This poet, who exhorted the earth for teaching “the lesson of poverty, / having nothing and wanting nothing,” wrote that the “tongue has one customer, the ear” in a poem whose speaker asserts “Anyone apart from someone he loves / understands what I say.” The speaker laments that “the keeping away is pulling me in” in a poem by this author that opens by asking a “dissolver of sugar” to “dissolve me, / if this is the time.” The disappearance of this poet’s teacher inspired the dedication of many of the 90 ghazals in one of his collections. This poet has been cited as the “best-selling poet in the US” due to Coleman Barks’s translations, one of which renders an opening line as “Listen to the story told by the reed.” For 10 points, name this Sufi poet of the Masnavi, or Spiritual Couplets. ■END■
| 2025 ACF Nationals | 2025-08-09 | Y | 9 | 100% | 0% | 0% | 108.78 |
| Canada | Main | Y | 6 | 100% | 0% | 0% | 110.17 |
| Florida | Main | Y | 12 | 100% | 0% | 33% | 120.92 |
| Great Lakes | Main | Y | 2 | 100% | 0% | 0% | 111.50 |
| Overflow | Main | Y | 1 | 100% | 0% | 0% | 85.00 |
| California | Main | Y | 4 | 100% | 0% | 0% | 95.75 |
| South Central | Main | Y | 5 | 100% | 0% | 0% | 136.60 |
| UK | Main | Y | 4 | 100% | 0% | 25% | 110.75 |
| Upper Mid-Atlantic | Main | Y | 8 | 63% | 0% | 13% | 106.40 |
| Upstate NY | Main | Y | 8 | 100% | 0% | 13% | 118.13 |
| Pacific Northwest | Main | Y | 10 | 100% | 0% | 20% | 128.90 |
| Player | Team | Opponent | Buzz Position | Value |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bryan Ugaz | Arizona State A | McGill D | 47 | 10 |
| Jack Lewis | Bruin A | Vanderbilt A | 69 | -5 |
| Henry Bylinowski | Auburn A | Georgia Tech D | 70 | 10 |
| Raymond Chen | Toronto B | Toronto I | 71 | 10 |
| Nathaniel Hull | Berkeley B | Stanford A | 77 | 10 |
| Kai Madgwick | Manchester A | Durham B | 77 | 10 |
| Braden Booth | Missouri A | WashU A | 85 | 10 |
| Kevin Zheng | Michigan A | Notre Dame A | 87 | 10 |
| Alana Dickey | Indiana A | Notre Dame B | 88 | 10 |
| Zoë McGuire | Oxford B | Southampton B | 88 | 10 |
| Kevin Le | Carleton | McMaster A | 91 | 10 |
| Aatreyo Bhattacharyya | Berkeley C | Stanford B | 92 | 10 |
| Karthik Krishnamurthy | USC | UCLA B | 92 | 10 |
| Tobias Smerdon | Toronto K | Ottawa | 92 | 10 |
| Tai Belke | British Columbia A | British Columbia C | 92 | 10 |
| Ian Chow | Washington A | British Columbia D | 93 | 10 |
| Yuxuan Lu | Vanderbilt A | Bruin A | 93 | 10 |
| Karthik Jayaram | UCLA A | UCSD Two Running Violet V Forms | 97 | 10 |
| Yash Modi | Western Ontario | Toronto Metropolitan | 97 | 10 |
| Mateo Acosta | FIU | UF B | 97 | 10 |
| Anna Bocook | Louisville B | Notre Dame C | 97 | -5 |
| John Chen | British Columbia B | Alberta | 97 | -5 |
| Albert Nyang | LSE A | Imperial B | 97 | 10 |
| Sarah Khan | Queen's B | Toronto E | 99 | 10 |
| Rahul Jogadhenu | UCLA C | UCSB | 105 | 10 |
| Andrew Fisher | Sheffield A | Durham A | 105 | 10 |
| Ryan Sun | Berkeley D | Stanford C | 106 | 10 |
| Darren Kellis | Vanderbilt B | Georgia Tech C | 106 | 10 |
| Tanay Bodducherla | Berkeley E | Berkeley A | 108 | 10 |
| Nolan Dannels | UCSD Vices and Virtues | UCLA D | 109 | 10 |
| Tony Chen | Toronto A | McGill C | 109 | -5 |
| Henry Siegler | Toronto D | McGill B | 109 | -5 |
| Tianyu Xu | Georgia Tech A | Georgia Tech B | 109 | 10 |
| Charlie Lowman | Imperial A | Sheffield B | 109 | 10 |
| Zachary Foster | City St George's A | Cambridge B | 111 | 10 |
| Yihong Chen | Toronto C | McMaster C | 112 | -5 |
| Ved Muthusamy | Northwestern A | Northwestern B | 113 | 10 |
| Collin Leck | UCO | Alberta B | 113 | 10 |
| Annika Larson | Claremont Scripps | UCI | 114 | 10 |
| Zoe Wang | Carleton | Macalester B | 114 | 10 |
| Aaron Bates | Washington B | Simon Fraser | 114 | 10 |
| Matthew He | Texas A | Texas B | 116 | 10 |
| Hiten Umarnani | Imperial C | Sheffield C | 117 | 10 |
| Amir Dolansky | Toronto H | McGill A | 122 | -5 |
| Shiva Tegulla | UCF A | UCF B | 126 | 10 |
| Biyang Zhang | Michigan B | Chicago C | 126 | -5 |
| Beckett Gilmore | Louisville A | Chicago D | 130 | 10 |
| Jeremy Mau | Northwestern C | Arizona State B | 130 | -5 |
| Eveline Ong | Oxford A | Southampton A | 136 | 10 |
| Gabriel McMurren | Guelph A | McMaster B | 137 | 10 |
| Osbaldo Porrua | UIC | Michigan C | 137 | 10 |
| Puna Ekka | Minnesota A | Minnesota B | 137 | 10 |
| Kevin Yang | Illinois C | Purdue B | 138 | 10 |
| Evan Gniadek | Purdue A | Kentucky | 138 | 10 |
| Kaushul Manikandan | Huntsville A | Huntsville B | 139 | 10 |
| Daniel Hobba | Cambridge C | Bristol B | 139 | 10 |
| Emily Hackwelder | Notre Dame D | Illinois B | 140 | 10 |
| Doug Frederick | Auburn B | Sewanee A | 140 | 10 |
| Samarth Ram | Chicago B | Purdue C | 143 | 10 |
| Young Fenimore Lee | Ohio | Rose State | 143 | 10 |
| Gary Lin | UCSD What Hath God Wrought | Claremont Pitzer | 144 | 10 |
| Sarah Silverman | Claremont Pitzer | UCSD What Hath God Wrought | 144 | 0 |
| Raisa Tabassum | Guelph B | Toronto F | 144 | 10 |
| Asha Basu | McGill A | Toronto H | 144 | 10 |
| Michael Xu | McMaster C | Toronto C | 144 | 10 |
| Charlie Ruff | McGill C | Toronto A | 144 | 10 |
| Nabhaan Farooqi | McGill B | Toronto D | 144 | 10 |
| Nathaniel Godfrey | Toronto J | Waterloo | 144 | 10 |
| Matthew Amante | Notre Dame C | Louisville B | 144 | 10 |
| Sasha Tripathi | Chicago C | Michigan B | 144 | 10 |
| Dylan Lewis | Nebraska | Minnesota C | 144 | 10 |
| Alden Baker | St. Thomas | Macalester A | 144 | 10 |
| James Horsley | Iowa State | Wisconsin | 144 | 10 |
| Liam Markland | Alberta | British Columbia B | 144 | 10 |
| Waverly O'Malley | Iowa | Tulsa | 144 | 0 |
| Jarrod Curl | Tulsa | Iowa | 144 | 0 |
| Amiya Zope | UTD B | UTD A | 144 | 0 |
| Mohammad Khan | UTD A | UTD B | 144 | 0 |
| Alexander Mayans | Arizona State B | Northwestern C | 144 | 0 |
| Misbah Meghani | UAB A | Alabama B | 144 | 10 |
| Britton Webster | Alabama A | Mississippi State A | 144 | 10 |