Love's Ripening: Rumi on the Heart's Journey

Description

Here is more of the thrilling verse of the thirteenth century Sufi saint, in translations that combine unsurpassed beauty with rigorous accuracy. Helminski and Rezwani's translations stand out not only for their poetic eloquence, but for their faithfulness to the Persian originals (a rare thing among English versions of Rumi), and for the theme around which they are focused: the ripening, or spiritual maturing, of the soul as it grows in love toward God and others.

Jalaluddin Rumi (1207-1273) was not only a poet, mystic, and the founder of a Sufi order, he was a man of profound insight into the nature of human existence and possibly the greatest mystical poet of any age.

"Love's Ripening speaks to the soul the way mystical poetry was meant to-as a messenger between the realms of heaven and earth. Rumi's passion for the Divine lives on in the pages of this exquisite book that will no doubt engage each reader in the blissful experience of mystical reflection with the Sacred."-Caroline Myss, author of Anatomy of the Spirit and Entering the Castle "Indeed love ripens the soul, and the ripening of the soul leads to the realization of love. This central message of Rumi, that comparable troubadour of love, is reflected with great care, devotion, authenticity, and yes, love in this book. There are now many translations of Rumi's poems in English, of various qualities. And yet, deposit all works in print on this subject, and it is certain that this book will stand out among them, marked as it is with existential participation in the spiritual universe of the supreme master of Persian Sufi poetry."-Seyyed Hossein Nasr, University Professor of Islamic Studies, George Washington University, author of Man and Nature and The Garden of Truth