Rumi: Selected Poem (Penguin Classics)
by Rumi, John Moyne
List Price:
Our Price: $5.34
You Save: $6.91 (56%)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Buy Used: from $2.96 (click here)
Category: Book
See more book details and other editions
Book Summary Information
Author: John Moyne, RumiTranslator: Coleman Banks
Edition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2007-07
ISBN: 0140449531
Number of pages: 310
Publisher: Penguin Books
Book Reviews of Rumi: Selected Poem (Penguin Classics)
Book Review: American Beaknik Poetry
Summary: 3 Stars
Coleman Barks and his publishers are guilty of false marketing: this book would accurately be described as a collection of Barks' poems "very loosely inspired by Rumi", rather than a collection of Rumi's poems "translated by Barks". These are not poems by Rumi. These are nothing like poems by Rumi.
What Barks has done is to read some translations of Rumi's poems. And then, taking those English renditions as a kind of vague source-material, he's written a collection of entirely new beatnik poems, with as tenuous a connection to the source material as one would expect from such a process.
In Barks' *interpretations*, every quality of Rumi that makes Rumi the poet that Rumi is - has been lost. Not a trace of Rumi's art remains (not his rhythm, his celebrated locutions, not his imagery, not his evocational use of the past-tense - not even his religious instructions).
As for Barks' poems, they're charming, albeit in the manner of a voluble American hippie, entertaining the tourists outside Haight Ashbury. In other words, they read like a cross between Robert Bly and Walt Whitman. There's also a lot Allen Ginsberg in there. It's not difficult to see why these poems are so popular in America - they are as American as American apple-pie. Buy this if you want an original and accessible collection of American beaknik poems. I enjoyed reading them. But if you want more authentic translations of Rumi, try A.J. Arberry (although be warned that the more authentic translations are a lot less accessible).
Poetry Books
Book Subjects
- Arts & Photography
- Biographies & Memoirs
- Business & Investing
- Children's Books
- Comics & Graphic Novels
- Computers & Internet
- Cooking, Food & Wine
- Entertainment
- Gay & Lesbian
- Health, Mind & Body
- History
- Home & Garden
- Horror
- Law
- Literature & Fiction
- Mystery & Thrillers
- Nonfiction
- Outdoors & Nature
- Parenting & Families
- Professional & Technical
- Reference
- Religion & Spirituality
- Romance
- Science
- Science Fiction & Fantasy
- Sports
- Teens
- Travel
Most talked about in Poetry Books
FOUR QUARTETS.by T. S. Eliot
Faber & Faber; Published: 1944; Hardcover; Book
Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyamby Omar Khayyam
St. Martin's Press; Published: 1983-08-15; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $2.75
Price in other shops:
The Priapus Poems: EROTIC EPIGRAMS FROM ANCIENT ROMEUniversity of Illinois Press; Published: 1999-05-12; Paperback; Book
Best price: $180.00
Beowulfby Seamus Heaney
Penguin Books; Published: 2000-09-28; Audio CD; Book
Best price: $14.87
Void of Course (Poets, Penguin)by Jim Carroll
Penguin (Non-Classics); Published: 1998-10-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $2.94
Price in other shops:
Speaking of Siva (Penguin Classics)by Anonymous
Penguin Classics; Published: 1973-08-30; Paperback; Book
Best price: $4.67
Price in other shops:
A Night Without Armor : Poemsby Jewel
It Books; Published: 1999-08-03; Paperback; Book
Best price: $1.00
Price in other shops:
Given Sugar, Given Salt: Poemsby Jane Hirshfield
Harper Perennial; Published: 2002-04; Paperback; Book
Best price: $4.46
Price in other shops:
Letters Home: Correspondence 1950-1963by Sylvia Plath
Harper Perennial; Published: 1992-04-08; Paperback; Book
Best price: $12.53
Price in other shops:
Yeats Folklore and Occultismby Frank Kinahan
Unwin Hyman; Published: 1988-10; Hardcover; Book
Price in other shops:
Similar books summaries and other product reviews
A Year with Hafiz: Daily Contemplationsby Hafiz
Penguin (Non-Classics); Published: 2011-11-02; Paperback; Book
Best price: $10.22
Price in other shops:
Rumi: The Big Red Book: The Great Masterpiece Celebrating Mystical Love and Friendshipby Coleman Barks
HarperOne; Published: 2011-12-05; Paperback; Book
Best price: $10.21
Price in other shops:
Kabir: Ecstatic Poemsby Kabir
Beacon Press; Published: 2007-04-15; Paperback; Book
Best price: $6.70
Price in other shops:
The Subject Tonight Is Love: 60 Wild and Sweet Poems of Hafiz (Compass)by Hafiz
Penguin (Non-Classics); Published: 2003-01-28; Paperback; Book
Best price: $7.82
Price in other shops:
The Soul of Rumi: A New Collection of Ecstatic Poemsby Coleman Barks
HarperOne; Published: 2002-09-17; Paperback; Book
Best price: $10.00
Price in other shops:
I Heard God Laughing: Poems of Hope and Joyby Hafiz
Penguin (Non-Classics); Published: 2006-09-26; Paperback; Book
Best price: $8.49
Price in other shops:
The Giftby Hafiz
Penguin Compass; Published: 1999-08-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $10.20
Price in other shops:
The Illuminated Rumiby Jalal Al-Din Rumi
Broadway Books; Published: 1997-10-13; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $18.35
Price in other shops:
A Year with Rumi: Daily Readingsby Coleman Barks
HarperOne; Published: 2006-10-31; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $13.05
Price in other shops:
Rumi: The Book of Love: Poems of Ecstasy and Longingby Coleman Barks
HarperOne; Published: 2003-01; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $14.07
Price in other shops: