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This is the second of two lectures that made up the Kamran Djam Annual Lecture 2016 which was held at the London Middle East Institute's Centre for Iranian Studies at SOAS University of London. The lecture titled "The quest of Majnûn: tribulations of a lover" was given by Leili Anvar (Institut des Langues et des Civilsations Orientales, Paris) on 4 February 2016.
Majnûn is the poet-lover par excellence. His story as told by the original tradition in Arabic literature and even more so as developed by Nezâmi and Jâmî symbolizes the deep connection between the experience of longing, absence, separation and poetic expression. We will follow the quest of Majnûn in the barren land of exile and his tribulations as a lover and a poet through a comparative analysis of the Leyli o Majnûn by Nezâmî and the one by Jâmî, but also through the allusions to his name and character by Ahmad Ghazzâlî, Attâr, Rûmî, Sa’dî and a few other poets, and/or Sufi masters. Majnûn has become so famous that his name only stands as a metaphor and brings to the mind of any reader familiar with Persian poetry a certain idea of absolute love, the impossibility to silence the evocation of beauty, the difficulty to formulate the longing it raises in the soul. The name of Leyli to which, as Jâmî states it, Majnûn “makes love” also stands as a metaphor: it points to the ineffable beauty of the Beloved and to the radiance of epiphany. Between these two characters, two names, two poles, the gap of separation is filled with the energy triggered by desire and manifested by poetry.
Former student of the Ecole Normale Supérieure, Leili Anvar holds a PhD in Persian literature. She is professor of Persian language and literature at the Institut des Langues et des Civilsations Orientales, Paris. Her interest in the cultural expressions of mystical inspiration is manifold. As a specialist of Persian mystical literature she has been translating Rûmî, Shams-e Tabrizi, ‘Attâr, Nezâmî and more modern writers, but she also broadcasts a weekly programme on spiritual issues at the radio (France Culture) and is a regular contributor to Le monde des religions. She is also a poetic performer, designing and participating into poetic recitals of mystic poetry accompanied by various musicians.
Her publications, besides academic articles, include Rûmî (Entrelacs, 2004), Orient, Mille ans de poésie et de peinture (Éditions Diane de Selliers, 2005), Malek Jân Ne’mati: “La vie n’est pas courte mais le temps est compté” (Éditions Diane de Selliers, 2007), Rûmî, la Religion de l'Amour (Seuil, 2011). She has also published a new translation in verse of the Canticle of the Birds (Editions Diane de Selliers, 2012, new edition 2014) and the first French translation of a selection the spiritual teachings of Ostad Elahi, Paroles de Vérité, Albin Michel, 2014.
You can find out more about this event at goo.gl/UR7voF
The first lecture is available at • Kamran Djam Annual Lec...
14 окт 2024
