Take a photo of a barcode or cover
4.21 AVERAGE
4.21 AVERAGE
emotional
inspiring
reflective
slow-paced
inspiring
reflective
Personally, I found this to be lovely if not exciting and overly-spiritual for my tastes. Outside of my subjective tastes, there are legitimate concerns about this particular translation. Primarily, how does someone who doesn't read or speak the original language of poetry translate it? Apparently by paraphrasing other English translations. Paraphrasing isn't stealing per se, but taking a translator's credit when you didn't in fact translate anything seems icky if not outright unethical. Given the history of spiritual white Westerners watering down and sanitizing the culture, traditions, and religions of BIPOC peoples, my vote is unethical.
Ultimately, I feel dirty for having read this and wish I'd known about the controversial nature of Barks' "translation" beforehand. My advice to you is to pick another translator. At least I didn't pay for it.
Ultimately, I feel dirty for having read this and wish I'd known about the controversial nature of Barks' "translation" beforehand. My advice to you is to pick another translator. At least I didn't pay for it.
Started this in June, finally finished in February, which says enough about my feelings on this book if you know me at all. I could write pages and pages and pages where I give my insights on Rumi, but I can’t be bothered, so let’s stick to the fact that it was a struggle to get through and it’s simply not for me. And that’s completely alright.
The book is horizontal and impossible to read on kindle with that tiny text. I did enjoy the first poem which was legible. Will find a good print of the book to read and review it but this particular kindle version was not for me.
http://nwhyte.livejournal.com/1682802.html
This is a selection of poetry translated from the original Persian of Jalāl ad-Dīn Muḥammad Balkhī, known as Mowlānā in Persian and Rūmī in the English-speaking world, whose followers founded the Mawlawī Sufi order, better known as the Whirling Dervishes, after his death. The poetry is expressive and profound, but also fairly easy to digest. Rūmī's basic philosophy is that one can find a path to the ineffable through meditation on love - his best one-liner is that "Love is the astrolabe that sights into the mysteries of God". Unlike the Christian monastic tradition, he stresses the importance of human contact (though I noted that while he writes a lot about both friendship and romantic love, he has less to say about parenthood). He includes a number of Sufist parables, in a style which I was familiar with from my encounter with the Bektashi in the Balkans (founded at about the same time and in roughly the same place, and also Sufist in orientation), though Rūmī is both more profound and more basic (the parable of the maidservant, the donkey, and the importance of taking essential preliminary measures will linger in my mind for a while).
I was slightly concerned while reading it that the translator, Coleman Barks, might have taken considerable liberties with the original text. I have no way of knowing, but I am reassured by the appendix which includes reference to each of the original poems, and also, unusually for a poetry book, several curry recipes.
Anyway, a fascinating insight into a different tradition of spirituality.
This is a selection of poetry translated from the original Persian of Jalāl ad-Dīn Muḥammad Balkhī, known as Mowlānā in Persian and Rūmī in the English-speaking world, whose followers founded the Mawlawī Sufi order, better known as the Whirling Dervishes, after his death. The poetry is expressive and profound, but also fairly easy to digest. Rūmī's basic philosophy is that one can find a path to the ineffable through meditation on love - his best one-liner is that "Love is the astrolabe that sights into the mysteries of God". Unlike the Christian monastic tradition, he stresses the importance of human contact (though I noted that while he writes a lot about both friendship and romantic love, he has less to say about parenthood). He includes a number of Sufist parables, in a style which I was familiar with from my encounter with the Bektashi in the Balkans (founded at about the same time and in roughly the same place, and also Sufist in orientation), though Rūmī is both more profound and more basic (the parable of the maidservant, the donkey, and the importance of taking essential preliminary measures will linger in my mind for a while).
I was slightly concerned while reading it that the translator, Coleman Barks, might have taken considerable liberties with the original text. I have no way of knowing, but I am reassured by the appendix which includes reference to each of the original poems, and also, unusually for a poetry book, several curry recipes.
Anyway, a fascinating insight into a different tradition of spirituality.
I only have myself to blame for this one. I don't know what possessed me, self-proclaimed poetry hater, to read 416 pages of Persian poetry translated into English. (confession: I do know what possessed me though for the sake of my reputation lets not mention that I read this after Harry Styles was seen reading it). Overall, I understood a lot more than I do when I read the originals, I enjoyed a few parts of it and I highlighted quite a bit but at the end of the book I was left feeling slightly sorry for people who only get to experience Persian poetry like this because even though I'm not a fan of poetry, I can appreciate the rhymes and the melodic beauty and imagery that these poems have in Persian whereas in the translation everything was too literal and too crude for me and well, for lack of a better word, it just lacked the essence of poetry.
emotional
inspiring
reflective
slow-paced
The text provides a wonderful background on Rumi and his writing. His actual poems were a bit lost in the translation for me.