The Three Butterflies - Ariel Balevi & Sina Bathaie ( SUFI STORY TELLING )

The Three Butterflies a poem by Farid Al-din Attar Nishabouri from The Conference of the Birds
Story Telling by Ariel Balevi , Music and Santur by : Sina Bathaie

This performance was part of the concert " Searching for Simorgh" performed at Feb 2nd 2014 at Musideum in Toronto

http://SinaBathaie.com

The Conference of the Birds is a long poem of Farid Al-Din Attar (XII century) a sheikh or Sufi master, which has been the inspiration of countless poets and artists from Anatolia to South Asia, for centuries. In the West, the Conference of the Birds has been translated many times, as well as being adapted into a stage play and an opera. The poem tells the story of a group of birds on a quest led by a hoopoe bird to the end of the world to search for Simorgh, the legendary King of the Birds .
The story unfolds the hesitations, uncertainties of the birds in this undertaking. Like other stories from the East, the narrative is punctuated by stories, anecdotes, sayings of saints and madmen. Among these stories, the main story tells of the journey of the birds, who must cross seven valleys to find Simorgh. These valleys in effect are the steps by which each soul can achieve the true nature of the Infinite...
Sina Bataie, santur, and Ariel Balevi, storyteller offer an interpretation of this perilous journey through the seven valleys where the birds discover that the far and the near are in a place closer to their own being than they ever imagined.

" O truth seeker, do not take this poem as a mere fanciful dream, for Love itself led my hand in its composition..." - Attar