A Year with Rumi: Daily Reflections with the Timeless Poetry of Rumi, Featuring 15 Previously Unpublished Poems for Deepening Connection and Inner Journey

First, I can't seem to keep my copy of Rumi. I have given away three copies so far because my friends have been so moved by the work when I recite it or read it to them. Amazon prices are half of what my church's bookstore sells it for. This, of course, is a translation of Rumi's writings from the original Persian. To accomplish this requires one who is fluent in both languages and who is himself a poet. Mr. Barks does this brilliantly. The beauty of the poems takes my breath away. Some of the lines contain thoughts (yes a line frequently contains several thoughts) that I spend days or weeks pondering. Those who are looking for love will find perfect expressions of your stage of life. You who are in love will find perfect expressions to share with your partner. You who are seeking to understand the Divine will find much to guide your pondering. There is something for you who are happy with life, sad at the moment, curious, feel deeply connected with the Divine or who have lost your connection. It is such a marvel that I cannot keep it.

For anyone who has an interest in Rumi or has read about him this book provides a daily reading of his poetry. Although some of it is a bit too profound for me (!) I find it wise, sometimes appropriate to my life at the moment, and somewhat like opening any page in any book and pointing. See what you find and follow the message. Of course this is very subjective. Having read The Forty Rules of Love by Elif Shafak, I was prepared for the kind of prophetic messages that this book presents on a daily basis. I also would like to mention that Amazon gave me plenty of options on where to purchase this book which arrived very quickly and in perfect condition.

This is … so many things: Beautiful, profoundly moving, radiant, transcendent. I also found it heartbreaking at times while somehow, often consoling in the same breath. I actually started reading this in 2019, but missed so many days that I started it over in 2020. And a more propitious time for me to have chosen to read this I can't even imagine, for so many reasons. This book has been one of the things that has helped sustain me in a very difficult year. I plan to read it all over again in 2021, and possibly beyond. Since I'm posting this on Dec. 31, and because I can never think of a better way to recommend or to express the essence of a written work than to share some of it, here is an excerpt from the book. Fittingly, these are the December 30 and December 31 readings. I am particularly partial to the first line (which puts me so much in mind of Leonard Cohen's song "Love Itself" - one of my most beloved songs of all time, and if you don't know it: Go find and listen to it!), and also to the final half of the poem: "Say Who I Am (1) I am dust particles in sunlight I am the round sun. To the bits of dust I say, Stay. To the sun, Keep moving I am the morning mist, and the breathing of evening. I am wind in the top of a grove, and surf on the cliff. Mast, rudder, helmsman, and keel, I am also the coral reef they founder on. I am a tree with a trained parrot in it's branches. Silence, thought, and voice." "Say Who I Am (2) The musical air coming through a flute, a spark off a stone, a flickering in metal. Both candle, and the moth crazy around it. Rose, and the nightingale lost in fragrance. I am all orders of being, the circling galaxy, the evolutionary intelligence, the lift and the falling away. What is and what isn't. You who know Jelaluddin, you the one in all, say you I am. Say I am you." Obviously, I highly, highly recommend <3

Well, this book is humbling. I've always loved poetry and philosophy; this is both. But I find I'm missing either the depth or the patience to do this justice. There is much beauty here for those who have the free time for deep ruminating. Unfortunately, I need something a little more accessible right now. I'll put this away for later.

Coleman Barks is a poet, and his treatments of Rumi bring that poetry into a contemporary context. Like everything that is not pure science, these things are, of course, matters of taste. I am not a Farsi scholar or speaker, but as I understand it - and this is fairly often discussed/hotly debated - the complexities of Sufi poetry in the original languages make it pretty much untranslatable. Here is part of Robet Bly's excellent review of Barks' work, he expresses it so well: "Rumi has, to the recent amazement of many people in the Western culture as well as the Islamic culture, been able to speak directly to contemporary readers. One of the greatest pieces of good luck that has happened recently in American poetry is Coleman Barks's agreement to translate poem after poem of Rumi. Rumi, like Kabir, is able to contain and continue intricate theological arguments and at the same time speak directly from the heart or to the heart. Coleman's exquisite sensitivity to the flavor and turns of ordinary American speech has produced marvelous lines, full of flavor and Sufi humor, as well as the intimacy that is carried inside American speech at its best." --Robert Bly If the Barks translations speak to you, you'll likely love having a daily meditation book, which this is.

One of the best books I have ever read. Although I read it in the original language, Persian, this translation is good too. This book is a collection of best sonnet written by rumi. The quality of the book was fine. The only complaint I have is about the packaging. I bought two books that were stuck together, and when I separated them, the cover of the book got torn.

I am looking forward to delving into this like new book. There are many insites to be gained.

Exquiste book, beautifully collated, divine writings

Good book

The content is interesting and written very well done!

I love that they’re dated. I read one each morning to start my day.

Great price