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A vibrant selection of poems by the great Persian mystic with groundbreaking translations by an American poet of Persian descent.
Rumi’s poems were meant to induce a sense of ecstatic illumination and liberation in his audience, bringing its members to a condition of serenity, compassion, and oneness with the divine. They remain masterpieces of world literature to which readers in many languages continually return for inspiration and succor, as wellas aesthetic delight. This new translation by Haleh Liza Gafori preserves the intelligence and the drama of the poems, which are as full of individual character as they are of visionary wisdom.
Rumi’s poems were meant to induce a sense of ecstatic illumination and liberation in his audience, bringing its members to a condition of serenity, compassion, and oneness with the divine. They remain masterpieces of world literature to which readers in many languages continually return for inspiration and succor, as wellas aesthetic delight. This new translation by Haleh Liza Gafori preserves the intelligence and the drama of the poems, which are as full of individual character as they are of visionary wisdom.
87 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2022
190 people are currently reading
1,738 people want to read
About the author
Jalal ad-Din Muhammad ar-Rumi
1,131books15.3kfollowersSufism inspired writings of Persian poet and mystic Jalal ad-Din Muhammad ar-Rumi; these writings express the longing of the soul for union with the divine.
Jalāl ad-Dīn Muhammad Rūmī - also known as Jalāl ad-Dīn Muhammad Balkhī, Mevlânâ/Mawlānā (مولانا, "our master"), Mevlevî/Mawlawī (مولوی, "my master") and more popularly simply as Rumi - was a 13th-century Persian poet, jurist, Islamic scholar, theologian and Sufi mystic who lived in Konya, a city of Ottoman Empire (Today's Turkey). His poems have been widely translated into many of the world's languages, and he has been described as the most popular poet and the best-selling poet in the United States.
His poetry has influenced Persian literature, but also Turkish, Ottoman Turkish, Azerbaijani, Punjabi, Hindi, and Urdu, as well as the literature of some other Turkic, Iranian, and Indo-Aryan languages including Chagatai, Pashto, and Bengali.
Due to quarrels between different dynasties in Khorāṣān, opposition to the Khwarizmid Shahs who were considered devious by his father, Bahā ud-Dīn Wālad or fear of the impending Mongol cataclysm, his father decided to migrate westwards, eventually settling in the Anatolian city Konya, where he lived most of his life, composed one of the crowning glories of Persian literature, and profoundly affected the culture of the area.
When his father died, Rumi, aged 25, inherited his position as the head of an Islamic school. One of Baha' ud-Din's students, Sayyed Burhan ud-Din Muhaqqiq Termazi, continued to train Rumi in the Shariah as well as the Tariqa, especially that of Rumi's father. For nine years, Rumi practised Sufism as a disciple of Burhan ud-Din until the latter died in 1240 or 1241. Rumi's public life then began: he became an Islamic Jurist, issuing fatwas and giving sermons in the mosques of Konya. He also served as a Molvi (Islamic teacher) and taught his adherents in the madrassa. During this period, Rumi also travelled to Damascus and is said to have spent four years there.
It was his meeting with the dervish Shams-e Tabrizi on 15 November 1244 that completely changed his life. From an accomplished teacher and jurist, Rumi was transformed into an ascetic.
On the night of 5 December 1248, as Rumi and Shams were talking, Shams was called to the back door. He went out, never to be seen again. Rumi's love for, and his bereavement at the death of, Shams found their expression in an outpouring of lyric poems, Divan-e Shams-e Tabrizi. He himself went out searching for Shams and journeyed again to Damascus.
Rumi found another companion in Sala� ud-Din-e Zarkub, a goldsmith. After Salah ud-Din's death, Rumi's scribe and favourite student, Hussam-e Chalabi, assumed the role of Rumi's companion. Hussam implored Rumi to write more. Rumi spent the next 12 years of his life in Anatolia dictating the six volumes of this masterwork, the Masnavi, to Hussam.
In December 1273, Rumi fell ill and died on the 17th of December in Konya.
Jalāl ad-Dīn Muhammad Rūmī - also known as Jalāl ad-Dīn Muhammad Balkhī, Mevlânâ/Mawlānā (مولانا, "our master"), Mevlevî/Mawlawī (مولوی, "my master") and more popularly simply as Rumi - was a 13th-century Persian poet, jurist, Islamic scholar, theologian and Sufi mystic who lived in Konya, a city of Ottoman Empire (Today's Turkey). His poems have been widely translated into many of the world's languages, and he has been described as the most popular poet and the best-selling poet in the United States.
His poetry has influenced Persian literature, but also Turkish, Ottoman Turkish, Azerbaijani, Punjabi, Hindi, and Urdu, as well as the literature of some other Turkic, Iranian, and Indo-Aryan languages including Chagatai, Pashto, and Bengali.
Due to quarrels between different dynasties in Khorāṣān, opposition to the Khwarizmid Shahs who were considered devious by his father, Bahā ud-Dīn Wālad or fear of the impending Mongol cataclysm, his father decided to migrate westwards, eventually settling in the Anatolian city Konya, where he lived most of his life, composed one of the crowning glories of Persian literature, and profoundly affected the culture of the area.
When his father died, Rumi, aged 25, inherited his position as the head of an Islamic school. One of Baha' ud-Din's students, Sayyed Burhan ud-Din Muhaqqiq Termazi, continued to train Rumi in the Shariah as well as the Tariqa, especially that of Rumi's father. For nine years, Rumi practised Sufism as a disciple of Burhan ud-Din until the latter died in 1240 or 1241. Rumi's public life then began: he became an Islamic Jurist, issuing fatwas and giving sermons in the mosques of Konya. He also served as a Molvi (Islamic teacher) and taught his adherents in the madrassa. During this period, Rumi also travelled to Damascus and is said to have spent four years there.
It was his meeting with the dervish Shams-e Tabrizi on 15 November 1244 that completely changed his life. From an accomplished teacher and jurist, Rumi was transformed into an ascetic.
On the night of 5 December 1248, as Rumi and Shams were talking, Shams was called to the back door. He went out, never to be seen again. Rumi's love for, and his bereavement at the death of, Shams found their expression in an outpouring of lyric poems, Divan-e Shams-e Tabrizi. He himself went out searching for Shams and journeyed again to Damascus.
Rumi found another companion in Sala� ud-Din-e Zarkub, a goldsmith. After Salah ud-Din's death, Rumi's scribe and favourite student, Hussam-e Chalabi, assumed the role of Rumi's companion. Hussam implored Rumi to write more. Rumi spent the next 12 years of his life in Anatolia dictating the six volumes of this masterwork, the Masnavi, to Hussam.
In December 1273, Rumi fell ill and died on the 17th of December in Konya.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 141 reviews
July 13, 2022
It’s fantastic to read something properly translated from Rumi. This collection is curated to a certain aspect of his writing; the introduction makes that quite clear and is very informative. But it also necessarily means that because it’s fit to a certain theme, the imagery is repetitive. On the one hand, it’s a nice through line. On the other, it can feel like the same point attempting to be driven home.
Read
April 7, 2023Video review:
August 7, 2022
Meet us in the land of insight,
camped under ecstasy's flag.
Wonderful verse for a broiling summer day and the questionable decision to go for an afternoon walk. Found myself moved repeatedly by the images. Barren spaces prevail which bring the enlightened images into relief. There’s a fatal hope here. I was very pleased.
camped under ecstasy's flag.
Wonderful verse for a broiling summer day and the questionable decision to go for an afternoon walk. Found myself moved repeatedly by the images. Barren spaces prevail which bring the enlightened images into relief. There’s a fatal hope here. I was very pleased.
February 17, 2023
I would not have purchased this book, but it came as part of my NYRofBks Book Club subscription. I'm glad I got it!
I haven't read Rumi in forever, and never really "got" this poetry from the 13th C Middle East. But this new translation of a selection of his poems by poet/translator/performance artist/musician Gafori made the poems much more accessible, and enjoyable, for me. And while the Introduction is only 6 pages long, it is very helpful, presenting the reader with Rumi's life, and changes, in a nutshell.
While I am still not a big fan of the heart over the mind, whirling, wine, ecstasy, and impulsive choices, the poems are now enjoyable to read, and understandable.
Even with the constant "Contradictions, but All One" - as in his short poem: "When I am, I am not/When I am not, I am." Or, "I saw myself sharp as a thorn/I fled to the softness of petals."
I'll be passing this slim volume along to others to enjoy. Pleasurable to have a new insight into a poet I previously did not appreciate or enjoy.
A strong 4 out of 5.
I haven't read Rumi in forever, and never really "got" this poetry from the 13th C Middle East. But this new translation of a selection of his poems by poet/translator/performance artist/musician Gafori made the poems much more accessible, and enjoyable, for me. And while the Introduction is only 6 pages long, it is very helpful, presenting the reader with Rumi's life, and changes, in a nutshell.
While I am still not a big fan of the heart over the mind, whirling, wine, ecstasy, and impulsive choices, the poems are now enjoyable to read, and understandable.
Even with the constant "Contradictions, but All One" - as in his short poem: "When I am, I am not/When I am not, I am." Or, "I saw myself sharp as a thorn/I fled to the softness of petals."
I'll be passing this slim volume along to others to enjoy. Pleasurable to have a new insight into a poet I previously did not appreciate or enjoy.
A strong 4 out of 5.
April 4, 2022
As someone who never reads poetry, I am quite surprised by how much I liked this 800-year-old collection. I know I didn't fully understand it all, but I loved some of the poems and their general message of love, acceptance, and liberation. It was also very helpful to read the introduction and a little bit of Rumi's story. This is a book that I will for sure reread in the future.
"Why paint night over nightless day?
Every religion has Love
but Love has no religion.
Love is an ocean -
no borders, no shore.
Drown there and you won't lament it.
The drowned have no regrets."
"Let's love each other,
let's cherish each other, my friend,
before we lose each other.
You'll long for me when I'm gone.
You'll make a truce with me.
So why put me on trial while I'm alive?
Why adore the dead but battle the living?
You'll kiss the headstone of my grave.
Look, I'm lying here still as a corpse,
dead as a stone. Kiss my face instead!"
"Ferment like wine
in the barrel of your body."
"Why paint night over nightless day?
Every religion has Love
but Love has no religion.
Love is an ocean -
no borders, no shore.
Drown there and you won't lament it.
The drowned have no regrets."
"Let's love each other,
let's cherish each other, my friend,
before we lose each other.
You'll long for me when I'm gone.
You'll make a truce with me.
So why put me on trial while I'm alive?
Why adore the dead but battle the living?
You'll kiss the headstone of my grave.
Look, I'm lying here still as a corpse,
dead as a stone. Kiss my face instead!"
"Ferment like wine
in the barrel of your body."
April 15, 2022
Such beautiful, thoughtful translations. I’m new to Rumi but Haleh Liza Gafori’s interpretations were accessible and thought-provoking; I’ll certainly be returning to these poems time and again. To quote a bit that is both my favorite part and a call to action to read this work: “Hear the booming of the heavens / the roar of fate, / the ruckus the muse makes.�
December 7, 2021
Simply beautiful poetry brought to life by well-done translation work. Almost 800 years old and Rumi’s poems still resonate deeply—a testament to the the human experience.
February 18, 2025
this is truly some the best poetry i’ve ever read. every word feels so intentional and holds so much weight. i felt like i could be held with every emotion that was being thrown at me. i don’t even know how i would go about choosing a favourite or even a top 3 because everything was just so good. genuinely if you could only read one poetry book for the rest of your life, let it be this one.
April 6, 2022
So simple, but so beautiful and true
April 24, 2022
I don’t read much poetry and I don’t know much about it. I also ordinarily don’t like poetry that talks about love in every poem and every few lines
There is something about the love in some of these poems that broke through my shield I guess. I felt it showed me a path to the love of a parent to a child, or a middle aged guy to his own stupid past, along with yes, maybe, romantic love.
Here I feel seen, in my 21st century trap of using my brain 20 hours a day to fix my problems:
For forty years, my mind drowned me in thought.
When Love hooked me like a fish,
I lept out of my mind.
�
See how I was trapped �
First by circumspection, then by calculation
And here, on being too fixated on yourself:
Full of yourself�
a friend’s touch is sharp as a thorn.
A buzzing fly drives you mad.
I read somewhere that poetry is supposed to be able to break through our usual endless narrative buzzing in your mind, and knock through. This seems to do this trick.
There is something about the love in some of these poems that broke through my shield I guess. I felt it showed me a path to the love of a parent to a child, or a middle aged guy to his own stupid past, along with yes, maybe, romantic love.
Here I feel seen, in my 21st century trap of using my brain 20 hours a day to fix my problems:
For forty years, my mind drowned me in thought.
When Love hooked me like a fish,
I lept out of my mind.
�
See how I was trapped �
First by circumspection, then by calculation
And here, on being too fixated on yourself:
Full of yourself�
a friend’s touch is sharp as a thorn.
A buzzing fly drives you mad.
I read somewhere that poetry is supposed to be able to break through our usual endless narrative buzzing in your mind, and knock through. This seems to do this trick.
May 31, 2022
gayer than i anticipated and i’m not mad
Read
February 11, 2025DNF. Several of these were beautiful. I respect that the translator straight-up said that it’s fine (in the Rumi-reading tradition) to gather/reproduce whatever pieces or excerpts of Rumi you want and so that’s what’s she did. But l was confused by these floating, untitled, contextless stanzas. I repeatedly encountered situations where I couldn’t even tell when one excerpt was over and the next one was beginning because there was no demarcation at all.
I think it’s possible that the “excerpt whatever you want, no context needed� approach works best, or only works, in a language & setting where your audience knows the basics already. Not knowing the basics, I guess I was expecting something that this book is not designed to provide. On to the next!
I think it’s possible that the “excerpt whatever you want, no context needed� approach works best, or only works, in a language & setting where your audience knows the basics already. Not knowing the basics, I guess I was expecting something that this book is not designed to provide. On to the next!
Read
May 5, 2024I’m not giving a star rating to Rumi. I know my limits.
April 18, 2022
3.5 stars �
There’s a relationship of dilated quality with poetry and its reader. The expansion and contraction fluctuates with the mindset, emotions, etc., of the readers present.
Did I enjoy the luscious, albeit contemporary, translation of Rumi? Yes.
Am I currently in the state of mind where these golden hued poems erupt, intrusive and all consuming fires in my soul? No.
They’re merely embers that are cooling and fading, with the gentle breeze the evening is whispering, putting the melodic poems to bed for the night. Or maybe it’s allowing these ghazals to flutter to a nearby ear/eye, one who will resonate with it in a more intense and earnest way than I had allowed that evening.
Poetry, in its brisk beauty, is endurably dynamic. Return to it tomorrow or in a years� time and your sentiments will not remain the same.
Snippet of a favourite poem in this collection:
“You found me once again,
you thief of hearts. In drunken ecstasy,
you searched the bazaar and found me.
Even through sleepy-lidded, Love-drunk eyes,
you spotted me. I ran to the tavern.
You found me.
Why do I run when no one can escape you?
Why hide when you’ve found me a hundred times?
I thought I could lose you in a crowd of people.
But you find me even in crowds of secrets,
even behind my own masks.�
There’s a relationship of dilated quality with poetry and its reader. The expansion and contraction fluctuates with the mindset, emotions, etc., of the readers present.
Did I enjoy the luscious, albeit contemporary, translation of Rumi? Yes.
Am I currently in the state of mind where these golden hued poems erupt, intrusive and all consuming fires in my soul? No.
They’re merely embers that are cooling and fading, with the gentle breeze the evening is whispering, putting the melodic poems to bed for the night. Or maybe it’s allowing these ghazals to flutter to a nearby ear/eye, one who will resonate with it in a more intense and earnest way than I had allowed that evening.
Poetry, in its brisk beauty, is endurably dynamic. Return to it tomorrow or in a years� time and your sentiments will not remain the same.
Snippet of a favourite poem in this collection:
“You found me once again,
you thief of hearts. In drunken ecstasy,
you searched the bazaar and found me.
Even through sleepy-lidded, Love-drunk eyes,
you spotted me. I ran to the tavern.
You found me.
Why do I run when no one can escape you?
Why hide when you’ve found me a hundred times?
I thought I could lose you in a crowd of people.
But you find me even in crowds of secrets,
even behind my own masks.�
April 7, 2022
An encounter in Gafori's English with Rumi's Farsi is always welcome. These begin strongly, and we feel the author's curation and go looking for versions -- e.g., of this poem (F1855) written by Rumi after Shams got cancelled by the Konyan community and left the prophet:
Turn after turn.
Now there's no trace of whale, desert, sea, me.
How can I ask how?
Every how drowned in an ocean of no how.
Every what and why dissolved like salt
on my lost tongue. [Gafori]
When the transmutations came about
not desert, not sea remained in sight
How should I know how it all happened
since how is drowned in the Howless? [Franklin Lewis]
It's tribute to the translator that one would go looking for comparison-versions. You can get a taste here of Gafori's need for speed in the line that results in the troping "ocean of no how" -- it has an awkward collocation, the autochthonous colloquial "no how" being an homonym for "know-how" that's just the opposite of what Gafori means. Then, moving over to Lewis, he reminds us that the transliterative bi-chun or "howless" is an epithet for G-d. So the colloquial echo is all wrong. That stipulated I prefer as a reading experience the Gafori, only my confidence flags, as it does throughout the collection in Gafori's curation of lyrics of the imperative voice in Rumi, where the rest of the mystical poetic tradition (I think of the Dine, for example) filters what one would hope to be a "hit" of the Farsi.
So while I like this collection especially in its first half, I have my doubts, as it's a Rumi volume that will go searching for an audience to usurp the audiences that don't much mind whether they're getting Rumi or some such self-help crib.
Turn after turn.
Now there's no trace of whale, desert, sea, me.
How can I ask how?
Every how drowned in an ocean of no how.
Every what and why dissolved like salt
on my lost tongue. [Gafori]
When the transmutations came about
not desert, not sea remained in sight
How should I know how it all happened
since how is drowned in the Howless? [Franklin Lewis]
It's tribute to the translator that one would go looking for comparison-versions. You can get a taste here of Gafori's need for speed in the line that results in the troping "ocean of no how" -- it has an awkward collocation, the autochthonous colloquial "no how" being an homonym for "know-how" that's just the opposite of what Gafori means. Then, moving over to Lewis, he reminds us that the transliterative bi-chun or "howless" is an epithet for G-d. So the colloquial echo is all wrong. That stipulated I prefer as a reading experience the Gafori, only my confidence flags, as it does throughout the collection in Gafori's curation of lyrics of the imperative voice in Rumi, where the rest of the mystical poetic tradition (I think of the Dine, for example) filters what one would hope to be a "hit" of the Farsi.
So while I like this collection especially in its first half, I have my doubts, as it's a Rumi volume that will go searching for an audience to usurp the audiences that don't much mind whether they're getting Rumi or some such self-help crib.
April 3, 2022
I first came across Rumi as the source of quotes used by self-help gurus and the like. A couplet here, a verse there. Never whole poems. It's easy to do:
"Love you strung my heart with gold.
What else can I do but sing?" (p78)
Then I read Elif Shafek's 'The Forty Rules of Love', which made me realise there was so much more to him than that.
This slim selection of Rumi's work is pretty darn good. Haleh Liza Gafori's translations really zing and bring Rumi's ecstatic love of the world and of words to life. Gafori's introduction helps contextualise the verse a little and explains some of her choices and the difficulties in translating Farsi into English.
The verse itself is glorious though. Filled with the joy of life and living.
I'm not sure I can say much more. Read it.
"Love you strung my heart with gold.
What else can I do but sing?" (p78)
Then I read Elif Shafek's 'The Forty Rules of Love', which made me realise there was so much more to him than that.
This slim selection of Rumi's work is pretty darn good. Haleh Liza Gafori's translations really zing and bring Rumi's ecstatic love of the world and of words to life. Gafori's introduction helps contextualise the verse a little and explains some of her choices and the difficulties in translating Farsi into English.
The verse itself is glorious though. Filled with the joy of life and living.
I'm not sure I can say much more. Read it.
March 29, 2023
I'm glad I waited for this translation by poet, translator and musician, Haleh Liza Gafori, an American of Persian decent. Her love of the Farsi original and her acute poetic and musical sensibility offer fresh insight into the magic and wisdom of Rumi. Her short introduction is also very valuable. Best of all, I can clearly see from other reviews posted here, this slender collection has succeeded in captivating many readers who would have never imagined themselves open to poetry. Both the poet and the translator can share the compliment.
More thoughts to come later.
More thoughts to come later.
March 29, 2022
Exquisite and revelatory addition to the canon.
April 10, 2022
If i had to tattoo a verse of poetry on my body it would probably be something from this book
July 9, 2022
I would never have bought this book - poetry is not my choice of reading or interest - but it was the March 2022 NYRB Classic selection to which I subscribe. When I received it, I almost put it away except April is National Poetry Month and I needed a book of poems for a couple of my 2022 reading challenges. So I opened the book with some hesitation and promptly fell into a world of pure delight, deep beauty and peaceful reflection. Who would have thought that at 13th C Persian mystic, theologian and poet could touch a modern “heart� jaded by the weariness and craziness of 21stC life - and no lover of poetry at that - with the very first words: “Let Love, The water of life, flow through your veins.� This small book of 55 poems packs a powerful punch and offers the reader an opportunity to take time to ponder the great gifts of joy and love afforded us if we’d only leave behind our divisions and pettiness. “In the ocean of the heart, Love opens its mouth like a whale/ and swallows the divided world whole.� The Introduction to the book, written by the poems� translator, identifies the poetry form in the book as “ghazal,� “a string of five or more couplets, each one closing with a single refrain, or less commonly, with a single rhyme.� The word “ghazal� the translator notes in the OED is “etymologically linked to gazelle, and like a gazelle, the ghazal moves by leaps and bounds.� Also these couplets actually stand as “discrete units,� so they can stand alone and be pondered deeply outside the entire poem. There are many such gems in these poems. Rumi places his poetry solidly in the concrete world using images and things of everyday life to speak of the joys love can give if we allow it to “burn through the layers of self, greed, pettiness, calculation, doctrine� to reach the “gold� which is deepest love. What a joy this book was to read!
February 3, 2023
Straw man,
at the end of your straw world,
there’s a fragrant field of amber.
If you leap from your high haystack and join us,
what new heights will you reach?
Again and again, you vowed to be humble as soil.
You broke your word every time.
When you keep it, what will bloom?
You are a gem covered in mud and clay.
Your beautiful face is hidden.
You came down from the heavens.
The high angel adores you and still,
you feel like a poor wretch.
If you remember who you are,
what will you become?
É lindo, né?
at the end of your straw world,
there’s a fragrant field of amber.
If you leap from your high haystack and join us,
what new heights will you reach?
Again and again, you vowed to be humble as soil.
You broke your word every time.
When you keep it, what will bloom?
You are a gem covered in mud and clay.
Your beautiful face is hidden.
You came down from the heavens.
The high angel adores you and still,
you feel like a poor wretch.
If you remember who you are,
what will you become?
É lindo, né?
August 22, 2024
Without being fluent in Farsi, the power of Rumi's work often comes down to its translation. Gold, pulling selections mostly from Rumi's Divan-e Shams-e Tabrizi, offers a translation that brings a lyricism and warmth to the work, while maintaining the simplistic language that keeps Rumi so accessible.
4.5 stars
4.5 stars
April 30, 2022
Wow. This translation gave me a visceral experience of Rumi's transcendent eyes and soul on the world. I also appreciated that the translator is actually Persian. I also loved the introduction which gave me a depth of understanding that I didn't have before.
April 8, 2022
Incredible poetry. Pure gold.
April 19, 2022
i could feel my heart expanding while reading these poems
most in this collection come from the divan-e shams-e tabriz
most in this collection come from the divan-e shams-e tabriz
Read
April 30, 2022Superb new translation� worth owning for any lover of Rumi.
June 8, 2022
That Rumi was one happy, positive dude.
If you’ve made a habit of drinking vinegar,
don’t blame the vine.
Get off my back, Rumi!
If you’ve made a habit of drinking vinegar,
don’t blame the vine.
Get off my back, Rumi!
October 9, 2022
Reading poetry is not a strength of mine. This year I read some long narrative poems (Dante, Goethe) and found I greatly enjoyed the structure and effect. Rumi however is here just beginning a career as mystic poet. This collection was perhaps some of the earlier poems by Rumi, largely focused on his mentor and friend (Shams of Tabriz) who directed Rumi to a life of poetry. Throughout this collection, Shams is celebrated for freeing Rumi from social and religious limitations, to embrace love and to whirl and sing its praise. The Sufi poetic form Rumi writes with is the ghazal, varying from 5 to 15 couplets.
The language is simple, beautiful and certainly would warrant rereading. I hope Rumi’s six volume work, Masnavi is translated directly from the Farsi like this book. The translator did an excellent job. My only complaint is I want more.
The language is simple, beautiful and certainly would warrant rereading. I hope Rumi’s six volume work, Masnavi is translated directly from the Farsi like this book. The translator did an excellent job. My only complaint is I want more.
February 2, 2023
Could be a 3.5 tbh. Not being a Sufi Muslim these poems obviously have less impact but taking modern Islam class rn makes me understand the connection to religion that is always present and has been overlooked by translators like barks and the American public for a very long time. The consistency of the messages seen in each poem/set of verses can serve to slowly build the impactfulness of the message or, like it did at time for me, make reading the poems in quick succession more tiring
January 22, 2025
for words that were written during the 1300s, everything in this small collection is so true for the world we're in today. if i hadn't known when this was written, i would've thought this was written/published just last year. i feel so so incredibly lucky to have stumbled across this tiny book and to be reminded of how important it is to have translated works.
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