Apr/May 2006 - Another great collection of Rumi's work and a nice addition to any poetry lover's library. It is particularly nice because it gives us a break from Coleman Barks - not that his translations don't have much to offer - they do. It's just that Barks gets so much credit for bringing Rumi to the West that we can easily overlook other translations. Since so much of this poetry's meaning and nuance can be missed in the translation, it's probably best that we look to many translations to find the middle ground.

This is the first of two volumes. As I write this I am reading volume two. Many of the verses resonate with me, and I've bookmarked many for later review. Editor's notes at the end provide valuable context to many of the expressions and names used throughout. These notes would have been more useful if placed on the same page as the verses, but they were understandably kept in the appendix to keep the verses clean.