Essential Rumi

Rating:
Summary: The Leftmost Wing of Islam
Review: This is a book of poetry by one of the more important and influential people of Sufism. In it you will find most of the difficult but most interesting aspects of life expounded.

Rumi has a fun way of simplifying life with entertaining stories and constantly shows an extreme love for his closest historical companions.

Rumi is most kind and respectful to the figures of the Bible (particularly kings David and Solomon of the OT and Jesus of the NT). I say this with the full admission of being a Christian. It is quite obvious that this individual values humanity at the core and sees all people as God's children. We should all benefit from such an example.

The only thing I found difficult was that some of the allegorical content is hard to decipher being 800 years removed from the true context. However, the translator's comments at the beginning of each section and the notes in the back of the book clarify much and help the reading immensely.

Rating:
Summary: Stunning poetry, beautifully translated
Review: This is one of the best books of poetry translations I've ever read. Barks has done a tremendous job of rendering Rumi into language that captures the poet's range: oblique to blunt, ethereal to earthy. While I can't comment on the accuracy of the translations, they work beautifully as English poetry -- and that, to me, is the crucial part. To Western readers, Rumi was a misty eminence of literary and religious history, and Barks has brought him to glorious, complex life.
One caution: although Rumi wrote intensely spiritual poetry, some of the "teaching tales" are pretty raunchy (after reading about the maidservant and the donkey, I'll never look at gourds the same way again!). Again, his poetry blends the divine and the human, heavenly love and earthly eroticism. While there are analogues in Western religious poetry (e.g., Teresa of Avila and the English 17th-century poet Richard Crashaw), this may be unsettling for some readers.
The hardbound edition, at least, is well done: the paper has a nice texture, the typography and page design enhance the text, and the cover is attractive (I haven't looked at the paperback). For me, the attractiveness of the book greatly enhanced the experience of reading it.

Rating:
Summary: Keep going back
Review: This is one of those books I keep handy, and just open randomly whenever I need a quick reminder that the world runs deeper than we think. It never fails to pull me from the shallow waters... When I want to go.

Rating:
Summary: The Best Poet Ever
Review: When Rumi writes there is something more there is an ever constant presence just beyond words, beyond articulation. His divine encounters come across as dreamy sermons in which he transports the reader if only for a second to his world of endless joy and sustained ecstasy. I do not belive there is any poet of this age or any other who has shared Rumis endless style. I do however see allot of similarities with the latter Jewish Mystic Martin Burber. Burbur shares Rumi's notion of what constitutes a divine encouner; being open seeing the "beloved," in every aspect of human life. Further like Burber he believes in the endless power of the believer. Rumi's writings are free of any self consciousness or self loath thing each of his poems inspires a new refreshing idea of how the world is. I love Rumi's poetry and I think nothing short of, total reinterpretation of everything they know should be expected of the reader.