reach'd, if to be reach'd at all
But by a Road the stoutest might apal;
Of Travel not of Days or Months, but Years—
Life-long perhaps: of Dangers, Doubts, and Fears
As yet unheard of: Sweat of Blood and Brain
Interminable—often all in vain—80
And, if successful, no Return again
And
”A voice from Heav'n amid the stillness said:
'The Royal Road is not for all to tread,
Nor is the Royal Palace for the Rout,
Who, even if they reach it, are shut out.
The Blaze that from my Harim window breaks
With fright the Rabble of the Roadside takes;
And even of those that at my Portal din,
Thousands may knock for one that enters in.”
Poet’s philosophy is that God is the greater whole of which we are parts ( and it is stupid to consider a part to be the whole) like rain drops are a part of sea. It is our destination to submerge/ submit ourselves to God (Islam means submission to God). Of course important difference here is that God does not go around giving us sets of rules. Submission here means giving up yourself aesthetically to God – selflessness to point of fault. Look at the moth and flame parable quoted in the beginning.
And now, after a difficult journey only thirty birds dare able to reach their destination only to see in God their own reflection:
They That, That They: Another, yet the Same:
Dividual, yet One
Which again explains that God and people are same material:
”Rays that have wander'd into Darkness wide
Return, and back into your Sun subside.'
brogan7's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
medium-paced
4.0
This book is beautiful, both the illustrations and the paper it is printed on.
I found myself lost as far as the story goes, not clear on any of the symbolism and not getting much spontaneously out of it.
I found myself lost as far as the story goes, not clear on any of the symbolism and not getting much spontaneously out of it.
zeldiecakes's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
mysterious
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.25
sara_shocks's review against another edition
4.0
4/5 stars
I thought there would be more birds and fewer parables, but that's on me! This translation seemed accessible enough for people who, like me, do not have much background in Persian poetry & myth -- there are some footnotes around the allusions, but not to a point of distraction. I might have liked some additional endnotes, maybe.
The most beautiful part for me was "The Seven Valleys," perhaps followed by "The Birds Ask About the Beloved" and "The Journey of the Birds," all of which are towards the end of this epic. The front portion dragged a bit in regards to the parables, for me at least, as I was not and still am not interested in Sufism for me personally. I was surprised at the moments of humor, and often puzzled by the parables. There was an interesting ethical question that came up near the end that reminded me of The Good Place, so I enjoyed that. This epic also seemed...unexpectedly erotic? I need to read the intro again to see what I'm missing on the translation of the word Lover, or to better understand its use here.
I thought there would be more birds and fewer parables, but that's on me! This translation seemed accessible enough for people who, like me, do not have much background in Persian poetry & myth -- there are some footnotes around the allusions, but not to a point of distraction. I might have liked some additional endnotes, maybe.
The most beautiful part for me was "The Seven Valleys," perhaps followed by "The Birds Ask About the Beloved" and "The Journey of the Birds," all of which are towards the end of this epic. The front portion dragged a bit in regards to the parables, for me at least, as I was not and still am not interested in Sufism for me personally. I was surprised at the moments of humor, and often puzzled by the parables. There was an interesting ethical question that came up near the end that reminded me of The Good Place, so I enjoyed that. This epic also seemed...unexpectedly erotic? I need to read the intro again to see what I'm missing on the translation of the word Lover, or to better understand its use here.
yellowbaby's review against another edition
inspiring
fast-paced
3.75
The artwork was beautiful but the story was just meh
nuthatch428's review against another edition
challenging
funny
hopeful
inspiring
mysterious
medium-paced
5.0