On the Back Cover
RELIGION / POETRY "Nevit Ergin's lifelong work on the poetry of Rumi is beautiful and heroic and, for the English reader, indispensable. Will Johnson's insightful commentary is also much appreciated." --Coleman Barks, author of Rumi: We Are Three and Rumi: Bridge to the Soul Rumi is well known for the more than 44,000 verses that appear in a 23-volume collection called the Divan-i Kebir. Yet Rumi also composed 1,700 rubais, short aphorisms and observations, whose brevity belies their depth and message. The form of rubais first became well known through the eleventh-century collection The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam. But unlike Khayyam, who would sit and carefully craft each word, Rumi would compose and speak his poems through the spontaneous "language of poetry" that poured from his lips as he traveled the streets of Konya, Anatolia (present-day Turkey). Very few of Rumi's rubais have been translated into any of the languages of the contemporary Western world. Now, Nevit O. Ergin, the translator of the complete Divan-i Kebir, and Will Johnson present here 233 of the most evocative of Rumi's 1,700 rubais. Rumi's poetry expresses profound and complex truths in beautiful yet simple language. He reveals that by going deep into the interior of our heart and soul, we can arrive at a place in which we once again merge and connect with the divine. This mystical quest, Rumi contends, is the birthright of us all. Anything less than a complete dissolving into the world of divine union will not provide the satisfaction and peace that we all seek. The simple yet profound spiritual truths and visions contained in The Rubais of Rumi lead the way to the path of reconnection to the direct energies of God. NEVIT O. ERGIN is the original English translator of the complete Divan-i Kebir and is the coauthor, with Will Johnson, of The Forbidden Rumi. He lives in California. Will Johnson is the author of The Sailfish and the Sacred Mountain, Yoga of the Mahamudra, and the award-winning Rumi: Gazing at the Beloved, re-issued in paperback as The Spiritual Practices of Rumi. He lives in British Columbia.
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