The Essential Rumi

Sometimes when we read something translated from long ago, a person can't help but wonder if the translation is accurate, especially when it's the works of Rumi, an Afghan poet born in the year 1207. The Essential Rumi translated by Coleman Barks with John Moyne is like a journey where there is no measure of time. The book is an ocean of imagery, thoughts, and stories of adventure that could one day be turned into a movie. The way the poems have been translated makes you wonder if you weren't told they were written in the year 1200, you might assume they were written within the last 50 years.

Rumi has an ability to evoke feelings of romance using very few words. I am sure if greeting cards were able to capture emotions with the same intensity, it would be impossible to keep them on the shelves. An example can be found in a number of short unnamed poems in the book such as this one:

I saw you last night in the gathering

but could not take you openly in my arms,

so I put my lips next to your cheek

pretending to talk privately

And what woman would not want her man to write her a note with the words, When I am with you, we stay up all night. When you're not here, I can't go to sleep. Praise God for these two insomnias! And the difference between them.

The book also contains poems more suitable for the bedroom. Poems of passion spanning numerous pages while painting vivid images of lust and adultery, definitely a nice balance to the huge selection of poetry in his book perfect for those moments with a special person while enjoying a glass of wine, and candlelight.

The poems are grouped into twenty-seven divisions with many of the unnamed poems spilling into the next. Not every poem has a title or needs one. Each poem becomes it's own painting and you as a reader feel as though you are walking through an art gallery. Some you will enjoy more than others, but most of them leave a residue of imaginary flavour on your tongue.