Product Description

Selection of the lyrical poetry of Jalaluddin Rumi.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #3189392 in Books
• Published on: 1995-01-17
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 367 pages

Language Notes
Text: English, Persian (translation)

About the Author
JALALUDDIN RUMI was born in 1207 in Balkh and died in 1273 in Konya. The greatest mystic poet of Iran and Islam, seven centuries later, has become the most popular poet in America.

REYNOLD ALLEYNE NICHOLSON (1868-1945) is considered one of the authorities on Rumi. His edition of the Masnavi-ye Manavi is a standard. He wrote more than a dozen works on Rumi and Sufism. A.J. Arberry describes him as "the perfect scholar, so devoted to his books that he blinded himself by reading, so modest and humble that he was totally unaware of his greatness." In Selected Poems from the Divan Shams Tabrizi, Nicholson has selected his favorites from RumiÂ’s love poems.

Customer Reviews

Brilliant, eloquent translation of Rumi's mystical poems
Rumi's poetry, as brought to us by the brilliant and moving translations of Nicholson, represents one of the highest forms of mystical romantic outpourings. Like Fitzgerald/Khayyam, one is judging the poetic expression of Rumi through the translation of Nicholson. The end result is one of the most remarkable collection of poems, full of emotional impact, weighty with philosophical import. This book is not easy to find, so is a must-have for anyone interested in this subject.

A welcome reprint of an excellent work
IBEX has done the reading public a great service by reprinting this 1898 edition of a bilingual collection of Rumi's poems. The table of contents shows the wealth of material covered by this compact volume:

Preface
Introduction (includes biography of Rumi, Persian poetry, Sufism)
Addenda and Corrigenda
Selected Poems
Notes (over 100 pages)
Additional notes
Appendices
--I. Illustrative passages from the Divan with a list of the historical and autobiographical allusions
--II. Translations in verse
--III. Table showing where the Selected Poems occur in other editions of the Divan
--IV. Comparative table of passages quoted from the Masnavi
Indices
--I. Persian and Arabic
--II. English

The format with English translation facing Persian text is very helpful. The Persian text is partially vocalized, to a degree well suited to those who have an intermediate, but not advanced, knowledge of the language. Among other things, ezafes are shown, along with the vocalization of otherwise ambiguous forms such as "bovad" (a poetic form of 'to be') which has the same consonants as the much more common "bud" (simple past tense of 'to be'). Each poem begins with the name of the meter in Persian followed by a schematic representation of the meter using macrons and breves.

If you want to introduce yourself to some of the finest of Persian poetry in its original language, this is an excellent book to use.

Outstanding translation of a Master's work by a master
Though Nicholson's translations of Rumi's works are not as well known today as other translators' (some of whom can't be called translators as they don't even know Persian), Nicholson's translations are among the highest (the highest?) fidelity translations of Rumi we have. He knew Rumi's works (having translated the entire Masnawi), the philosophy and had mastery of the necessary languages and thus this annotated translation is a gem. Read the footnotes for an indepth understanding of these translations of select poems from Rumi's magnificent Divan of Shams Tabriz.