See actors discuss their roles in a play based on a poem by Farīd al-Dīn al-ʿAṭṭār, The Conference of the Birds
Actors talking about their parts in a play based on Manṭeq al-ṭayr (The Conference of the Birds), a Persian poem by Farīd al-Dīn al-ʿAṭṭār.
Courtesy of Folger Shakespeare Library; CC-BY-SA 4.0 (A Britannica Publishing Partner)
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Transcript
[DRUMMING] SPEAKER 1: The story of the conference of the birds is pretty epic.
SPEAKER 2: There's a bird society and its crumbling.
SPEAKER 1: All the birds of the world, coming together and deciding that they needed to find their King.
SPEAKER 3: And all of them have specific flaws that man has.
SPEAKER 4: The main bird calls them together to meet to go off on a journey.
SPEAKER 5: All in the Sufi Persian world.
SPEAKER 2: And they make up all sorts of excuses. And finally they decide to go.
SPEAKER 5: And it's painful and it's a struggle and some die.
SPEAKER 6: And they have to keep going.
SPEAKER 5: And then they cross seven valleys--
SPEAKER 4: Before they finally, possibly, who knows, reach their goal.
SPEAKER 1: I personally am a magpie.
SPEAKER 3: I play the peacock.
SPEAKER 6: The hoopoe bird.
SPEAKER 2: I'm the falcon.
SPEAKER 5: The nightingale.
SPEAKER 7: It's told about birds but, of course, it's really about people.
SPEAKER 6: The journey that the birds take, in a lot of ways, it's sort of like the topography of the human heart.
[DRUMMING]
SPEAKER 1: In the end, only 30 birds make the whole journey.
SPEAKER 2: There's a bird society and its crumbling.
SPEAKER 1: All the birds of the world, coming together and deciding that they needed to find their King.
SPEAKER 3: And all of them have specific flaws that man has.
SPEAKER 4: The main bird calls them together to meet to go off on a journey.
SPEAKER 5: All in the Sufi Persian world.
SPEAKER 2: And they make up all sorts of excuses. And finally they decide to go.
SPEAKER 5: And it's painful and it's a struggle and some die.
SPEAKER 6: And they have to keep going.
SPEAKER 5: And then they cross seven valleys--
SPEAKER 4: Before they finally, possibly, who knows, reach their goal.
SPEAKER 1: I personally am a magpie.
SPEAKER 3: I play the peacock.
SPEAKER 6: The hoopoe bird.
SPEAKER 2: I'm the falcon.
SPEAKER 5: The nightingale.
SPEAKER 7: It's told about birds but, of course, it's really about people.
SPEAKER 6: The journey that the birds take, in a lot of ways, it's sort of like the topography of the human heart.
[DRUMMING]
SPEAKER 1: In the end, only 30 birds make the whole journey.