The Conference of the Birds

「PROLOGUE」に記されている文章が実に興味深い。 聖預言者ムハムマッドが世界と信仰の主。 これが、イランのスーフィズムの根幹にあることに驚かされる。なぜならば、通常のイスラム教の理解では、イスラム教の主は唯一の神アッラーと決まっているからである。そして、イランに伝わるゾロアスター教の理解がイスラム教として伝わっていることにも驚かされる。 その例文を紹介しよう。 And when God saw this perfect light, He lit a hundred further seas of light from it; He made him for Himself, and then created for him the world that he illuminated - Creation has no gorl but him, and he remains unrivalled in his purity. The first thing to emerge from darkest night was, without doubt, his pure refulgent light; From this there came the world, heaven's throne, the pen and tablet that record the fates of men; A trace of this light made the world, a trace created Adam and the human race. 創造を行った神（God）を善神アフラ・マズダーだと理解すれば、善の世界と悪の世界の両方に名前が記されている預言者ムハムマッドは悪神アンラ・マンユとなり、その悪神アンラ・マンユの無知に向かって世界の創造が行われたとするゾロアスター教の神話が見えてくる。まず最初には、悪神アンラ・マンユは善神アフラ・マズダーの存在に気がつかなかったとされるので、最初に完全な光（perfect light）を見たのは善神アフラ・マズダーのほうである。 それをプラス思考的に解釈しているのがイランのスーフィズムだとすれば、イスラム教とゾロアスター教の結びつきも見えてくる。 イランのスーフィズムを理解するには、本文の「THE CONFERENCE OF THE BIRDS」だけでは足りない。理解の核心部分は、「PROLOGUE」にある。クルド人が孔雀天使と崇める孔雀（peacock）の紹介文には、次のように書いてある。このようにして、中東のイスラム教の理解は複雑怪奇な神秘主義として結びついている。 Destroy its ugly charm and Adam then will welcome you to paradise again.

Les ecrits d'Attar sont divinement sublimes et vacillent dans les metaphores entre l'amour inter-humain et l'amour en vers Dieu. Je reste convaincu qu'il fait parti des Awliyas; que dis-je... j'aurais voulu plonger dans la voie et y progresser autant qu'il a pu le faire grace a l'Unique.

This is a good read for those who love ancient mysticism in poetry. I bought two as new year gifts. Yes, the print quality is in question, but who cares. content is important and the translation is good.

A very inspiring poem, although sometimes difficult to understand.

I picked up this book after ending a 40-odd year quest to see a Hoopoe whilst on holiday in Qatar and being informed that there was a famous Islamic book where this bird was the central character. Whilst I was aware of this book, I had not made the connection with the Hoopoe and became really interested in reading it. Attar was a 12th century Sufi poet from Persia but , having been an enthusiastic reader of European, medieval literature in the 1990s, I would have to say was far more sophisticated than his Western contemporaries. The opening introduction to the poem is a hard read yet when Attar starts the main body of his work, it is surpringly easy to read. Many other versions of this poem omit this introduction as well as the epilogue and therefore this Penguin edition must be recommended as it is complete. I found the epilogue to be one of the highlights of the poem and maybe it's most "human" element and would not have wanted this to have been missed now that I am fully aware of the poem's form. On the plus side, as a birdwatching it is nice that the writer had a good understanding of birds. The "difficult" element of this poem largely stems from the fact that I have little familiarity with Islam and a fuller understanding would have been a help. The notes within this translation and the potted biography of characters mention in the text are indespensible which is another reason to buy the Penguin edition. All in all, I found this quite profound albeit there are some concepts that are hidden in the "parables" in the poem which I thought were elusive to this western reader. If there is a challenge, it is that some of the short stories are very similar and their meaning is no always easy to grasp. The conclusion of the bird's quest to find the mystical Simorgh bird was something I felt to be very satisfying. All in all, bird watchers will find this book appealing yet the overall impact for me was to make me very curious about Sufism. If anything, this is a good which I would recommend to followers of any religion or no religion at all and is quite profound. It very much transcends it's historical and geographical context and is perhaps a book that everyone should be aware of.