Two Rumi Poems

[eredien]

Just so you can see what I'm talking about.



I would love to kiss you.
The price of kissing is your life.
Now my loving is running toward my life shouting,
what a bargain, let's buy it.

*

Today, like every other day, we wake up empty
and frightened. Don't open the door to the study
and begin reading. Take down a musical instrument.

Let the beauty we love be what we do.
There are hundreds of ways to kneel and kiss the ground.

Comments

[copperwolf.livejournal.com]

I at first confused Rumi with Omar Khayyam....

Is there a particular edition of this book, or by this author, that you would recommend?

Are you familiar with the Rubaiyat? Is there an edition of that that you'd recommend?

Editions Recommended

[eredien]

Hi! I have never read anything else by this translator, and don't know Persian, so I don't know if it's a good translation or not, but for poetry's sake I'd suggest going to the bookstore and trying to find "The Illuminated Rumi" (as if Rumi needed illumination).

It's probably expensive to buy, but it's great to leaf through and look at, even though the formatting of the poems does not make it an ideal book out of which to actually read.
I found the translations of some of its poems also more poetic. Probably less accurate, but more flowing.

I haven't, sadly, read more than a few verses of the Khayyam Rubaiyat...I've read the parody, "Rubiayat on a Persian Kitten", though, multiple times in multiple places, and that's brilliant. I intend to read the original someday.

[gaudior.livejournal.com]

I love Rumi. So so much.

Also, I shall call you presently!

--R

[zdenka]

The second one -- wow. Just -- intuitive impact.

[copperwolf.livejournal.com]

Addendum:
This was linked as a related article from a Yahoo!/AP feed on Mikhail Gorbachev giving Cat Stevens a peace prize.

"Why America needs Rumi"
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Front_Page/FJ06Aa01.html