Haleh Liza Gafori WATER by Rumi

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Water
Water
, a collection of 54 poems by Rumi, translated by Haleh Liza Gafori and published by New York Review Books, draws on the deep well of Rumi’s masterful poetry, transmitting with fluid grace the wisdom, wit, and passion that infuse his work. The book expands on
Gold,
Gafori’s inspired and widely praised first volume of translations, also released on NYRB Classics. As she writes in her introduction to the collection, “
Gold
highlights Rumi’s rhapsodic, ecstatic side.
Water
, by contrast, is
Gold
’s moody cousin.” Whether Rumi confesses, critiques, praises, nudges, or commands, his startling voice and leaps of imagery dazzle, and his summons, to surrender to the transformative power of Love, rings with urgency, especially in these polarizing times.
Haleh Liza Gafori
Haleh Liza Gafori is an Iranian-American poet, translator, and musician. Her work has been published by
Harvard Review
,
Paris Review, Literary Hub,
The Brooklyn Rail
, Columbia University Press, and others. She lectures on and performs Rumi’s poetry at universities and venues across the US and abroad, including Lincoln Center, Philadelphia Museum of Art, Stanford University, Bradford Literary Fest, and elsewhere.
She was born in NYC of Persian descent, grew up listening to Rumi recited in her home. With her ears tuned to the subtleties of the Persian text and to the music of contemporary American poetry, she brings a vital, doubly-resonant energy that pulses through the cascades, leaps, and incantatory repetitions in these poems. Her intimacy with the Persian language, the cultural context and the array of meanings animating certain Persian words, offers a new depth to the translations. Gafori is a performance artist, enamored reciter, and musician, translating with the oral tradition in mind, invigorating the text both on the stage and the page. The poems in
Water
will move, challenge, and inspire, and are an ideal place to discover or re-discover the words of the Persian master.
Rumi
Rumi is considered the greatest poet of the Persian language. Starting at around the age of 40, he wrote over 65,000 verses of poetry which have been published in two books, the
Masnavi
and the
Diwan-e Shams-e Tabrizi
.
Reviews of
Water
“These
stunning translations of Master Rumi, at once gustatory and spiritual, cut the gloom of our existential doings. Imperative now, as ever, to know this beauty and love.”
- ANNE WALDMAN
“Gorgeous, fluent, and faithful translations. Gafori renders Rumi’s voice on the page with an original integrity that is as skilled as it is unforgettable.”
- PADRAIG O’TUAMA

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