Customer Reviews

Selected Poems from the Divan-e Shams-e Tabrizi: Along With the Original Persian (Classics of Persian Literature, 5)

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IBEX has done the reading public a great service by reprinting this 1898 edition of a bilingual collection of Rumi's poems. The table of contents shows the wealth of material covered by this compact volume:

Preface
Introduction (includes biography of Rumi, Persian poetry, Sufism)
Addenda and Corrigenda
Selected Poems
Notes (over 100 pages)
Additional notes
Appendices
--I. Illustrative passages from the Divan with a list of the historical and autobiographical allusions
--II. Translations in verse
--III. Table showing where the Selected Poems occur in other editions of the Divan
--IV. Comparative table of passages quoted from the Masnavi
Indices
--I. Persian and Arabic
--II. English

The format with English translation facing Persian text is very helpful. The Persian text is partially vocalized, to a degree well suited to those who have an intermediate, but not advanced, knowledge of the language. Among other things, ezafes are shown, along with the vocalization of otherwise ambiguous forms such as "bovad" (a poetic form of 'to be') which has the same consonants as the much more common "bud" (simple past tense of 'to be'). Each poem begins with the name of the meter in Persian followed by a schematic representation of the meter using macrons and breves.

If you want to introduce yourself to some of the finest of Persian poetry in its original language, this is an excellent book to use.

Nicholson has great appeal for me as I find in his translations connections to Rumi that the more poetical versions lack. It seems that after 10 years of searching for what truly reverberates in me, and feeds my soul, the very literal is the most appealing. There is no manipulation of words and meanings here, no exclamations of "I have preserved the essence of Rumi's poetry in my translations," from those who who do not know any language other than english.
Nicholson is amazing - his notes on each of the Ghazels are truly revealing of The Poet's intent and style. I only wish all of the Divan could have been translated by Nicholson. We have his complete Mathnawi which is simply a gift to be forever frequently opened and pondered.
This book is a gem.

Though Nicholson's translations of Rumi's works are not as well known today as other translators' (some of whom can't be called translators as they don't even know Persian), Nicholson's translations are among the highest (the highest?) fidelity translations of Rumi we have. He knew Rumi's works (having translated the entire Masnawi), the philosophy and had mastery of the necessary languages and thus this annotated translation is a gem. Read the footnotes for an indepth understanding of these translations of select poems from Rumi's magnificent Divan of Shams Tabriz.

Great job, I ordered 6 copy for friends and relatives.
By far, this is the best collection and translation that I have ever seen.
For example consider Coleman Barks work. I think that Coleman has done a great Job introducing Rumi to the west. However, Coleman work is drawing only very loosely on Rumi's work. Coleman's work is rather a stretch to call it a translation! If one were cynical, one might think the large number of books from Coleman indicates merely a money-making exercise.