Chill in The Fire – inspiration
The lyrics for “Chill in The Fire” are here.
The inspiration for this song comes from a beautiful book written in Farsi (the Persian/ Iranian language) by Baha’u’llah, entitled The Seven Valleys. The book is a long, mystical poem about the quest of the human soul to attain closeness to God, the object of its desire. It describes an analogy of the soul having to traverse seven stages (called seven valleys or seven cities) in this journey towards “the traceless Friend”. The second of these valleys or cities is “The Valley of Love“. In this stage, the soul, having already traversed “The Valley of Search”, is in a state of simultaneous ecstasy and madness. There are many wonderful contradictions of experiences in this valley. My favourite couplet, which is borrowed and adapted by Baha’u’llah from a Persian mystical poem, is:
“A lover is he who is chill in hell fire;
A knower is he who is dry in the sea.”
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All the lyrics in this song are based on the compelling images in the text regarding “The Valley of Love”. The Persian chant that is heard in both this song and its introduction is a melodic invention on the couplet that I quoted above, in the original language that it was written in.
Fell out of bed feeling down. This has brhitgened my day!
Awww yay! I’m so glad 🙂
What a great song and what a great coincidence. Tonight I am hosting a fireside on “The Second Valley”. Your beautiful song will provide the artistic introduction!
Ooh, how lovely! I am honoured!!