Poet, translator, and musician Haleh Liza Gafori describes the revered 13th-century Persian poet Rumi as “a good pal to humanity”. As she puts it, “He's rooting for our liberation.” In this exuberant conversation recorded for the 2025 Greenbelt Festival, she reads some of her translations, and she and Pádraig Ó Tuama illuminate the life of the man known as Rumi — his intense love of all things earthly and divine, the Islamic faith and universalist vision that flow through his work, and his life-changing connection with Shams, a Sufi mystic who catalyzed Rumi’s transformation from preacher to poet.We invite you to subscribe to <a href="https://poetryunbound.substack.com" rel="noopener noreferrer">Pádraig’s weekly Poetry Unbound Substack</a>, read the <a href="https://bookshop.org/lists/books-by-padraig-o-tuama" rel="noopener noreferrer">Poetry Unbound books</a> and his newest work, <a href="https://bookshop.org/p/books/kitchen-hymns-p-draig-tuama/4f2a036b5d746205?aid=10066&ean=9781556597107&listref=books-by-padraig-o-tuama&next=t" rel="noopener noreferrer">Kitchen Hymns</a>, or <a href="http://onbeing.org/series/poetry-unbound/" rel="noopener noreferrer">listen to all our Poetry Unbound episodes</a>.&nbsp;&nbsp;Haleh Liza Ghafori is a New York City-born translator, poet, and musician of Iranian descent. Her most recent book of translations of poetry by the 13th-century mystic Rumi is entitled <a href="https://bookshop.org/p/books/water-rumi/21551179?aid=10066&ean=9781681379166&listref=featured-on-the-poetry-unbound-podcast" rel="noopener noreferrer">Water</a> and was released in April of 2025 by New York Review Books. Her first translation of Rumi was the acclaimed <a href="https://bookshop.org/p/books/gold-rumi/14692712?aid=10066&ean=9781681375335&listref=featured-on-the-poetry-unbound-podcast" rel="noopener noreferrer">Gold</a>, released in 2022, also by New York Review Books.Find the transcript for this show at <a href="https://onbeing.org/series/poetry-unbound/" rel="noopener noreferrer">onbeing.org</a>. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See <a href="https://pcm.adswizz.com">pcm.adswizz.com</a> for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

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