Le Cantique des Oiseaux

Written in Farsi at the end of the XII Century by the Sufi poet Attar, the Song of the Birds tells of the voyage of thousands of birds in search of their king, Simurgh.

A masterpiece of mystic poetry, this epic is an initiatory tale in which each character and every situation carries a universal symbolic meaning: Simurgh is the visible manifestation of the Divine, and the voyage undertaken by the birds, over seven valleys named Desire, Love, Knowledge, Plenitude, Oneness, Perplexity, Deprivation and Annihilation, symbolises the progression of the soul.

The birds offer each of us a reflection of ourselves, seen through the prism of our own experiences and personal undertakings. The verse translation by Leili Anvar breathes luminescence, vibrancy and universality into this spiritual ascension, all the while remaining faithful to the text and spirit of Attar.

This text is illustrated with 207 Persian, Turkish and Indo-Pakistani miniatures dating from the XIV to XVII Centuries, selected from the most beautiful manuscripts of the Orient. Each of them comes accompanied by a commentary enabling an appreciation of the symbolism and profound nature of Islamic painting.

• Avant-propos de l’éditeur
• L’envol, par Leili Anvar
• Le voyage de traduire, par Leili Anvar
• Sîmorgh dans le ciel de Perse, par Michael Barry
•  Le cantique des oiseaux : Prologue – Réunion des oiseaux – Questions des oiseaux – Les sept vallées – Sîmorgh – Épilogue.
•  Annexes : Notes – versets du Coran mentionnés dans les notes – Glossaire – Repères chronologiques – Repères géographiques et foyers culturels - Écoles de peinture et principaux peintres en Islam d’orient (1295-1725).