The Mathnawi of Jalalu'din Rumi - Book 2: The Mathnawi of Jalalu'din Rumi - Book 2 (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9781533505651)

Jalaluddin Rumi, 1207-1273, was born near Balkh in present day Afghanistan. In addition to the collection of his ecstatic, mystical, love-poetry, the Divan of Shams Tabrizi, he also produced this work of mysticism. The Mathnawí is the description of the transformational journey Rumi experienced which enabled him to achieve the level of awareness demonstrated in the beauty of his poetry. This version of Book I is based on the magnificent 1926 translation by Reynold A. Nicholson, 1848-1945, updated to more accessible language to allow the clarity of Rumi's awareness to be more easily revealed. Sweeping away the accumulated dust of language nearly a century old brings Nicholson's translation of this remarkable work of mysticism into a currency it richly deserves. Occasional changes made to the original translation are based on the insight provided by a life-long student of the Mathnawí, a native speaker of the original Persian language who is also a recognized instructor of the context and symbolic language of this mystical poem.