An Interactive Year-End Workshop with Haleh Liza Gafori
In this intimate gathering at year's end, translator and poet Haleh Liza Gafori guides us through Rumi's landscape of longing - where atoms whirl like dervishes and the soul's thirst becomes a kind of answer. Through Haleh's crystalline translations, we encounter Rumi's vision of love as "an ocean without borders or shores," where drowning becomes liberation and emptiness makes space for revelation. The workshop weaves together movement, mystical poetry, and moments of shared reflection. Haleh illuminates the paradox that lies at the heart of Rumi's poetry: our deepest longing might not be a void to fill but a force that connects us to the great turning of the universe itself.
As we transition between years, participants are invited to explore their own wells of longing through a selection of evocative writing prompts. The session closes with Haleh's voice lifting Rumi's words in their original Persian - a reminder that some truths bypass the thinking mind to speak directly to the soul: "If for one hour you quit thinking, what will happen? If you plunge like a fish into love's ocean, what will happen?" Featuring selections from Haleh's acclaimed translations in Gold (2022) and Water (forthcoming 2025), as well as brief yet potent embodied practices led by yoga teacher Fiona Hayhoe-Weiland, this workshop offers a space to examine what lies at the threshold of our becoming.
About Haleh Liza Gafori
Haleh Liza Gafori is a New York City-born translator, performance artist, writer, and educator of Persian descent. A 2024 MacDowell fellow, she has translated the poetry of the Persian mystic and sage Rumi. Her book of translations entitled Gold: Poems by Rumi, was published by New York Review Books in 2022. Her second volume of translations, Water: Poems by Rumi, will be released in April 2025, also by NYRB Classics. Gafori has created a musical and cross-media performance based on the book and has presented her work, via performances and lectures and workshops, at institutions such as Lincoln Center, Stanford University, the Academy of American Poets, and Sarah Lawrence College. Her book of translations Gold has been incorporated in the curricula of universities across the United States.
About Fiona Hayhoe-Weiland
Fiona Hayhoe-Weiland offers yoga practices for self-empowerment - supporting her students to return back to their aware self through movement and stillness. She aims to offer a space where students can take responsibility for their unfolding life journey, and live fully with joy. Part of her work is supporting women with breast cancer through nourishing yoga practices. She is based in Bonn, Germany.
Website: www.habihochi.com
Instagram: @fionahayhoe