Rumi Birdsong: Fifty-Three Short Poems (Paperback)

by Jelaluddin Rumi (Author), Coleman Barks (Translator)

Editorial Reviews

Language Notes
Text: English (translation)
Original Language: Persian

Product Details

• Paperback: 64 pages
• Publisher: Maypop Books (November 1993)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 096189167X
• ISBN-13: 978-0961891671
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.4 x 0.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.5 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #520,662 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Solid Sufi (ecstatic religious) poetry, August 17, 2000

By	M. J. Smith (Seattle, WA USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

Birdsong contains 53 short poems that are reworkings of the translation by A. J. Arberry, a major scholar of Sufism.

Not all of the poems have any direct relationship to birds, rather the birdsong of the title refers to a common metaphor in mystic traditions e.g. The Conference of the Birds, a major Sufi work.

Barks, as usual, provides excellent translations; he truly makes the poetry of Rumi accessible to the average reader (as compared to some scholarly translations that are precise but no longer poetry or that require technical vocabulary).

His selection of poems is also excellent; they are poems that encourage meditative thought. An example: "Stars burn clear / all night till dawn. / Do that yourself, and a spring / will rise in the dark with water / your deepest thirst is for. "

9 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars All I want now to do or hear is poetry!, November 10, 1999

By	Yod Asugia ([e-mail]) (Carbondale, Illinios) - See all my reviews

Rumi is brilliant in his acuteness. Birdsong only makes me want to learn and read more about this impressionable thinker. His words truly hold the essence of life. Recommneded to all who adore poetry.

5.0 out of 5 stars Elegant simplicity, December 19, 2006

By	Leisa D. Deffenbaugh (Quinton, VA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I have had my copy of Rumi for some time. I have just recently picked it up again. While I had several old favorites, my dog-eared pages marking them, I found some new ones that now captivate.

The elegant simplicity--spare verse, carefully crafted structure--of these poems is mesmerizing. Enigmatic and ecstatic they will lift your spirit.