GOLD & WATER: The Poetry of Rumi, with Haleh Liza Gafori

Acclaimed translator of Rumi’s poetry, Haleh Liza Gafori, will present selections from her two books of translations, GOLD, and the forthcoming volume, WATER (New York Review Books, 2022 and 2025). In her presentations, she weaves her translations with songs, featuring the original Persian text, commentary, and backstories. The result is an uplifting and thought-provoking poetic and musical performance piece, in which the mystical poems and philosophy pulsing through them dialogue with our times, inviting us to explore notions of self and selflessness, the mysteries of the soul and eternity, the wonders of this earth, the socio-political implications of the unexamined nafs e amarrah or self-consumed ego, and the alchemical process of opening to deeper levels of love, compassion, and generosity.

“Haleh Liza Gafori’s energetic translation highlights the timelessness of Rumi’s work, delivering unforgettable phrases. Rumi’s introspective nature...cosmic vision...and deeply contemplative yet accessible poems star in this worthy translation.” - Publishers Weekly

“This new translation preserves the radical intelligence and the ecstatic drama of poems that are as full of individual character as they are of visionary wisdom.” - New York Review Books

“Haleh Liza Gafori’s Gold is everything Rumi was himself—sacred, profane, laugh out loud funny, deeply earnest, demotic, and yes, Persian. There’s a rich fluency here not just in idiom but in gesture, in spirit. What a gift this is, what gold.”- Kaveh Akbar, Poetry Editor at The Nation and NY Times best-selling author

“A dazzling selection of his poetry, including some never previously alive in English, appears in Gold, newly translated and inspirited by poet and musician Haleh Liza Gafori…[this book] is bound to go on nourishing generations to come”- Maria Popova, The Marginalian

“Haleh Liza Gafori’s translations of Rumi are exquisite. Gorgeous, fluent, faithful translations, rendering Rumi’s voice on the page with an original integrity that is as skilled as it is unforgettable. - Pádraig Ó Tuama, host of On Being’s Poetry Unbound

“Ecstatic and piercing…[Haleh Liza Gafori] has lifted a veil, bringing Rumi closer into the quick of our present. Each piece is a divine invitation.” –
V (formerly Eve Ensler)

Haleh Liza Gafori is a translator, vocalist, poet, and composer born in NYC of Iranian descent. Her acclaimed book Gold, translations of poems by the 13th century mystic and sage Rumi, was published by New York Review Books in 2022. Her 2nd volume of translations Water will be released in 2025, also on NYRB Classics. A 2024 MacDowell fellow and recipient of the 2023 NYSCA grant, Gafori performs and teaches across the country and abroad at universities and venues such as Stanford University, Sarah Lawrence College, St Joseph’s University, the Academy of American Poets’ online literary seminars, Lincoln Center, Le Poisson Rouge, Bradford Literary Fest, the Women’s Library in Istanbul, and elsewhere. Her cross-media performance piece weaves translations, original text, and musical compositions and debuted at the New York Public Library. Gafori’s work has been published by Columbia University Press, Harvard Review, Literary Hub, The Brooklyn Rail, and featured on various podcasts including Padraig O’Tuama’s Poetry Unbound and Poetry for All. A proud alumna of Stanford U, Gafori lives in Brooklyn and is currently working on a book of original poems.