A review by shayduhs
The Essential Rumi by Rumi

3.0

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.