Customer Reviews

Unseen Rain: Quatrains of Rumi

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If I were stuck on that proverbial desert island with just one book, this would be it. I've read these graceful four line poems over and over, and every time gain fresh insight. The genius of this work is that it can be read on so many different levels--give it to a couple newly in love and they can read it to each other as a book of love poems. Give it to a serious seeker of God and they will understand the love and beloved of the poems to be the relationship between Rumi and God, and the ecstasy of real communion with God...either way, this poems are beautiful and infinite. I brought this book to Afghanistan (where Rumi was born) and found the love of this poet (who they know as Bahlki) to be a bond, and we translated many poems back and forth...there are many more. BUY this book! And buy five copies to give to friends. Even people who think they don't like or read poetry end up loving this book, especially if they are on the path to God.

How beautiful the translations:

Night comes so people can sleep like fish
in black water. Then day.

How beautiful the poetry:

I have no name
for what circles
so perfectly.

Keep this book close to you for those thin, lonely hours so that you can understand -

We are the night ocean filled
with glints of light...

I have had this book for several years, and just pulled it off my shelf to enjoy again. Rumi's quatrains are beautiful and some of my favorite of his work, because they get straight to the heart of the matter, almost in the way a haiku does. The editors state in the introduction that they "tried to connect these poems with a strong American line of free-verse spiritual poetry" and I think they do a brilliant job of it, making these accessible and fluid. If you already love Rumi, don't miss this translation, and if you are new to him, this is a great place to start.

Rumi led me to world history, comparative religions, and haiku.

"The hand is veiled, yet the pen writes as bidden."

If you love word images and haven't yet discovered Rumi, you are about to experience a real treat. It amazes me how Rumi, who lived hundreds of years ago and in a culture totally different from the modern American world, can share thoughts and insights so relevant to today, to any tme. This little book is a collection of little jewels that totally transcend time and culture. In today's world, with the Middle East such a concern, Rumi also demonstrates that we all are not so different as we might think. Consider him not just a poet, but a trans-generational, trans-cultural missionary who can teach us some understanding and appreciation for each other.

For the mystically inclined, Moyne and Barks translation of this collection of Rumi quatrains, is an "evocative" excursion into that "realm"..the realm of the "mystical". Truly, a source of contemplation and deep wisdom, the book also "tests" "traditional" concepts and notions related to...the "boundaries" of love. But, Rumi was a truly "enlightened" being, and, therefore although...a being whose words will "stretch" our mind...he will never be talking about anything but..the "divine" in essence. This particular collection by Moyne and Barks...speaks a little more "specifically" to the aspect of "longing" in the "spiritual search".