Rumi

Introduction

A collection of never-before-translated poems by the widely beloved medieval Persian poet Rumi.

The poetry of the 13th-century mystic Rumi has long been wildly popular with contemporary Western audiences because of the way it combines the sacred and the sensual, describing divine love in rapturously human terms. However, most English translators over the past century have not been speakers of Persian and based their sometimes very free interpretations on earlier translations. With Western audiences in mind, they have also tended to tone down or leave out elements of Persian culture and of Islam in Rumi's work. Brad Gooch and Maryam Mortaz aim to restore fidelity to the originals while still allowing Rumi's lyric exuberance to shine. Over-reliance on previous translators has also meant that thousands of Rumi's poems have never been rendered into English; this volume is composed almost entirely of never-before-translated gems from Rumi's vast oeuvre.