A crowd of 30 gathered at a quaint cafe to celebrate the birth anniversary of Jalal ad-Din Muhammad Balkhi aka Rumi, last Saturday.
This is an annual tradition started by Kyoumars Freeman at his cafe in a cosy corner of Langford Town. Called The Cafe at Saanchi, the coffee shop is located on a terrace above an antique store and serves an array of Iranian delicacies.
Kyoumars, an Iranian national from Tehran, opened the cafe seven years ago. Rumi’s legacy has been an important part of the establishment ever since.
Paying tribute
On September 30, Rumi’s birth anniversary, Kyoumars teamed up with city-based event management company, Ekta’s Gatherings, to host ‘The Birth of Light’, a tribute to the Persian poet. It featured Persian and English recitations of Rumi’s works — both poetry and satire — and a musical performance. At the event Kyoumars performed poetry in Persian. It also saw city-based writer Shaista Yacoob reciting his verses in English. Pharmacists by profession, Ali Parsei and Nima K, performed musical compositions using the sehtaar (an Iranian stringed instrument) and daf (frame drum) respectively.
While a tribute to the poet, this is also an attempt to help people understand “who Rumi truly is”, says Kyoumars. “There are many misconceptions when it comes to Rumi. I wanted to help change this,” he adds. He stresses the importance of picking the right translations to understand Rumi’s poetry. “There are several bad translations in the market. Some are factually wrong. Translations by Jawed Jawid Mojaddedi, Reynold Nicholson, and E H Whinfield are some of the good ones,” he adds.
Kyoumars was introduced to Rumi at the age of eight. He still treasures two Persian books gifted to him by his aunt — ‘Masnavi’, one of Rumi’s most influential works, and ‘Divan-i Shams’, an anthology of Rumi’s poems from the time he met poet Shams Tabrizi.
Poetry readings
For his poetry readings, which he holds a few times a year, he translates Rumi’s original works into English with the help of Shaista. “When we started doing these poetry evenings, I would begin by talking a bit about his history, family and early life. Now I’m exploring more of his work,” adds the 55-year-old.
Kyoumars hosted the first poetry event in 2017. “It was on a smaller scale. I brought together some Iranians living in the city. We teamed up with Ekta’s Gatherings in 2020 to help grow the community,” he tells Metrolife. Since 2020, the team has organised eight public events, both online and offline — each event hosted 20-30 people.
“People of all age groups and professions show interest in these evenings dedicated to Rumi. Lately, we have seen more young people at the poetry readings,” adds Ekta Singh of Ekta’s Gatherings. The Iranian diaspora also attend the readings often.
The team plans to explore the work of other Persian poets in the future. “ There are many other exceptional Persian poets and writers like Hafez and Saadi. People should get to know their work too,” Kyoumars signs off.