The Invisible Sun by Attar, Sholeh Wolpé (trans)
Twelfth-century Persian poet Attar (1145-1221) was revered by Rumi and though his work is beloved around the world, he is mostly unknown to English readers. Translated in simple, elegant language by award-winning poet Sholeh Wolpé-one among generations of poets influenced by Attar's poetry-The Invisible Sun is a beautiful treasury of Attar's most prescient poetry, offering comfort and inspiration.
Attar was one of the most important mystic Sufi poets in the East, comparable in stature and influence to John Milton in the West. In Western thought there is a sharp separation between day-to-day human experience and the transcendence of religion and spirituality. But Sufi philosophy teaches that while the soul awaits its release from the confines of the body, it can experience the other world through mystic union achieved by an inward journey to purify the self.
The Invisible Sun widely introduces the work of Attar-the master Rumi called "the spirit" and himself "its shadow"-to English-speaking readers as never before. Profound yet exquisite in its simplicity, bringing comfort and wisdom, Attar's poetry continues to resonate today:
Publisher: Harper Collins
£10.99
Rumi: The Hidden Treasure by Shems Friedlander
Come back, come back,
even though you have broken your vows a thousand times,
Ours is not a house of despair,
ours is a house of hope.
-Jelaluddin Rumi
Shems Friedlander r.a. (May God have mercy upon him) offers us another jewel–unique in that it brings to light hitherto unpublished material on the sacred music and dance, or sema of the Mevlevi Dervishes. We are treated to a wonderful explanation of the significance and symbolism of the dress and movement of the dance performed in the semahane–the Hall of Celestial Sounds.
As Friedlander presents the “Roots of His Thought,” the story of Rumi’s life unfolds in an entirely fresh and accessible manner, sprinkled with the Master’s poetic insights. The work concludes with a most admirable explanation of the inner and outer nature of sacred music and we are shown how a “glimpse of Truth is revealed by vibrations and sound.”
£13.99
A follow-up to her ground-breaking translations of Rumi in Gold, poet and musician Haleh Liza Gafori translates a new selection of work by the great Persian mystic that will muster the soul and stir the spirit. Water expands on Gold, Haleh Liza Gafori's inspired and widely praised translation of the lyric poetry of the Persian mystic Rumi. As in Gold, Gafori renders with fluid grace and moving immediacy these indisputable masterworks of world literature, drawing on the deep well of Rumi’s work to bring out the worldly wit and wisdom that accompany his otherworldly summons. Behold the divine within and without, he tells us. Question the gnawing hunger for material possessions, fame, and fortune, and the fear of emptiness that drives it. Muster the soul, and experience a more compassionate and liberated state of mind. An eco-poet before his time, Rumi celebrates the immensity and wonder of the natural world while warning us of the havoc that greed and the pursuit of power wreak upon us and our world. His flights of dazzling imagery open up heart-stopping glimpses of the divine, challenging readers to wake from oblivion, and above all, to surrender to the transformative power of Love. Gafori is an acclaimed vocalist and musician as well as a gifted linguist and poet, and in her translations Rumi's poetry sings and beckons as nowhere else. Hers is the work, as the poet Marilyn Hacker has said, ""of someone who is at once an acute and enamored reader of the original Farsi text, a dedicated miner of context and backstory, and, best of all, a marvelous poet in English.
Paperback.
£33.00
The Way of Mary, Maryam The Beloved Of God by Camille Hamilton Adams Helminski
The Way of Mary, Maryam, Beloved of God is a weaving of strands from ancient sources, traditional stories, poetry, and prayers of Islam, Christianity, and Judaism, and beyond (with full colour illustrations), to reveal, through the illuminated being and twelve life stations of Beloved Mary, the palpable Oneness of all Creation, our Oneness in Spirit. Drawing on passages from the Quran, the Bible, poetry of Mevlana Jalaluddin Rumi and inspirations of other mystics (Jewish, Christian, and Muslim), classical Islamic sources and ancient Biblical texts, oral traditions recorded by hearts across the centuries such as the Protoevangelium of James and the Lives of the Prophets of al-Tha‘labi, and Biblical apocrypha such as the Infancy Gospel of Thomas, with awareness of all the elements of nature that rose up in support of Beloved Mary through the stages of her journey, Camille Helminski weaves together a fabric of love to embrace us with healing and new life.