The Essential Rumi
by Rumi, translated by Coleman Barks
Barks' free renderings of the thirteenth-century Persian Sufi poet: longing, love, the guest house, the field beyond right and wrong. Scholars object that Barks removed much of the Islamic context and worked from translations rather than Persian. The versions are nonetheless the ones that made Rumi the best-selling poet in America, and they are beautiful.
Read it if…
you want poetry that opens the heart and do not need scholarly fidelity.
Skip it if…
you want Rumi in context; seek a scholarly translation alongside.
Three things you will actually use
- Welcome every feeling as a guest.
- Longing is itself the connection.
- Beyond right and wrong there is a field; meet there.
Do this first
Read 'The Guest House' and apply it to one feeling you are resisting.
Our verdict
Beautiful, contested as translation.
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