India, April 10 -- Fariduddin Mohammad Attar Nishapuri lived between the twelfth and thirteenth centuries in Nishapur, a major city in the Khorasan province of present-day northeastern Iran. He stands among the greatest voices of classical Persian poetry. His Mantiq ut-Tair (The Conference of the Birds) remains one of the most sustained allegorical works in the Sufi tradition. It shaped the imaginative world of Jalaluddin Rumi, who recognised Attar as a precursor.

To return to Attar now is to encounter not a distant figure but a voice that still speaks with clarity. Sholeh Wolpe's The Invisible Sun brings that voice into contemporary English with careful reflection and discipline. Her work reflects a long engagement with both Persian and...