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Product Description
From Publishers Weekly
The Sufi mystic Rumi has sold more than half a million volumes of his poetry-no small feat, considering that he lived in the 13th century. In this collection, poet Coleman Barks offers a funny, iconoclastic preface in which he attempts to tease out the reasons for Rumi's contemporary renaissance. He also warns readers that what follows will not be a pretty, happy book of love poetry: "This is not Norman Vincent Peale urging cheerfulness, conventional morality, and soft-focus, white-light, feel-good...New Age tantric energy exchange. This is giving your life to the one within that you know as LORD, which is a totally private matter." Rumi, he writes, is not the stuff of greeting cards. The poetry, accessibly translated and arranged by Barks, is organized by loose themes such as love's discipline, the new life with the beloved, "sudden wholeness," and love's excess.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
From Booklist
Coleman Barks begins the preface of his gazillionth book of Rumi translations by saying, "I have sold too many books." Maybe so, but he hasn't tired of translating and retranslating Rumi. And people never seem to tire of reading the great Sufi mystic. Here, Barks delves into Rumi's take on love, retranslating dozens of poems he first adapted for The Essential Rumi (1995) and offering a few new translations. Rumi's love was, of course, about a great deal more than romance. Seeking annihilation in the Divine, Rumi basked in many forms of divine love, from his passionate (and, some argue, homoerotic) love for his teacher Shams to a reverence for the natural world. Barks has been criticized for basing his reworkings of Rumi on English translations instead of the original texts, but the two poets together are clearly a magical combination. Rumi's copious metaphorical expressions of love and the importance of unifying with it make wonderful reading. If Barks' versions are fast and loose, they are also, like Rumi himself, beautiful and accessible. John Green
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
Inside This Book
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First Sentence
I take down my King James to look up the passage about love (charity) in 1 Corinthians 13. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
I take down my King James to look up the passage about love (charity) in 1 Corinthians 13. Read the first page
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Concordance
Browse Sample PagesConcordance
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
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Most helpful customer reviews
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
incredibly moving - I am inspired!,
By A Customer
This review is from: Rumi: Poems of Ecstasy and Longing (Hardcover)
This collection of Rumi's poetry moved me like none of his other work. I have already given copies away several times over. You wont regret it!
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Lord of poetry,
By Reflection Haiku "Lily Wang, Author" (California, USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER) (REAL NAME)
This review is from: Rumi: Poems of Ecstasy and Longing (Hardcover)
I am enamored of this book for within a few pages, my eyes can see these poems are alive. Rumi, the 13th century Sufi master, has found his modern vocal through poet Coleman Barks - I can't read the original language but from those translations I found the poems to be poignant, vital and awakening. This book is divided into 22 chapters of ecstatic readings with Mr. Barks commentaries preluding each section initiating a discourse where a diverse of poems are included. In the discussion of "Sohbet", regarding the retreats where poets dwell and the jobs that poets do, Emily Dickinson's celestial lines are quoted:"... Of visitors, the fairest. For occupations, this: The spreading wide my narrow hands To gather paradise. (11)" The Lord of poems is no mystic to those who've experienced epiphany. His words have escaped the time and the restrictions of death. Such poems are enlightenments: "QUIETNESS Inside this new love, die. Your way begins on the other side. Become the sky. Take an ax to the prison wall. Escape. Walk out Like someone suddenly born into color. *** The speechless full moon comes out now. (33)" My sister sent me this gift of poetry on my birthday and whatever she wishes to say is well-expressed by this BOOK OF LOVE.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta) Amazon.com:
4.8 out of 5 stars (12 customer reviews) 32 of 34 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars
Beautiful,
By E. Bronson "Wanderer" - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Rumi: Poems of Ecstasy and Longing (Hardcover)
Rumi needs no praise from me and Barks' translation is beautiful, mysterious, and urgent. I find his introductions to the many sections especially moving. My only problem is that I ordered the book after I bought Barks' "The Essential Rumi," which changed me. This book has many overlaps. I'd have preferred to see more original translations, but as a first introduction, you can do no better.
23 of 25 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
Like trying to condense the ocean into a review form......,
By Julie Jordan Scott "Writer, Life Coach - Owne... - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Rumi: Poems of Ecstasy and Longing (Roughcut)
How can I put into words the absolute wordless dimension this collection of poems creates within me?The commentaries and introduction sections by Coleman Barks are valuable as well beyond words. The reader would gain insights simply by picking it up and thumbing to any page and just read, read! My daughter and I tried this, we would bring up topics and then say "And what does Rumi say?" and I would read whatever the first words were that I saw in front of me. They were always universally fitting. I loved it, just like I love this book. Wordless, speechless, love-filled - inspired. 26 of 32 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
incredibly moving - I am inspired!,
By A Customer - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Rumi: Poems of Ecstasy and Longing (Hardcover)
This collection of Rumi's poetry moved me like none of his other work. I have already given copies away several times over. You wont regret it!
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