While Barks's stamp on this collection is clear, it in no way interferes with the poems themselves; Rumi's voice leaps off these pages with an ecstatic energy that leaves readers breathless. There are poems of love, rage, sadness, pleading, and longing; passionate outbursts about the torture of longing for his beloved and the sweet pleasure that comes from their union; amusing stories of sexual exploits or human weakness; and quiet truths about the beauty and variety of human emotion. More than anything, Rumi makes plain the unbridled joy that comes from living life fully, urging us always to put aside our fears and take the risk to do so. As he says: "The way of love is not / a subtle argument. / The door there is devastation. / Birds make great sky-circles / of their freedom. / How do they learn it? / They fall, and falling, / they're given wings." --Uma Kukathas --This text refers to the hardcover edition of this title

Publishers Weekly
"In this . . . delightful treasury, Barks sparklingly demonstrates once again why his free-form interpretations of [Rumi's] poetry . . . have been a major impetus for the current Rumi vogue."

Body Mind Spirit

"The Essential Rumi is a rare and precious book that will stir the hearts of Rumi devotees and win many new converts."

Jack Kornfield, author of A Path with Heart

"Perhaps the world's greatest spiritual poetthe gold of Rumipours down through Coleman's words. The words leap off thepage and dance!"

Publishers Weekly

"In this.delightful treasury, Barks sparklingly demonstratesonce again why his free-form interpretations of [Rumi's] poetryhave been a major impetus for the current Rumi vogue."

Huston Smith, author of The World's Religions

"If Rumi is the most-read poet in America today, ColemanBarks is in good part responsible. His ear for the truly divinemadness in Rumi's poetry is truly remarkable."

Book Description
A comprehensive collection of ecstatic poetry that delights with its energy and passion, The Essential Rumi brings the vibrant,living words of famed thirteenth-century Sufi mystic JelalludinRumi to contemporary readers.

Synopsis
A San Francisco Chronicle bestseller, The Essential Rumi translates the estatic poetry of the famed twelfth-century Sufi mystic Jelaluddin Rumi."The gold of Rumi pours down through Coleman's words."--Jack Kornfield. "(A) delightful treasury."--Publishers Weekly.

Synopsis
The life of Jalaluddin Rumi (1207-1273), a brilliant scholar and popular teacher, was forever changed when he met a powerful wandering dervish and began a new plateau of spiritual enlightenment. Now, from the premier interpreter of Rumi comes the first definitive one-volume collection of the enduringly popular spiritual poetry by this extraordinary Sufi mystic. --This text refers to the hardcover edition of this title

Synopsis
A Sufi poet's comprehensive work is translated here in a volume designed to bring all the magic, mysticism, and wisdom of the great Sufi poet's work to an English-speaking audience. Reprint.

About the Author
Coleman Barks is one of the premier translators of Rumi at work today. He teaches poetry at the University of Georgia.

Annotation
"If Rumi is the most-read poet in Americay today, Coleman Barks is in good part responsible. His ear for the truly divine madness in Rumi's poetry is truly remarkable."

Description from The Reader's Catalog
"Perhaps the world's greatest spiritual poet--the gold of Rumi pours down through Coleman's words. The words leap off the page and dance!" -- Jack Kornfield

From The Publisher
A comprehensive collection of ecstatic poetry that delights with its energy and passion, The Essential Rumi brings the vibrant, living words of famed thirteenth-century Sufi mystic Jelalludin Rumi to contemporary readers.