A review by bogmyrtle
The Essential Rumi by Rumi

2.5

i (once) loved this book. carried it around like a holy text for a time. fell away from it when it came to my attention that coleman barks doesn't know Persian and much of the work in his (and daniel landinsky's) translations are fake and hold little if any connection to the original works of Rumi and Hafez. The whole thing felt like a huge betrayal. I'd love to read the work of Rumi and Hafez in more faithful translation. In the meantime, I still hold a complicated fondness for this book, what it meant to me for a time, and some of the beautiful poems it holds... I just don't kid myself about their authorship, and I wouldn't buy this book again (nor any other book of barks' or landinsky's translations) because I don't want to further support these people. No more white americans' "translations" of Persian poetry, thanks!! 
Expand filter menu Content Warnings