The Essential Rumi, New Expanded Edition by Jalal al-Din Rumi Summary and Reviews
|
List Price: Our Price: $9.08 You Save: $6.91 (43%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Buy Used: from $3.86 (click here) Category: Book See more book details and other editions |
|---|
Book Reviews of The Essential Rumi, New Expanded Edition
Book Review: Essential is Right
Summary: 4 Stars
Barks does an excellent job with the translation, bring the beauty of Rumi's original poems into English for us. Many times I've been too stunned with the glory of it all to continue reading.
Although much of the translation is wonderful, a lot of it is not as great. I don't know who was having the off days - Barks or Rumi, but someone messed up what could have been a masterpiece. That's the only reason this work doesn't deserve 5 stars. Other than that, it is great.
Book Review: Essential part of the dilettante's library
Summary: 5 Stars
"Out beyond ideas of rightdoing and wrongdoing,There is a field.
I will meet you there."
I have bought no fewer than ten copies of this book, for friends and family. I was lucky to find them remainder at the local book megamart, but I would gladly pay full price.
This book made Rumi my favorite poet. Rumi is habit forming, but this is by far the most accessible place to start.
Book Review: Excellent..... read why.....
Summary: 5 Stars
This book is an excellent translation of Rumi. However, it is NOT, nor can it ever be a perfect reflection of the original text. It is quite impossible to capture all the internal rhyming, layers of esoteric meaning and connotations of the original language no matter who the translator is. I believe EVERY scholar agrees on that point.
With the above said, Coleman Barks is faithful to the spirt of Rumi and of Sufism. It is obvious this is a lifelong passion and he is a Sufi himself having been directed to do this work by a recognized teacher in a Sufi order. While some argue that you can only be a Sufi within the context of Islam, equal numbers of scholars many from the Middle East argue that you can be a Sufi outside of this context and some argue that Sufism pre-dates Islam.
Whatever school of thought you espouse, it is clear that the important communication that speaks across the ages through Rumi's words is love for God in the moment and a longing to realize it fully. While Coleman Barks may have studied English translations of Rumi's work to compile his own, it is clear to me that he was guided by his heart, learned advisors and good scholarship. If this were not so, I doubt that Robert Bly, Huston Smith (world authority on comparative religion) and others would appear on the video Rumi: Poet Of The Heart which is about Rumi and the Coleman Barks translations of his poetry.
If you only speak English, I agree that you miss a lot by not having access to the original language. However, a concept accepted by all of Sufism is that everyone has a piece of the truth and a unique perspective. In the case of Coleman Barks, this is certainly an educated perspective that is complimented by many other translators. If you are serious about Rumi, then I recommend getting other translations and finding the ones that most move your heart which I'm sure would make Rumi very happy indeed.
Some may find Coleman Barks accent a bit irritating. However, it is also a good reminder that the most important thing is the message and the intention behind it. While analysis of literal poetry is very useful, this volume tries to strike a balance between literal translation and relevance to a modern context. I've read some other translations and used Coleman Barks translations in a class on Sufism given by a 30+ year Sufi with a Ph.D. in Religious Studies from Harvard. If he finds these translations useful to present to a class, I can't imagine that Coleman Barks can be too far off the mark.
Book Review: Good but not Magnificent
Summary: 4 Stars
Coleman Barks "Essential Rumi" deserves praise - but as to whether it is truly "essential" is of question. Barks does a good job translating the already translated work. But by changing the language, much of the mysticism Rumi was trying to evoke on the reader is lost. For example here is a Rumi poem in both Farsi(or Persian -English word for Farsi) and English - Jumla ma'shuq ast-o 'aashiq pardah' i
Zenda ma'shuq ast-o 'aashiq mordah'i
All is the Beloved and the lover is a veil
The Beloved is alive and the lover is dead
If you read the Farsi (even if it doesn't make sense to you) you can tell that the words not only rhyme but they have a distinct rhythm to them, aside from that, the vocabulary Rumi uses is ingenious.
Like another review I read, Barks is "translating translations", Barks mereley takes work already translated and retranslates them into a more readable structure.
The 6 books of the Mathnavi were put in a special order but Barks just chooses from here and there. Barks was even told by Bawa Muhayadeen (sufi saint) that "In order to understand a master, he would have to become one" Which he explains he didn't do, but he said that he frequently did meet with Bawa.
Nevertheless Coleman Barks does deserve much credit for bringing Rumi into Western culture.
Jalaludin Rumi was an ecstatic lover of Allah (SWT). His Mathnavi is considered by many the greatest book ever written by a human being. It would be to everyones benefit to read through it and see how a 13th Century Mystic, from Afghanistan but lived most of his life Konya, Turkey, had everything and everyone in this world figured out.
For a better idea of Rumi read E.H. Whinfield's TEACHINGS OF RUMI.
Book Review: Gorgeous poetry, though I don't quite get the philosophy.
Summary: 4 Stars
This collection is loosely arranged into categories like "Bewilderment" and "Union," and it often deals with themes of spiritual longing, and the experience of Exstasis, being outside the self (or wanting to be).
Occasionally, the fascination with achieving the great Union with God seems to imply that nothing in this world matters. I can't fully appreciate all the inaction that seems to attend these mystical trances and spiritual transcendences, like in "The Sheikh Who Played With Children," where Rumi says "Let the lover be disgraceful, crazy,/ absentminded. Someone sober/ will worry about things going badly./ Let the lover be." I'm not so sure that lovers of God, lovers of people, or lovers of words can just count on the sober-minded to take care of the world while we commune with our souls, our beloved, or our poetry. But this inaction isn't a completely accurate view of his philosophy, because in other poems, he cautions against becoming stagnant, and notes that we are supposed to reach out to others: "God is pleased when your love realizes/ it is part of something oceanic/ and begins to move with the whole." ("Ocean Love" 1-3)
These verses maintain a fluidity by having scene changes within the poems, where suddenly we're somewhere else, occupying another metaphor, watching a miniature story unfold, or listening to a proverb. Rumi's work is mostly depicting some sort of spiritual reality rather than describing physical reality, so there's not a lot of resolution in the poems. Many poems seem to end at some extended stopping point, a few lines or stanzas after an American poet would end them--Rumi almost never concludes on the most dynamic line. This avoidance of a punchline endings can be beneficial to the poems and emphasize how they're all a part of an ongoing thought process.
Some of the longer story-poems have convulted or confusing morals, but they're the minority in the collection, there are plenty of poems that hint at some type of transcendent loveliness and almost beg for more contemplation. One of my favorites begins:
"Dissolver of sugar, dissolve me,
if this is the time.
Do it gently with a touch of a hand, or a look.
Every morning I wait at dawn. That's when
it's happened before. Or do it suddenly
like an execution. How else
can I get ready for death?" ("Dissolver of Sugar" 1-7).
The way Rumi's poetry works, you can take whatever lines apply to you and leave the rest (it's a good philosophy for poetry in general). I can see a lot of poems that fit in with what I hold valuable, and the ones that don't, I just set aside. There's a lot of beauty, here, and readers can use their own discernment to find the best pieces, the ones most worthy of study. As Rumi says in "Many Wines," "Every object, every being,/ is a jar full of delight./ Be a connoisseur,/ and taste with caution." (17-20)
The poetry is good, the translation is beautiful, and the worldview is thoughty and challenging. It's a treat to read if you're in a contemplative mood and ready to explore the more exotic imaginings of Persian poetry.