The Song of the Birds, by Farîd od-Dîn 'Attâr: mystical flight into the unknown

Where the earth ends, the sky begins, the domain and kingdom of the divine.

Now, who other than the bird can travel between the two worlds and thereby become its translator and its ferryman?

This is what Farîd od-Dîn'Attâr recounts in his mystical poem

, written in Persian at the end of the 12th century.

One day, all the birds in the world gather around a hoopoe to go in search of the Supreme Being, Simorgh.

But the path promises many pains;

you have to give up your desires, get rid of your fears.

If the peacocks, owls, hawks all have an excuse to postpone said trip, the hoopoe has the answer to everything.

An edifying tale then unfolds through her, intertwined with parables, fables and Sufi spiritual tales.

Read alsoOur review of Shirine: an overexcited Persian tale

Sufism, as Diane de Selliers reminds us in her foreword,

.

He urges the renunciation of the riches of the world, the annihilation of the ego and...

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