Most Read... Rebecca WattsThe Cult of the Noble Amateur
(PN Review 239)
John McAuliffeBill Manhire in Conversation with John McAuliffe
(PN Review 259)
Patricia CraigVal Warner: A Reminiscence
(PN Review 259)
Eavan BolandA Lyric Voice at Bay
(PN Review 121)
Vahni CapildeoOn Judging Prizes, & Reading More than Six Really Good Books
(PN Review 237)
Christopher MiddletonNotes on a Viking Prow
(PN Review 10)
Next Issue Kirsty Gunn re-arranges the world John McAuliffe reads Seamus Heaney's letters and translations Chris Price's 'Songs of Allegiance' David Herman on Aharon Appelfeld Victoria Moul on Christopher Childers compendious Greek and Latin Lyric Book Philip Terry again answers the question, 'What is Poetry'
Poems Articles Interviews Reports Reviews Contributors
Reader Survey
PN Review Substack

This review is taken from PN Review 243, Volume 45 Number 1, September - October 2018.

Cover of The Conference of the Birds translated by Sholeh Wolpe
Ian PopleThe Same River Twice

Attar, The Conference of the Birds translated by Sholeh Wolpe (W.W. Norton) £20
The Conference of the Birds is one of those world masterpieces which many may well have heard of but few have read.  Written by Attar, Sheikh Farid-Ud-Din who was born in the twelfth century in north-eastern Iran, it is, as Sholeh Wolpe claims in her introduction, ‘an allegorical poem about our human struggle, both physical and spiritual’, more especially ‘the soul’s search for meaning’.  Probably the most familiar translation is the one by Afkham Darbandi and Dick Davis published by Penguin in 1984. However, a brief glimpse at Amazon suggests that there are about half a dozen translations available, some of them much more recent. And Peter Brook, famously, toured a dramatisation of the text around rural villages in Africa in the eighties.

Perhaps the fact that The Conference of the Birds may remain on people’s ‘to read’ list is due to its nature. It is not a conventional narrative in the way that the Greek epics are, at least on the surface. It does not contain tales of derring-do, with great heroes and famous battles.  These might be reasons why so few translations of it have been attempted until recently; it simply has not captured the imagination. Why there are more recent translations is, possibly, down to greater familiarity and fascination with Sufism, in particular, as Sufism is manifested in the poetry of Rumi. One of the legends surrounding Attar is that he bounced the baby Rumi on his knee and predicted Rumi’s greatness. And Sholeh Wolpe may well be correct about another reason why ...


Searching, please wait... animated waiting image