Introduction, translated from the Persian of the first 120 bytes and comments. The readers are offered a philological translation of the first 120 beits (couplets) of the Masnavi poem "The Language of Birds" by the great Persian poet of the XI-XI centuries. Farid ad-Din ' Attar, one of the most prominent representatives of the Iranian branch of Sufism, a mystical movement that originated in the Muslim East in the eighth century and still exists today. The significance of 'Attar for the Persian poetic tradition cannot be overemphasized. His poems devoted to the metaphorical description of the spiritual path of a mystic "became normative works of Sufi literature, from which whole generations of mystics and poets drew inspiration" (Schimmsl, 1999, p. 238). The most famous of his works is "Mantik at-tair "("The Language of Birds"). The characters in this book, as the title suggests , are birds. Only a few of them are listed (turtledove, parrot, partridge, etc.), but the whole set of birds of the world is meant. They get together and talk about how they need a king. Then their spiritual leader, the hoopoe, steps forward. He tells them about the Simurgh, the great king who dwells on the other side of Mount Kaf, which separates the earthly world from the spiritual world. The Simurgh is surrounded by hundreds of thousands of veils of darkness and light, and the path to it is difficult. He is the "absolute king", incomprehensible to the mind. Hoopoe encourages birds to go to Mount Kaf in search of the Simurgh. However, the birds take turns giving excuses-apologies, referring to the circumstances of their lives. Each of the birds has a good reason to avoid the difficult journey. But the wise hoopoe consistently resolves their doubts, and now they are already beginning to ask him about the path that they have to go. The hoopoe tells of seven valleys awaiting the traveler: the valley of punishment (talab), the valley of love ('isq), the valley of knowledge (ma'rifat), the valle ... Read more