Reviews

Rumi: Unseen Poems by Rumi

winona_reads1's review

3.0

super flowery
but very repetitive
tagged a few lines but overall i think i want to see something more
also the first part read like fiction, a story and then started diverging multiple ways so that was.. different?

lausol's review

3.0

I was given a digital arc of this book by Netgalley.
I really enjoyed reading this book, some of the poems were very raw and left a strong impression, others not so much, but it always happens in poetry collections. I think the translators did a good job making Rumi's poetry available to others, and I'm thankfull to them for letting me read a copy of the work they did.

candournat's review

reflective medium-paced

2.0

Had high expectations because everyone seems to love Rumi’s poetry but I just didn’t like it. I think I enjoyed maybe 3 or 4 of the poems out of the entire thing. Giving two stars only because I can appreciate that a lot of his writing is beautiful but I think I’m just not a fan of how religion-centric his work is — I’m aware he’s known for this but it’s just not for me. 

lovelifeandbeyond's review against another edition

4.0

I fell for the cover first of all.
The poems are good...some are great.
Although the theme is a connection with God, as an atheist I still enjoyed reading the sentiment relating it to spirituality or even just a plain old love poem.

karenika's review

4.0

I grew up in Istanbul, Turkey. In middle school, I read several of Rumi's poems. But at the time, it was annoying school work written in old Ottoman Turkish that was hard to decipher. Years after I moved to the United States, I rediscovered Rumi, this time in English.

His poems enchanted my soul.

So when I heard of this new book, I knew I wanted to read more Rumi. And this book doesn't disappoint. There is a wide range of poems here, some very similar to what's been translated before, and some closer to what I studied at school and some that are different than both.

Here are a few clippings from some of his poems that I loved:

My face is a hundred times brighter when I see your face.
My soul is a hundred times happier when your soul is near.
When the mirror of my life is polished by your love,
The mirror of the world is no longer dull and dark....

Look into the face of the beloved until his hues come alive.
As the hues reflect in your face, O pale one, come alive!
Every atom is whirling until they feel alive.
You, atom, don't you wish to come alive?
You were like a stone. Touched by his life,
Sweet running steams from stones come alive.
In the mirror, I looked into a vision of transcendence.
I asked, "Who are you?"
He said, "I am light come alive."

You are at peace when you don't need more or less,
When you don't need to be a king or a saint,
When you're free from the sorrows of the world,
When you're free from the tiniest atom of yourself.

I can go on and on. If you're a fan of Rumi, this book will not disappoint.

Thank you to netgalley and the publisher for an advanced copy in return for an honest review.

leonieschu's review against another edition

3.0

this is my first time reading rumi, and i don’t know if it’s the translation or the poetry itself but it was just meh. some of the longer ones were interesting to read but... yeah

reena's review

3.0

I don’t know why but I really liked the way these set of Rumi poems were translated. It flowed really well and was an overall good book to read. Like how the poems were sectioned off by subject matter where they were in similar areas.

liil's review against another edition

4.0

I really enjoyed this poetry selection by Rumi. Some of it was beautiful, many of it was relating to Islam religion, and even more was intelligent observations of life and people. The collection was easily readable probably due to a fairly modern interpretation, which I felt partly took away from the genuine feel of 1200s writing.

carrieemoran's review

3.0

I was stoked for this because I adore Rumi. I haven't yet read The Essential Rumi, but I've read him widely. This fell short for me. I wish there had maybe been more context for some of the poems or better organization. The time in which Rumi lived was drastically different, and usually his poems read as universal, but the poems in this collection felt confusing without that context.

readbyamity's review

2.0

I received a copy of this book from Net Galley in exchange for my honest review.

This collection of unseen poems from Rumi are quite typical of the rest of their work.

I did enjoy a number of pieces from the collection, unfortunately, the rest of the collection was more or less the same.

I think Rumi's work is the kind of poetry that you dip into and take something from each time, rather than reading it from cover to cover.

I would recommend this to any literary/ history fans out there that have enjoyed reading from Rumi's collections in the past.

This collection covered spiritual themes and while I appreciate the gravity behind the work, it wasn't a new favourite.