Jelaluddin Rumi was born in the year 1207 and until the age of thirty-seven was a brilliant scholar and popular teacher. But his life changed forever when he met the powerful wandering dervish, Shams of Tabriz, of whom Rumi said, "What I had thought of before as God, I met today in a human being." From this mysterious and esoteric friendship came a new height of spiritual enlightenment.When Shams disappeared, Rumi began his transformation from scholar to artist, and his poetry began to fly.
Today, the ecstatic poetry of Jelaluddin Rumi is more popular than ever, and Coleman Barks, through his musical and magical translations, has been instrumental in bringing this exquisite literature to devoted followers. Now, for the first time, barks has gathered the essential poems of Rumi and put them together in this wonderful comprehensive collection that delights with playful energy and unequaled passion.
"The Essential Rumi" offers the most beautiful rendering of the primary poetry of Rumi to both devoted enthusiasts and novice reader. Poems about everything form bewilderment, emptiness, and silence to flirtation, elegance, and majesty are presented with love, humor, warmth, and tenderness.
Take in the words of Jelaluddin Rumi and feel yourself transported to the magical, mystical, place of a whirling, ecstatic poet.
Author(s): Rumi; Coleman Barks; John Moyne; A.J. Arberry; Reynold Alleyne Nicholson
Publisher: Castle Books
Year: 1997
Language: English
Pages: 302
Cover
Title Page
Copyright
CONTENTS
On Rumi
A Note on the Organization of This Book
1. The Tavern: Whoever Brought Me Here Will Have to Take Me Home
2. Bewilderment: I Have Five Things to Say
3. Emptiness and Silence: The Night Air
4. Spring Giddiness: Stand in the Wake of This Chattering and Grow Airy
5. Feeling Separation: Don't Come Near Me
6. Controlling the Desire-Body: How Did You Kill Your Rooster, Husam ?
7. Sohbet: Meetings on the Riverbank
8. Being a Lover: The Sunrise Ruby
9. The Pickaxe: Getting to the Treasure Beneath the Foundation
10. Art as Flirtation with Surrender: Wanting New Silk Harp Strings
11. Union: Gnats Inside the Wind
12. The Sheikh: I Have Such a Teacher
13. Recognizing Elegance: Your Reasonable Father
14. The Howling Necessity: Cry Out in Your Weakness
15. Teaching Stories: How the Unseen World Works
16. Rough Metaphors: More Teaching Stories
17. Solomon Poems: The Far Mosque
18. The Three Fish: Gamble Everything for Love
19. Jesus Poems: The Population of the World
20. In Baghdad, Dreaming of Cairo: More Teaching Stories
21. Beginning and End: The Stories That Frame the Mathnawi
22. Green Ears Everywhere: Children Running Through
23. Being Woven: Communal Practice
24. Wished-For Song: Secret Practices
25. Majesty: This We Have Now
26. Evolutionary Intelligence: Say I Am You
27. The Turn: Dance in Your Blood
Notes
A Note on These Translations and a Few Recipes
References
