Rumi: The Book of Love: Poems of Ecstasy and Longing

Rumi: The Book of Love is a collection of astonishing poems for lovers from the mystic Rumi, by the translator who made him sing anew, Coleman Barks.

Poetry and Rumi fans will want to own this gorgeously packaged compilation of spiritual love poems by the thirteenth-century Sufi mystic. Rumi is best known and most cherished as the poet of love in all its forms, and renowned poet and Rumi interpretor Coleman Barks has gathered the best of these poems in delightful and wise renderings that explore divine love and will open your heart and soul to the lover inside and out.

What mysteries of the heart will you discover in these celebrated translations?

• Ecstasy and Longing: Experience the soaring heights and profound depths of the soul’s connection to the divine, as captured in Rumi’s most passionate verses.
• Sufi Mystic Wisdom: Discover timeless insights from a thirteenth-century master on the nature of being, non-being, and the annihilation of the self in the presence of the beloved.
• The Coleman Barks Translation: Read the masterful and accessible renderings that introduced Rumi to a new generation of Western readers and made his poetry “sing anew.”
• A Poet of Love: Explore the many forms of love—from the spontaneous joy of friendship to the all-consuming fire of union—in this essential collection for the heart.

Now in paperback, this is the definitive collection of America′s bestselling poet Rumi′s finest poems of love and lovers. In Coleman Barks′ delightful and wise renderings, these poems will open your heart and soul to the lover inside and out.

′There are lovers content with longing.

I′m not one of them.′

Rumi is best known for his poems expressing the ecstasies and mysteries of love of all kinds - erotic, divine, friendship -and Coleman Barks collects here the best of those poems, ranging from the ′wholeness′ one experiences with a true lover, to the grief of a lover′s loss, and all the states in between: from the madness of sudden love to the shifting of a romance to deep friendship - these poems cover all ′the magnificent regions of the heart′.

“Perhaps the world’s greatest poet, the gold of Rumi pours down through Barks’s words.” - Jack Kornfield, author of A Path with Heart

“An ecstatic experience.” - Deepak Chopra, author of The Soul in Love

“Another perfect gem from the master translator of Rumi’s poetry.” - Roger Housden, author of Ten Poems to Change Your Life and Chasing Rumi

“It’s a mystery how heart can come into apparently simple English.” - Robert Bly, National Book Award-winning poet and translator