An Illuminated Page

منطق‌الطّیر

The Conference of the Birds

Farīd ud-Dīn ʿAṭṭār of Nishapur · circa 1177

Act One

A Feather Falls in China

پر سیمرغ بر چین می‌افتد

The feather of the Simorgh falls in China — **The Feather** Midnight. A great bird passes over China.

در میان چین فتاد از وی پری
لاجرم پُرشور شد هر کشوری

A single feather slipped from her wing.
Every country has been arguing about beauty since.

A weaver asked for the deepest red. A poet who had stopped writing scratched a line on a forgotten letter. A child showed her father a drawing she could not explain. Where did this come from? She shrugged. From inside.

Act Two

The Birds Make Excuses

عذر آوردن مرغان

چون شنودند این سخن مرغان همه
آن زمان گفتند ترک جان همه

The Hoopoe called the flock to journey. One by one, each bird found a reason to stay.

Eleven birds rose to speak. The Nightingale could not leave the rose. The Parrot loved her gilded cage. The Peacock mourned a paradise she barely remembered. The Duck would not risk muddy water. The Owl preferred his ruins; the Heron, his sea. Each excuse was the same excuse, dressed differently — the fear of losing the small thing each had already mistaken for a life.

The Peacock — **Peacock** Mourns lost paradise. Memory as a prison. *طاووس*

The Duck — **Duck** Bound to clean water. Purity as procrastination. بط

The Partridge — **Partridge** Counting her jewels. Wealth confused with worth. *کبک*

The Homa — **Homa** Shades the heads of kings. Power that needs an audience. *همای*

The Falcon — **Falcon** Serves a visible king. Faith only in what is seen. *باز*

The Heron — **Heron** Mourning the sea. Sorrow worn as identity. *بوتیمار*

The Owl — **Owl** Digging through ruins. Hope buried in the past. *کوف*

The Finch — **Finch** Too small. Too afraid. Smallness as an alibi. *صعوه*

The birds ask real questions — **The Real Questions** When the excuses run out. The path begins. *پرسش مرغان*

Act Three

The Hoopoe Answers in Parables

جواب هدهد

هر که او را در دل از حق ذرّه‌ای‌ست
از سرِ کویش به جانش غرّه‌ای‌ست

The Hoopoe did not argue. He told stories instead.

A holy man fell in love with a Christian girl and lost everything — his cloak, his name, his place among the faithful. In the losing, he found the Beloved. The point of every parable was the same: the road is harder than you think, and shorter.

Sheikh San'an — **Sheikh Sanʿān** A holy man, undone by love. *شیخ صنعان*

**Departure** The flock takes flight at last. *عزم راه*

A hundred excuses — **A Hundred Excuses** Even at the threshold, fear. *عذر آوردن*

Act Four

The Seven Valleys

هفت وادی

چون فرو آیی به وادی طلب
پیشت آید هر زمانی صدتعب

Seven valleys lie between the seeker and the sought. None can be flown over.

They crossed Search, then Love, then Knowing, Detachment, Unity, Wonder, and at the end, Annihilation. In each valley something was set down and not taken up again. By the seventh, almost nothing of the original flock remained.

Valley of Search — **I · Search** A hundred trials. *طلب*

Valley of Love — **II · Love** Drowned in fire. *عشق*

Valley of Knowing — **III · Knowing** A private path. *معرفت*

Valley of Detachment — **IV · Detachment** Drop every claim. *استغنا*

Valley of Unity — **V · Unity** All paths become one. *توحید*

Valley of Bewilderment — **VI · Wonder** Lost in awe. *حیرت*

Valley of Annihilation — **VII · Annihilation** No words remain. *فقر و فنا*

Act Five

The Thirty Birds Before the Simorgh

سی‌مرغ در پیشگاه سیمرغ

زین سخن مرغان وادی سر به سر
سرنگون گشتند در خون جگر

Of the thousands who began, thirty arrived. They lifted their faces and saw.

What they had crossed the world to find was waiting in a polished surface. The bird they had searched for wore their own faces, multiplied. The ending was a pun in a language they had only just begun to hear.

Thirty birds reach the Simorgh — **The Mirror** Of the thousands who began, thirty arrive.

سی‌مرغ ⟷ سیمرغ

Si-Morgh · Thirty Birds · Sī-morgh · The Simorgh

They had walked across the world to find Sīmorgh, and at the end of the path they were sī morgh — thirty birds. The same word. The same body of feathers.

In Persian the pun is the point. The seeker and the sought share a name. The mirror is what was always carried.

Coda

Attar's Farewell

فی وصف حاله

کردی ای عطّار بر عالم نثار
نافهٔ اسرار هر دم صد هزار

Attar set down his pen. He gave the map away.

Not as a guide — as a feather, dropped where someone might find it. Eight centuries later, you found it.

Attar with quill — **The Author Sets Down His Pen**

This map of the heart, by Attar of Nishapur, completed.

— Farīd ud-Dīn ʿAṭṭār