A journeying soul...

The beginning of this year has been so special! with so many opportunities to explore and rediscover subjects I have always been inspired and mesmerized with... of mystical, of human condition, of love, of music, of losing one's self, of finding meaning, of being in the state of awe, of taking it in and so much more....

Really proud to play a role in creation of a performance that touches all of above and so much more this Adelaide Fringe.

The Sufi Music Highway!!! 

Thank you Farhan for thinking my writing worthy of being the weaving thread to the mesmerizing journey you guys took us to...

Below is the text of the story I weaved with the brilliant musical performances... the un-referenced parts, my feeble attempt at poetic representation of a soul's journey....
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Come listen to a tale both new and old
Of a soul on a quest, to make it whole

Along this highway the Sufi walks Of his journey we listen to as he talks
….
I wandered through years of existence and
One day when I sat lonely considering what’s the point of it all?
I bowed to the higher power, asking why am I here at all?

I said, “I have lived a great life! I have been happy,
and in sadness I have seen myself fall

I have been in love, I also have seen my heart break,
I have been the jester, I also have tasted loneliness’s ache,
I have experienced poverty at its worst, I also have been an affluent rake ,

But through it all I have never been able to shake,
A feeling that I miss something, there has been a mistake,
Someone calls from within, but there’s a veil that makes everything opaque ,
A thirst that never quenches, a question, what do I have at stake?

so I beg the higher power to help me seek or at least show me the path to take
 .......

It was as if my prayers were heard, that night I slept in peace and dreamt..

I dreamt of a strange place, and I don’t know how I describe to you what I saw. 

I was surrounded by love struct souls yearning in sweet agony, smitten in awe,

by fair, tall, heavenly maidens with tulip lips, 

Their bewitching beauty causing havoc on the already desperate souls. 

Such a strange place, this heavenly sight 

where God is the conductor and his beloved the light… *

......

But it was a dream and I had to wake up...  oh how I longed to go back to that place,
I must search for the path that takes me back to the heavenly grace!

So, I read, and roamed, and sought for people who may help me find my way.
Then one day I came across Attar, and here’s what he had to say.

“Do not imagine the way is short; Vast seas and deserts lie before His court. 

Consider carefully before you start; The journey asks of you a lion’s heart. 

The road is long, the sea is deep – one flies, First buffeted by joy and then by sighs; 

If you desire this quest, give up your soul, And make our masters court your only goal. 

Love made me clamour for the journey’s start. I set out on the Way, a noble deed! 

Hardly had I begun, to myself I concede, “A leader’s what I need,” **

Not just any leader, the master of all masters Ali indeed." 
.......

My first and most important lesson, Love…

Rumi said,

“I have this friend I have this cave 

I am gutted by love 

You are that friend, You are that cave 

My lord, don’t cast me off” ***

and Arabi, he saw the face of God everywhere he saw,

And Attar, he said,

“The lover is a man who flares and burns, Whose face is fevered, who in frenzy yearns 

Who knows of neither faith nor blasphemy, Who has not time for doubt or certainty 

True lovers give up everything they own, To steal one moment with the Friend alone” ****

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The End for now...

Maybe someday I will write of other lessons :)

* (the highlighted text is an attempt to translate a famous poem of Amir Khusraw sung as Qawalli often, its called Nami Danam Che Manzil. I tried looking through translations but I didn’t find a poetic one and so decided to give it a go… I hope my Persian speaking friends wont think I have butchered it 🤞) ....

**(direct quotes from, “The Conference of the Birds”, Penguin Classics by Farid al-Din Attar, 

the last verse is change a bit to fit in the needed scheme.. change in pronoun and of the word from agreed to concede) ‎

***(Rumi quoted/translated by Annette Dumbach in “Rumi: Swallowing the Sun”, poem ref 62) 

****(direct quotes from, “The Conference of the Birds”, Penguin Classics by Farid al-Din Attar)