Attar poetry discussed in Rome

TEHRAN,Jan.17(MNA) -- Iran’s cultural attaché’s office in Rome played host to a meeting about the poetry of Persian mystic and poet Farid od-Din Attar Neyshaburi (c. 1142-1220) on Monday evening. Professor Daniela Meneghini of the Ca’ Foscari University of Venice, former Italian cultural attaché in Tehran Felicetta Ferraro, University of Naples Rector Professor Francesco Rossi, and a group of scholars and students of Persian literature attended the meeting. “Attar is one of the Persian poets and mystics whose works are among the masterpieces of Persian literature,” Meneghini said during the meeting. “About one thousand verses of his poems have been translated and discussed at the Ca’ Foscari University of Venice,” she added. She said that his Manteq at-Teyr (The Conference of the Birds), the Elahi-nama (The Book of God), the Tadhkerat al-Awliya (The Biographies of the Saints) and the Asrar-nama (The Book of Mysteries) have been acknowledged as a profound collection of mystic Persian literature. “If we want to realize his place in Persian poetry and literature, we should know that Persian mystic and poet Rumi said that he had been held in thrall to Attar in poetry,” she stated. Meneghini also referred to the discourses on Attar’s poetry and said, “Attar chose a fluent and pastoral style to express himself, and cleverly presented his skills through his plain and simple words.” The meeting came to an end with a recitation of one of Attar’s poems by one of the students in attendance at the gathering.