Sponsored by Structured Liberal Education (SLE) and the Sohaib and Sara Abbasi Program in Islamic Studies

Join us in welcoming Haleh Liza Gafori back to campus for a talk on Rumi. 

Haleh is a New York City-born translator, performance artist, writer, and educator of Persian descent. A 2024 MacDowell fellow, she has translated the poetry of the Persian mystic and sage Rumi. Her two books of translations entitled Gold (2022) and Water (2025) were published by New York Review Books Classics. Gafori has created a musical and cross-media performance based on the book and has presented her work, via performances and lectures and workshops, at institutions such as Lincoln Center, Stanford University, the Academy of American Poets, and Sarah Lawrence College.

Water expands on Gold, Haleh Liza Gafori’s inspired and widely praised translation of the lyric poetry of the Persian mystic Rumi. 

As in Gold, in her latest book Water Gafori renders with fluid grace and moving immediacy these indisputable masterworks of world literature, drawing on the deep well of Rumi’s work to bring out the worldly wit and wisdom that accompany his otherworldly summons. Behold the divine within and without, he tells us. Question the gnawing hunger for material possessions, fame, and fortune, and the fear of emptiness that drives it. Muster the soul, and experience a more compassionate and liberated state of mind. An eco-poet before his time, Rumi celebrates the immensity and wonder of the natural world while warning us of the havoc that greed and the pursuit of power wreak upon us and our world. His flights of dazzling imagery open up heart-stopping glimpses of the divine, challenging readers to wake from oblivion, and above all, to surrender to the transformative power of Love.

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Additional support provided by an Academic-Residential Co-Curriculum Grant under the Vice Provost for Undergraduate Education (VPUE).