The Essential Rumi, New Expanded Edition

Description:

About this item:

This revised and expanded edition of The Essential Rumi includes a new introduction by Coleman Barks and more than 80 never-before-published poems of Rumi.

Through his lyrical translations, Coleman Barks has been instrumental in bringing this exquisite literature to a remarkably wide range of readers, making the ecstatic, spiritual poetry of thirteenth-century Sufi Mystic Rumi more popular than ever. The Essential Rumi continues to be the bestselling of all Rumi books, and the definitive selection of his beautiful, mystical poetry.

Review

"If Rumi is the most-read poet in America today, ColemanBarks is in good part responsible. His ear for the truly divinemadness in Rumi's poetry is truly remarkable." -- Huston Smith, author of "The World's Religions""In this.delightful treasury, Barks sparklingly demonstratesonce again why his free-form interpretations of [Rumi's] poetryhave been a major impetus for the current Rumi vogue."-- "Publishers Weekly""Perhaps the world's greatest spiritual poet--the gold of Rumipours down through Coleman's words. The words leap off thepage and dance!" -- Jack Kornfield, author of "A Path with Heart"""The Essential Rumi" is a rare and precious book that will stir the hearts of Rumi devotees and win many new converts."-- "Body Mind Spirit"

From the Back Cover

The best-selling Rumi book ever is now better than ever! This revised and expanded edition of the comprehensive one-volume edition of America′s most popular poet includes a new introduction by Coleman Barks, and 57 new poems never published before.

The ecstatic, spiritual poetry of Rumi is more popular than ever, and The Essential Rumi continues to be far and away the top-selling title of all Rumi books. With the addition of many new poems and a new introduction, The Essential Rumi is now clearly the definitive, and most delightful selection of Rumi′s poetry.

About the Author

Coleman Barks is a renowned poet and the bestselling author of The Essential Rumi, Rumi: The Big Red Book, The Soul of Rumi, Rumi: The Book of Love, and The Drowned Book. He was prominently featured in both of Bill Moyers' PBS television series on poetry, The Language of Life and Fooling with Words. He taught English and poetry at the University of Georgia for thirty years, and he now focuses on writing, readings, and performances.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

The Tavern:

Whoever Brought Me Here Will Have to Take Me Home

On the Tavern

In the tavern are many wines-the wine of delight in color and form and taste, the wine of the intellect's agility, the fine port of stories, and the cabernet of soul singing. Being human means entering this place where entrancing varieties of desire are served. The grapeskin of ego breaks and a pouring begins. Fermentation is one of the oldest symbols for human transformation. When grapes combine their juice and are closed up together for a time in a dark place, the results are spectacular. This is what lets two drunks meet so that they don't know who is who. Pronouns no longer apply in the tavern's mud-world of excited confusion and half-articulated wantings.

But after some time in the tavern, a point comes, a memory of elsewhere, a longing for the source, and the drunks must set off from the tavern and begin the return. The Qur'an says, -We are all returning. " The tavern is a kind of glorious hell that human beings enjoy and suffer and then push off from in their search for truth. The tavern is a dangerous region where sometimes disguises are necessary, but never bide your heart, Rumi urges. Keep open there. A breaking apart, a crying out into the street, begins in the tavern, and the human soul turns to find its way home.

It's 4 a.m. Nasruddin leaves the tavern and walks the town aimlessly. A policeman stops him. "Why are you out wandering the streets in the middle of the night?" "Sir," replies Nasruddin, "if I knew the answer to that question, I would have been home hours ago!"

Who Says Words with my Mouth?

All day I think about it, then at night I say it.
Where did I come from, and what am I supposed to be doing?
I have no idea.
My soul is from elsewhere, I'm sure of that,
and I intend to end up there.

This drunkenness began in some other tavern.
When I get back around to that place,
I'll be completely sober. Meanwhile,
I'm like a bird from another continent, sitting in this aviary.
The day is coming when I fly off,
but who is it now in my ear who hears my voice?
Who says words with my mouth?

Who looks out with my eyes? What is the soul?
I cannot stop asking.
If I could taste one sip of an answer,
I could break out of this prison for drunks.
I didn't come here of my own accord, and I can't leave that way.
Whoever brought me here will have to take me home.

This poetry. I never know what I'm going to say.
I don't plan it.
When I'm outside the saying of it,
I get very quiet and rarely speak at all.

We have a huge barrel of wine, but no cups.
That's fine with us. Every morning
we glow and in the evening we glow again.

They say there's no future for us. They're right.
Which is fine with us.

A Community of the Spirit

There is a community of the spirit.
Join it, and feel the delight
of walking in the noisy street,
and being the noise.

Drink all your passion,
and be a disgrace.

Close both eyes
to see with the other eye.

Open your hands,
if you want to be held.

Sit down in this circle.
Quit acting like a wolf, and feel
the shepherd's love filling you.

At night, your beloved wanders.
Don't accept consolations.

Close your mouth against food.
Taste the lover's mouth in yours.

You moan, "She left me.""He left me."
Twenty more will come.

Be empty of worrying.
Think of who created thought!

Why do you stay in prison
when the door is so wide open?

Move outside the tangle of fear-thinking.
Live in silence.

Flow down and down in always
widening rings of being.

There's a strange frenzy in my head,
of birds flying,
each particle circulating on its own.
Is the one I love everywhere?

Drunks fear the police,
but the police are drunk too.

People in this town love them both
like different chess pieces.

A Children's Game

Listen to the poet Sanai,
who lived secluded: "Don't wander out on the road
in your ecstasy. Sleep in the tavern."

When a drunk strays out to the street,
children make fun of him.

He falls down in the mud.
He takes any and every road.

The children follow,
not knowing the taste of wine,
or how his drunkenness feels. All people on the planet
are children, except for a very few.
No one is grown up except those free of desire.

God said,
"The world is a play, a children's game,
and you are the children."

God speaks the truth.
If you haven't left the child's play,
how can you be an adult?

Without purity of spirit,
if you're still in the middle of lust and greed
and other wantings, you're like children
playing at sexual intercourse.

They wrestle
and rub together, but it's not sex!

The same with the fightings of mankind.
It's a squabble with play-swords.
No purpose, totally futile.

Like kids on hobby horses, soldiers claim to be riding
Boraq, Muhammad's night-horse, or Duldul, his mule.

Your actions mean nothing, the sex and war that you do.
You're holding part of your pants and prancing around,
Dun-da-dun, dun-da-dun.

Don't wait till you die to see this.
Recognize that your imagination and your thinking
and your sense perception are reed canes
that children cut and pretend are horsies.

The knowing of mystic lovers is different.
The empirical, sensory, sciences
are like a donkey loaded with books,
or like the makeup woman's makeup.

Review:

4.5 out of 5

90.00% of customers are satisfied

5.0 out of 5 stars Some Meditate, Some Read Devotionals, I read Barks's Rumi

L. · June 5, 2016

Some people meditate. Some people read biblical devotionals. Some people attend services from wise leaders of whatever faith, spirituality, or life's approach they hold. I read Rumi. Raised conservative Christian, later much more liberal Christian, considered both atheism and agnosticism, rejector of touchy-feely "spirituality" that teaches me no more than a good bumper sticker or a good episode of Oprah, ravenous reader about other traditions--Rumi fills my needs without compromising anything I hold dear or forcing anything I find empty. Reading Rumi brings me peace, understanding, clarity, goals both concrete and ideal, causes me to think deeply about the nature of wisdom, the spirit, the relationship of the human to the divine and humans to one another.Add to this fondness of Rumi the fact that this edition is translated and curated by Coleman Barks, one of the pre-eminent Rumi translators and scholars and one of the only whose background is related to poetry and textural analysis along with languages and historical contextualizing (full disclosure: I know Barks professionally and have admired his work in other areas as well as this one, but I do not know him well enough to make me predisposed to this text over another, at least not that I am consciously aware of). I am neither a language expert nor a Rumi expert, but from other translations I have read, this edition of Barks reflects that scholarly excellent but adds also the ability to retain the poetry and subjective wisdom of Rumi without a slavish adherence to word-for-word translation. I often open this text as I eat breakfast, a pencil in one hand and a cup of coffee or bagel in the other.

5.0 out of 5 stars Timeless poetry

A. · January 19, 2024

I stumbled across this randomly and find it to be very insightful and soothing poetry before bed or for a quick morning poem to meditate on throughout the day. It is heavy on the “g-o-d” word which may bother some, but easily mentally replaced with something else and the concepts hold up well.

5.0 out of 5 stars Outstanding Mystical Poetry

I.M. · March 11, 2014

As one involved in meditation as a path to enlightenment and quite well read in the subject I greatly enjoyed thisvolume of Rumi's poetry. As poetry on its own it stands head and shoulders above most poetry written in the English language. That is saying a lot as English has produced some magnificent works both historically andcontemporarily. Rumi can easily be compared to Shakespeare in quality although their subject matter was quite different. Shakespeare of course dealt with egoic human nature while Rumi is more concerned with the mystical Spirit of all things. For the uninitiated some of the symbolism may take a while to understand but I think anyone who is considering this volume would be acquainted with such symbols as a door or a window or even the capital "K" King, or Friend as compared to friend. Although Rumi is 13th century Muslim many of his references are to the transcendent figures of Christianity. Many Christians may never have thought of the symbolic relationship of Jesus and his donkey but Rumi explains it very succinctly. Christianity of course has its own areas of mystical thought but for the most part have been banned by the Church as heretical simply because they erase the necessity of intermediaries between man and God, ie. the power structure of the priesthood. Look to the Gnostic Writings of the early church to see how similar they are to mystical thinking universally. Some of the words uttered by Jesusin the Gnostic Gospels might seem quite incomprehensible to our modern, indoctrinated minds. Of course in mystical thought, of which Rumi is a paramount figure, man's approach to God is direct. "The Kingdom of Heaven is Within" and " To know one's Self is to know God " are but two basic examples.Over and above the mystical thinking exemplified in this volume, it is highly erotic and at times, perhaps mainly to the Western mind, down right hilarious. Imagine a cook's responses to the objections of the chickpea in being boiled in water. The cook's responses turn out to be quite reasonable in themselves, not to mention the spiritual understanding involved.It is no wonder that Rumi is the most read poet in America today (by children of the '60's?) and it is said that Coleman Bark's translations are much of the reason. I can not comment on that as I have only begun to read the work of other translators and am yet unable to intelligently compare and contrast but I will say that the translations of Coleman Bark have enabled a deep chord to be struck within me by this writer and poet in 13th century Farsi.I would highly recommend this volume to anyone exploring the Spiritual, as I would also recommend this volume to anyone who either loves poetry itself or thinks of poetry only as something to be taken or left. If you are one of the latter it may introduce you to a whole new view of literary expression. As with most all poetry it does demand time of contemplation to fully grasp its beauty and meaning. Rumi will always occupy of place of importance in my library, non-fiction of course.

5.0 out of 5 stars A text full of inspiration

E.M. · May 26, 2015

This is my favorite book. Ever. And I'm an English teacher. I ordered it again to give to a student who was so struck by Rumi's poems when she borrowed my copy that she didn't give it back for months, and only reluctantly. I know there is a lot of criticism of Coleman Barks's translation, but I ONLY like his translations of Rumi. I've picked up other translators' work and just haven't felt the same love. Maybe that means I wouldn't actually like Rumi (although I've considered learning Persian just to find out), or maybe it's just that Barks brings alive the mystical quality, the opening to the universe, that--for me--characterizes Rumi's work and draws me to him. I first read this book in an ashram in India while conducting field work in college, and spent the better part of that day frantically scribbling quotations into a tattered notebook, only to later hunt down the book and buy my own copy when I returned home. That was almost 20 years ago, but my feeling of... connection... with the text has never gone away. I find that each time I open it, a different set of lines will speak to me, depending on my personal experience at the time; I can always find in this text exactly what I need to hear to re-inspire my sense of wonder at the universe.. I'm not Muslim myself, but I feel his vision of the world transcends such categories. In fact, that transcendence is the essence of Rumi, and Barks interprets that perfectly for me.

4.0 out of 5 stars A good follow-on book

D.D. · June 8, 2024

The stories are well written and insightful. Rumi's point of view is unique and inspiring.But beware, he does not explain the points he is making, it is up to the reader to figure it out. Which is valuable when it works. But, that means it is important to have basic knowledge of spirituality before reading this book. Otherwise, most of it will not make sense.I suggest reading a book like "Light on Life" by B.K.S. Iyengar or "The Art of Living" by Thich Nhat Hanh (or something similar) before attempting Rumi's work.

Muy bien.

L.D. · April 29, 2024

Recomendable.

Rumi

A.C. · April 17, 2023

I’ve often read quotes from Rumi but this is the first book I’ve purchased and it doesn’t disappoint.

The print is terrible.

e. · July 1, 2024

Even the number of each page is in the wrong side.

Höchst empfehlenswert!

H. · April 21, 2023

Ein Buch von unglaublichem Wert.Ideal als Geschenk oder zur Lektüre zwischendurch.

Quintessential Rumi

S. · May 20, 2022

These poems are divine ecstasy, words coming from the caverns of existence to dissolve into it. Such works are an absolute endowment on mankind present and future. Read it to find your self in the most unimaginable ways!!! Forever a Rumi lover!! “Every human is a wine and any wine can get u high, be a connoisseur and choose the wisest” - Rumi

Visit the HarperOne Store

The Essential Rumi, New Expanded Edition

Name: The Essential Rumi, New Expanded Edition
Brand: HarperOne
SKU: U0062509594
Price: 7.80 BHD
Availability: InStock
Rating: 4.7 (10 reviews)

4.7

^BHD7⁷⁹⁶

Quantity:

Order today to get by

Free delivery on orders over BHD 20

Return and refund policies

Product origin: United States

Electrical items shipped from the US are by default considered to be 120v, unless stated otherwise in the product description. Contact Bolo support for voltage information of specific products. A step-up transformer is required to convert from 120v to 240v. All heating electrical items of 120v will be automatically cancelled.

All product information listed on the site are from 3rd party sources, including images and reviews. bolo.bh is not liable for any claims or promotions mentioned on the product description or images with textual content. For detailed product information, please contact the manufacturer or Bolo support by logging into your account. Unless stated otherwise during checkout, all import taxes and duty are included in the price mentioned on the product page. bolo.bh follows the rules and regulations of sale in Bahrain and will cancel items in an order that are illegal for sale in Bahrain. We take all the necessary steps to ensure only products for sale in Bahrain are displayed. Product stock and delivery estimate may change with the seller even after placing the order. All items are shipped by air and items marked “Dangerous Goods (DG)” by the IATA will be cancelled from orders. We strive to process your order as soon as it is finalized.

Similar items from “Poetry”

Books

Literature & Fiction

Poetry

Description:

Editorial Reviews

Review

From the Back Cover

About the Author

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Review:

The Essential Rumi, New Expanded Edition

More from this brand

Similar items from “Poetry”

Description:

Editorial Reviews

Review

From the Back Cover

About the Author

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Review:

The Essential Rumi, New Expanded Edition

Shipping Policies

Voltage Disclaimer

Product Disclaimer

More from this brand

Similar items from “Poetry”