Take a photo of a barcode or cover
4.21 AVERAGE
4.21 AVERAGE
Please be aware that this is not Rumi. Barks never actually translated Rumi and couldn’t read the language it was written in and westernizes and, often, paints it with a Christian brush despite saying religion is “secondary” to his poems. Complete nonsense.
“Discussing these New Age “translations,” Safi said, “I see a type of ‘spiritual colonialism’ at work here: bypassing, erasing, and occupying a spiritual landscape that has been lived and breathed and internalized by Muslims from Bosnia and Istanbul to Konya and Iran to Central and South Asia.” Extracting the spiritual from the religious context has deep reverberations. Islam is regularly diagnosed as a “cancer,” including by General Michael Flynn, President-elect Donald Trump’s pick for national-security adviser, and, even today, policymakers suggest that non-Western and nonwhite groups have not contributed to civilization.
“For his part, Barks sees religion as secondary to the essence of Rumi. “Religion is such a point of contention for the world,” he told me. “I got my truth and you got your truth—this is just absurd. We’re all in this together and I’m trying to open my heart, and Rumi’s poetry helps with that.” One might detect in this philosophy something of Rumi’s own approach to poetry:
“Rumi often amended texts from the Koran so that they would fit the lyrical rhyme and meter of the Persian verse. But while Rumi’s Persian readers would recognize the tactic, most American readers are unaware of the Islamic blueprint. Safi has compared reading Rumi without the Koran to reading Milton without the Bible: even if Rumi was heterodox, it’s important to recognize that he was heterodox in a Muslim context—and that Islamic culture, centuries ago, had room for such heterodoxy. Rumi’s works are not just layered with religion; they represent the historical dynamism within Islamic scholarship.”
https://www.google.ca/amp/s/www.newyorker.com/books/page-turner/the-erasure-of-islam-from-the-poetry-of-rumi/amp
“Discussing these New Age “translations,” Safi said, “I see a type of ‘spiritual colonialism’ at work here: bypassing, erasing, and occupying a spiritual landscape that has been lived and breathed and internalized by Muslims from Bosnia and Istanbul to Konya and Iran to Central and South Asia.” Extracting the spiritual from the religious context has deep reverberations. Islam is regularly diagnosed as a “cancer,” including by General Michael Flynn, President-elect Donald Trump’s pick for national-security adviser, and, even today, policymakers suggest that non-Western and nonwhite groups have not contributed to civilization.
“For his part, Barks sees religion as secondary to the essence of Rumi. “Religion is such a point of contention for the world,” he told me. “I got my truth and you got your truth—this is just absurd. We’re all in this together and I’m trying to open my heart, and Rumi’s poetry helps with that.” One might detect in this philosophy something of Rumi’s own approach to poetry:
“Rumi often amended texts from the Koran so that they would fit the lyrical rhyme and meter of the Persian verse. But while Rumi’s Persian readers would recognize the tactic, most American readers are unaware of the Islamic blueprint. Safi has compared reading Rumi without the Koran to reading Milton without the Bible: even if Rumi was heterodox, it’s important to recognize that he was heterodox in a Muslim context—and that Islamic culture, centuries ago, had room for such heterodoxy. Rumi’s works are not just layered with religion; they represent the historical dynamism within Islamic scholarship.”
https://www.google.ca/amp/s/www.newyorker.com/books/page-turner/the-erasure-of-islam-from-the-poetry-of-rumi/amp
some excellent looks at our humanity, our perceptions, our relationships, our loving...
I love Rumi. I am Persian and so was he, although the comparison stops there. Rumi was brilliant.
In September of 2012, I created a photographic gallery of Rumi quotations and used a few of the quotes from Coleman Bark's book with direct permission from the author - I thought it was so cool that he emailed me back and was gracious about it. This book has been sitting on my nightstand for months. I pick it up in between other books, read a page or two, let it sink and then go back to it a few nights later .... it's been slow.
The translation is great but the content is very hard to put into context.... it's like reading about another person's dreams.... they make very little sense except a few moments in time when something clarifying and brilliant happens. That's how I feel about this book. I enter a convoluted dream of someone else and emerge with maybe a few words of wisdom. I attribute it mainly to my own lack of appreciation and understanding of Rumi and wish I could grasp it even more but I will keep reading it. Among all Rumi books, I do believe this is one of the best ones from all the reviews but you be the judge.
Here's one of my most favorites quotes by Barks from his translations: "What you seek is seeking you." Beautiful!
I love that when I contacted Mr. Barks to get his permission to use some of his quotations on my own Rumi book (on Amazon), he gave me full support in a personal email.
In September of 2012, I created a photographic gallery of Rumi quotations and used a few of the quotes from Coleman Bark's book with direct permission from the author - I thought it was so cool that he emailed me back and was gracious about it. This book has been sitting on my nightstand for months. I pick it up in between other books, read a page or two, let it sink and then go back to it a few nights later .... it's been slow.
The translation is great but the content is very hard to put into context.... it's like reading about another person's dreams.... they make very little sense except a few moments in time when something clarifying and brilliant happens. That's how I feel about this book. I enter a convoluted dream of someone else and emerge with maybe a few words of wisdom. I attribute it mainly to my own lack of appreciation and understanding of Rumi and wish I could grasp it even more but I will keep reading it. Among all Rumi books, I do believe this is one of the best ones from all the reviews but you be the judge.
Here's one of my most favorites quotes by Barks from his translations: "What you seek is seeking you." Beautiful!
I love that when I contacted Mr. Barks to get his permission to use some of his quotations on my own Rumi book (on Amazon), he gave me full support in a personal email.
challenging
emotional
reflective
slow-paced
Loved the content--Rumi's poetry, as always, is beautiful, and the essays here had some insightful moments in describing Rumi's work. It was the formatting of this edition of the ebook that was an issue--poor design and it's as though no one reviewed the quality of it.
I think I read this book, or another Rumi poetry book decades ago. It took me several months to get through, I would read several poems a day or longer if I was in the mood. I think this was a good approach and enjoyable. I’ve bern enjoying this approach with several different genres.
Literature continues to amaze me. That it is possible for myself to connect with the works of a 13th century poet is an astonishing characteristic of the transcendent power of language. I enjoyed Rumi's poetry more than I thought I would. It was both lyrical and soul-searching. His words reflect the essence of spirituality without forcing religion on the reader. It was heartening to be able to connect to these poems and to realise their beauty. This is also a wonderful collection that I hope to return to in the future.
Here's one of my favourite extracts:
Here's one of my favourite extracts:
Humankind is being led along an evolving course,
through this migration of intelligences,
and though we seem to be sleeping,
there is an inner wakefulness
that directs the dream,
and that will eventually startle us back
to the truth of who we are.
Not the best translation. Halfway through I was made aware of a better one and wish I had that one instead.