2022/04/26

6 Best Rumi Books, Best Rumi Poems | magicpin Blog | magicpin blog

6 Best Rumi Books, Best Rumi Poems | magicpin Blog | magicpin blog

6 Rumi Books Every Book Lover Should Read
By Trishi Dhingra
Updated - Sept. 30, 20214 min read


A 13th-century Sufi mystic, Islamic scholar, and poet, Jalal al-Din Muhammad Rumi, was a free spirit whose unique personality and influence transcend time, social class, background and religion. He not only refused to follow outdated dogmatic thinking and cultural taboos, he also disapproved of the slave mentality.



It's 800 years later and we still find solace in Rumi's message of courage and spirituality. His writings have been translated into many languages and have sold millions of copies around the world. Needless to say, he is more popular now than ever. In fact, a 2014 BBC article named him the best-selling poet in the United States.



But if you're just starting with Rumi, here's a list of the 6 best Rumi books you can read and buy online.


1. The Book of Rumi: 105 Stories & Fables

Interpreted by Maryam Mafi, this Rumi book is full of distinctive and timeless Sufi lessons that are still relevant in the 21st century. It's a translation of 105 short teaching stories by Rumi, which form the core of the six-volume Masnavi and explores the hidden spiritual aspects of his everyday experiences. To the reader's benefit, the book flawlessly captures the playful and authoritative style of Rumi's writing along with the sense of suspense and drama that mark the essence of the Masnavi.



Buy from Amazon for ₹253




Also read: 10 Ruski Bon Bestsellers Everyone Should Read


2. Love is a Stranger

"Love is a stranger and speaks a strange language", wrote Rumi in his classic text about the love that observes separation and longing, intoxication and bliss, union and transcendence in the most magical way possible. This Rumi book not only speaks volumes about true love and its mystical nature, it also paints a picture of extremities that follow.



Buy from Flipkart for ₹532



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3. The Soul of Rumi

Exploring silence, emptiness, play, God, peace, grief, sexuality, and music, here are some Rumi lessons from Coleman Barks' point of view. This Rumi book mainly focuses on the ecstatic experience of human and divine love, and their inseparability, as conveyed by Rumi 800 years ago. What's remarkable is, the author manages to capture the signature passion, daring, and insights into the human heart and the heart's longings as Rumi did.



Buy from Flipkart for ₹525




Also read: 10 Amazing Books By Salman Rushdie That Are All About Puns & Magic Realism


4. The Illuminated Rumi

The Illuminated Rumi is a revolutionary collaboration that interweaves Coleman Barks' wise and witty commentary, together with Michael Green's new and visually stunning compilation of typography, original art, old masters, photographs, and prints with sacred images from around the world. It's a magnificent meeting of ancient tradition and modern interpretation that uniquely captures the spiritual wealth of Rumi's teachings.



Buy from Flipkart for ₹2,731





5. Rumi: Bridge to the Soul

Let Rumi's poetry and his unlikely, supremely passionate ambassador, Coleman Barks carry you to the place that unites conscious knowing with a deeper, more soulful understanding. It's a beautiful edition that elucidates how Rumi himself is a "soul bridge" that crosses cultures and religions by bringing us all together through the medium of his words.



Buy from Amazon for ₹465




6. The Essential Rumi

Brimming with Rumi's ecstatic poetic essence, this book by Coleman Barks and John Moyne is a collection of 81 never-been-published-before Rumi poems that will bring light back to your life. Read this on the days when you feel alone and lost.



Buy from Amazon for ₹299



saïd rated it did not like it
Recommends it for: white people who accidentally get tattoos of the recipe for general tso's
Shelves: traduction_talk, shitlist, 2_nonfiction, poésie, urduniy_w_al_asdiqeh

Coleman Barks did not speak or read Persian when he decided to "translate" Rumi. Others have compared this to translating Shakespeare while not knowing English, Dostoyevsky while not knowing Russian, or Hugo while not knowing French; I agree with all of the above. His "translations" are really more like paraphrases or interpretations if not flat-out guesses based on previous English translations of Rumi (incl. Moyne, Nicholson, etc.). Barks also skipped entire lines, combined others, and blended multiple poems into one "translation."

Majid Naficy wrote that:
The essential problem of Coleman Barks lies in the fact that in his version he intentionally changes Rumi.
As an example, here is a poem "translated" by Barks:
Out beyond ideas
of wrongdoing and rightdoing,
there is a field.
I'll meet you there.
A more literal translation of the poem (c/o Persian Poetics) would be:
Beyond kufr and Islam there is a desert plain,
in that middle space our passions reign.
When the gnostic arrives there he'll prostrate himself,
not kufr, not Islam, nor is there any space in that domain.
This is insulting. It borders on outright Orientalism and Anglocentric cultural supremacy. Translation is not only an art but also a science, and highly political. The job of a translator is to present the work as it was in the original language, as close as is possible to the original text while being comprehensible to the audience in the target language; it's up to that audience to interpret and judge as desired. Although it is true that all translation will inherently alter the original text to some extent, as is the nature of translation itself, there are degrees of accuracy to translation, just as there are to any type of scholarly interpretation. If the translator (or "translator") does not even try to preserve an author's work in such a way that it would be recognisable as the same text, the translator has failed. What Barks has done is not the same as translating Rumi's poetry. Interpretation is not translation. This is not a translation of Rumi. You cannot have the "essential" Rumi without the religion.

Rozina Ali wrote that:
[...] the Rumi that people love is very beautiful in English, and the price you pay is to cut the culture and religion.
Removing the Islam from Rumi is akin to removing the Judaism from Leonard Cohen. It's not merely inaccurate but also incredibly offensive. Barks has no scholarly background in Islam, Sufism, Persian history, or anything at all besides a degree in literature. He was given an honourary degree from Tehran University, but that's it. All the "work" he's done "bringing" Rumi to the Western world is for naught when it's not actually Rumi he's brought.

Two English versions of Rumi that are actual translations from the original language are 
Rumi: Hidden Music (trans. Maryam Mafi) and 
Words of Paradise: Selected Poems (trans. Raficq Abdulla). Both of these would be more accurate than Barks's whitewashed attempt, although that bar is low. (less)
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Masnavi - Wikipedia

Masnavi - Wikipedia

Masnavi

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This article is about the Sufi poem by Rumi. For the type of poem, see Masnavi (poetic form).
Masnavi, a calligraphic specimen from 1490, Mevlana Museum, Konya, Turkey.

The Masnavi, or Masnavi-ye-Ma'navi (Persian: مثنوی معنوی), also written Mathnawi, or Mathnavi, is an extensive poem written in Persian by Jalal al-Din Muhammad Balkhi, also known as Rumi. The Masnavi is one of the most influential works of Sufism, commonly called "the Quran in Persian".[1] It has been viewed by many commentators as the greatest mystical poem in world literature.[2] The Masnavi is a series of six books of poetry that together amount to around 25,000 verses or 50,000 lines.[3][4] It is a spiritual text that teaches Sufis how to reach their goal of being truly in love with God.[5]

General description[edit]

A Persian miniature depicting Jalal al-Din Rumi showing love for his disciple Hussam al-Din Chelebi (c. 1594)

The title Masnavi-ye-Ma'navi (Persian: مثنوی معنوی) means "The Spiritual Couplets". The Masnavi is a poetic collection of anecdotes and stories derived from the Quran, hadith[6] sources, and everyday tales. Stories are told to illustrate a point and each moral is discussed in detail. It incorporates a variety of Islamic wisdom but primarily focuses on emphasizing inward personal Sufi interpretation. In contrast to Rumi's Diwan, the Masnavi is a relatively "sober" text. It explains the various dimensions of spiritual life and practice to Sufi disciples and anyone who wishes to ponder the meaning of life.[7]

Creation[edit]

The Masnavi was started by the Rumi during the final years of his life. He began dictating the first book around the age of 54 around the year 1258 and continued composing verses until his death in 1273. The sixth and final book would remain incomplete.[8]

It is documented that Rumi began dictating the verses of the Masnavi at the request of his favourite disciple, Husam al-Din Chalabi, who observed that many of Rumi's followers dutifully read the works of Sana'i and 'Attar. Thus, Rumi began creating a work in the didactic style of Sana'i and 'Attar to complement his other poetry. These men are said to have met regularly in meetings where Rumi would deliver the verses and Chalabi would write them down and recite them back to him.[9]

Each book consists of about 4,000 verses and contains its own prose introduction and prologue. The inconclusive ending of the sixth volume has given rise to suggestions that the work was not complete at the time of Rumi's death and claims about existence of another volume.[10]

Themes and narrative devices[edit]

Manuscript of the Masnavi from 15th century Iran, Khalili Collection of Islamic Art

The six books of the Masnavi can be divided into three groups of two because each pair is linked by a common theme:[11]

  • Books 1 and 2: They "are principally concerned with the nafs, the lower carnal self, and its self-deception and evil tendencies."
  • Books 3 and 4: These books share the principal themes of Reason and Knowledge. These two themes are personified by Rumi in the Biblical and Quranic figure of the Prophet Moses.
  • Books 5 and 6: These last two books are joined by the universal ideal that man must deny his physical earthly existence to understand God's existence.

In addition to the recurring themes presented in each book, Rumi includes multiple points of view or voices inviting the reader to fall into "imaginative enchantment." There are seven principal voices that Rumi uses in his writing:[12]

  1. The Authorial Voice – Conveys the authority of a Sufi teacher and generally appears in verses addressed to You, God, or you, of all humankind.
  2. The Story-telling Voice – May be interrupted by side stories that help clarify a statement, sometime taking hundreds of lines to make a point.
  3. The Analogical Voice – Interruptions to the flow of narration in order to explain a statement by use of analogy.
  4. The Voice of Speech and Dialogue of Characters – Many of the stories are told through dialogue between characters.
  5. The Moral Reflection – Supported by quotations from the Quran and hadith
  6. The Spiritual Discourse – Similar to analogical and model reflections.
  7. Hiatus – Rumi occasionally questions his own verses and writes that he cannot say more because the reader would not be capable of understanding.

The Masnavi has no framed plot and includes a variety of scenes, from popular stories and scenes of the local bazaar to fables and tales from Rumi's time. It also includes quotations from the Qur'an and from hadith, accounts from the time of Mohammed.

Although there is no constant frame, style, or plot, Rumi generally follows a certain writing pattern that flows in the following order:[13]

     Problem/Theme → Complication → Resolution

English versions[edit]

Direct translations from Persian[edit]

  • Mathnawi Rumi, translation with commentary by M. G. Gupta with Rajeev, in six volumes Hardbound edition, M.G. Publishers, Agra, Paperback edition, Huma Books, 34 Hirabagh Colony, Agra 282005, India. Source material is the Farsi Dari text circulated by the Department of Culture, Government of India, New Delhi.
  • The Mesnevi of Mevlānā Jelālu'd-dīn er-Rūmī. Book first, together with some account of the life and acts of the Author, of his ancestors, and of his descendants, illustrated by a selection of characteristic anedocts, as collected by their historian, Mevlānā Shemsu'd-dīn Ahmed el-Eflākī el-'Arifī, translated and the poetry versified by James W. Redhouse, London: 1881. Contains the translation of the first book only.
  • Masnaví-i Ma'naví, the Spiritual Couplets of Mauláná Jalálu'd-din Muhammad balkhi, translated and abridged by E. H. Whinfield, London: 1887; 1989. Abridged version from the complete poem. On-line editions at Sacred Texts and on wikisource.
  • The Masnavī by Jalālu'd-din balkhi or Rūmī. Book II, translated for the first time from the Persian into prose, with a Commentary, by C.E. Wilson, London: 1910.
  • The Mathnawí of Jalálu'ddín balkhi, edited from the oldest manuscripts available, with critical notes, translation and commentary by Reynold A. Nicholson, in 8 volumes, London: Messrs Luzac & Co., 1925–1940. Contains the text in Persian. First complete English translation of the Mathnawí.
  • The Masnavi: Book One, translated by Jawid Mojaddedi, Oxford World's Classics Series, Oxford University Press, 2004. ISBN 0-19-280438-3. Translated for the first time from the Persian edition prepared by Mohammad Estelami, with an introduction and explanatory notes. Awarded the 2004 Lois Roth Prize for excellence in translation of Persian literature by the American Institute of Iranian Studies.
  • balkhi, Spiritual Verses, The First Book of the Masnavi-ye Ma'navi, newly translated from the latest Persian edition of M. Este'lami, with an Introduction on a reader's approach to balkhi's writing, and with explanatory Notes, by Alan Williams, London and New York, Penguin Classics, Penguin, xxxv + 422 pp. 2006 ISBN 0-14-044791-1.
  • The Masnavi: Book Two, translated by Jawid Mojaddedi, Oxford World's Classics Series, Oxford University Press, 2007. ISBN 978-0-19-921259-0. The first ever verse translation of the unabridged text of Book Two, with an introduction and explanatory notes.
  • The Masnavi: Book Three, translated by Jawid Mojaddedi, Oxford World's Classics Series, Oxford University Press, 2013. ISBN 978-0-19-965203-7. The first ever verse translation of the unabridged text of Book Three, with an introduction and explanatory notes.
  • The Masnavi: Book Four, translated by Jawid Mojaddedi, Oxford World's Classics Series, Oxford University Press, 2017. ISBN 978-0198783435.

Paraphrases of English translations[edit]

Urdu and Persian interpretations[edit]

  • One of the famous preachers of Masnavi was Pir Alauddin Siddiqui who belonged to Nerian Sharif Azad Kashmir . His teachings are still heard today and recently his teachings have been given a book form.
  • keys of masnavi * (kelid masnavi), volume 1 and 2, Ashrafali Thanvi, interpreter: Samira Gilani, Asra Institute and Rashedin publication, Tehran: 2018.

See also[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^ Jawid Mojaddedi (2004). "Introduction". Rumi, Jalal al-Din. The Masnavi, Book One. Oxford University Press (Kindle Edition). p. xix.
  2. ^ Jawid Mojaddedi (2004). "Introduction". Rumi, Jalal al-Din. The Masnavi, Book One. Oxford University Press (Kindle Edition). pp. xii–xiii. Towards the end of his life he presented the fruit of his experience of Sufism in the form of the Masnavi, which has been judged by many commentators, both within the Sufi tradition and outside it, to be the greatest mystical poem ever written.
  3. ^ Allamah Mohamad Taghi Jafari, Tafsir Masnavi
  4. ^ Karim Zamani, Tafsir Masnavi Ma'navi
  5. ^ Jalāl, Al-Dīn Rūmī, and Alan Williams. Spiritual Verses: the Book of the Masnavi-ye Manavi. London: Penguin, 2006. Print
  6. ^ Badiozzaman Forouzanfar has published a compilation of the hadith quoted in the Masnavi, under the title Ahadith-i Mathnawi (full title: Aḥadíth va qiṣaṣ-i-Mathnaví: talfiqí az dú kitáb ‘Aḥadíth-i- Mathnaví' va 'Má'khidh-i- qiṣaṣ va tamthílát-i- Mathnaví; 1955).
  7. ^ Jalāl, Al-Dīn Rūmī, and William C. Chittick. The Sufi Path of Love: the Spiritual Teachings of Rumi. Albany: State University of New York, 1983. Print.Pg 6)
  8. ^ (Franklin Lewis, "Rumi, Past and Present, East and West: The Life, Teachings and Poetry of Jalâl al-Din Rumi," Oneworld Publications, England, 2000.)
  9. ^ Jalāl, Al-Dīn Rūmī, and William C. Chittick. The Sufi Path of Love: the Spiritual Teachings of Rumi. Albany: State University of New York, 1983. Print. Pgs 5-6
  10. ^ Jawid Mojaddedi (2004). "Introduction". Rumi, Jalal al-Din. The Masnavi, Book One. Oxford University Press (Kindle Edition). pp. xxi–xxii.
  11. ^ Jalāl, Al-Dīn Rūmī, and Alan Williams. Spiritual Verses: the First Book of the Masnavi-ye Manavi. London: Penguin, 2006. Print. Pgs xx-xxvi
  12. ^ Collected Poetical Works of Rumi. Delphi Classics. 2015. p. 15.
  13. ^ Jalāl, Al-Dīn Rūmī, and Alan Williams. Spiritual Verses: the First Book of the Masnavi-ye Manavi. London: Penguin, 2006. Print. Pgs xvii-xix

Further reading[edit]

External links[edit]

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