Rumi : the book of love : poems of ecstasy and longing / translations and commentary by Coleman Barks [and others].

Introduction : the magnificent regions of the heart -- A brief account of Rumi's life -- 1. Spontaneous wandering -- Excuse my wandering -- Five things -- The many wines -- Cooked heads -- Where you love from -- You've so distracted me -- In your light I learn how to love -- Drumsound rises on the air -- Are you jealous of the ocean's generosity? -- There's nothing ahead -- 2. Sohbet: who you talking to? -- Response to your question -- If you want what visible reality can give -- Special plates -- You are not your eyes -- What was said to the rose -- The music -- Imr'u 'l-Qays -- 3. The superabundance of ordinary being -- Zuleikha -- Put this design in your carpet -- The road home -- This is enough -- Uzayr -- Out of nowhere a horse -- Amazed mouth -- Birdsong, wind -- Begin -- 4. Sudden wholeness -- This market -- The music we are -- Walnuts -- You that come to birth and bring the mysteries -- No better gift -- this moment this love comes to rest in me -- The clear bead at the center changes everything -- A thousand half-loves -- Pattern -- Auction -- 5. Escaping into silence -- Quietness -- Some kiss we want -- The waterwheel -- Blessing the marriage -- Two days of silence -- I hear nothing in my ear but your voice -- Which is worth more, a crowd of thousands -- Passage into silence -- 6. A new life -- Escaping to the forest -- Love comes sailing through, and I scream -- Any chance meeting -- Nasuh's changing -- If you love love -- What I say makes me drunk -- The circle --7. Grief -- Death of Saladin -- Birdwings -- The silent articulation of a face -- The allure of love -- Sky-circles -- I throw it all away -- Your face -- I've broken through to longing now -- The center leads to love -- My work is to carry this love -- Pale sunlight -- The purpose of emotion -- The ground's generosity takes in our compost -- 8.Tavern Madness -- I am a glass of wine with dark sediment -- Smoke -- I'm not saying this right -- Who says words with my mouth? -- We have a huge barrel of wine, but no cups -- Real value comes with madness -- A cap to wear in both worlds -- Midnight, but your forehead -- There's a strange frenzy in my head -- Fringe -- Drunks fear the police -- The ache and confusion -- Let the lover be disgraceful, crazy -- Wonder without willpower -- 9. Absence -- Like light over this plain -- Candlelight becomes moth -- The basket of fresh bread -- When you are with everyone but me -- This torture -- 10. Animal energies -- Think that you're gliding out from the face of a cliff -- The public bath -- Mashallah -- Spirit and body -- Breadmaking -- Sexual urgency and true virility -- Two ways of running -- 11. Love's secret -- Close to being true -- What hurts the soul? -- Love is the way messengers -- Hidden inside -- If everyone could see what love is -- They try to say what you are, spiritual or sexual -- Come to the orchard in spring --

12. Love's discipline -- Who makes these changes? -- Drowning -- The dog problem -- Zikr -- The core of masculinity -- Clear being -- The soul's friend -- Longing -- The morning wind spreads its fresh smell -- What draws you? -- Fear -- A teacher's pay -- Looking into the creek -- The polisher -- 13. Shift from romance to friendship -- Burnt kabob -- Sitting in the orchard -- The Prince of Kabul -- The wrist -- If the beloved is everywhere -- The king, the handmaiden, and the doctor -- Reason has no way to say -- 14. Union -- The sunrise ruby -- The generations I praise -- One swaying being -- Held like this, to draw in milk -- Hangover remorse -- Soul, heart, and body one morning -- Today, like every other day, we wake up empty -- Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing -- 15. Die before you die -- Judge a moth by the beauty of its candle -- Husam -- Lovers are alive to the extent -- That quick -- Empty boat -- In the slaughterhouse of love they kill only -- I trust you -- Imadu'l Mulk -- You have said what you are -- Some nights stay up till dawn -- 16. Harsh evidence -- Kharraqani's marriage -- Harsh evidence -- The stupid things I've done -- Candle at noon -- Dervishes -- Doves -- When words are tinged with lying -- there you are -- A night full of talking that hurts -- There's a shredding that's really a healing -- Dance, when you're broken open -- All I know of spirit -- Your defects -- 17. Meditation Pavane -- Rules about restraint -- The company of lovers -- The look that opens -- Straw and grasses -- Friend, our closeness is this -- 18. Love dogs -- The ocean surge -- Love dogs -- Inside water, a waterwheel turns -- No better love than love with no object -- A great wagon -- Blasphemy and the core -- You're song -- Keep walking, though there's no place to get to -- 19. One stroke down -- Lightning, your presence -- I can break off from anyone -- The friend comes into my body -- More range -- Ayaz and the king's pearl -- Hallaj -- 20. Love's excess -- The source of joy -- Roses underfoot -- Poetry -- Birdsong from inside the egg -- Eastern mystery -- No flag -- 21. Love's bewilderment -- God only knows, I don't -- I reach for a piece of wood. It turns into a lute -- In complete control, pretending control -- Moses and the shepherd -- The minute I heard my first love story -- 22. Lord of the heart -- I am so small I can barely be seen -- Eyes -- I am filled with you -- When you feel your lips becoming infinite -- Granary -- Gazing-house -- Guest house -- One thing you must do -- This we have now.

Poetry and Rumi fans will want to own this gorgeously packaged compilation of love poems by the thirteenth-century Sufi mystic. Rumi is best known and most cherished as the poet of love in all its forms, and renowned poet and Rumi interpretor Coleman Barks has gathered the best of these poems in delightful and wise renderings that will open your heart and soul to the lover inside and out.
[amazon.com]

Translated from the Persian.