A lot of "new-age" style spiritual/self-help contexts abuse and debase original intent to present a prepackaged "ready to eat" style of insight and guidance.<p>Though the motivations in undermining the context of Rumi by removing Islam may be more nefarious, the same thing happens with Stoicism. Take a few aphorisms, oversimplify them as an answer to a complex problem and repeat.<p>Much like Rumi can't be read without the context of Islam, Seneca or Epictetus can't be understood without the metaphysics of Stoicism, but endless volumes of self-help books disagree. I may be the wrong one in light of that.
It's true, of course, but the alternative seems to be the erasure of poetry from the poetry of Rumi. Here's a sample of the translation they recommend at the end:<p><pre><code> I'm now compelled through uttering Shams' name
To tell you of his gifts and spread his fame
Hosamoddin has flung me by my skirt
So I can breathe in scent from Joseph's shirt
</code></pre>
<a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=icAlT_hrlTUC&pg=PA12&lpg=PA12&dq=%22Hosamoddin+has+flung+me+by+my+skirt%22&source=bl&ots=gYNNHIgZ6B&sig=ACfU3U1FvoqOoeNwkBff9n2PYYVtcvf3Qg&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjt5OSNs9HwAhXUsZ4KHS_wDeIQ6AEwAHoECAQQAw#v=onepage&q&f=false" rel="nofollow">https://books.google.com/books?id=icAlT_hrlTUC&pg=PA12&lpg=P...</a><p>Not an entirely fair comparison, but it makes the point. Barks' Rumi became such an unlikely best-seller because the poetry is breathtaking.
How perverse of the <i>New Yorker</i> to omit mention of William C. Chittick in an article regarding Western translation of Mowlana (Rumi) and Shams, and Islam. He is, after all, the definitive and authoritative English translator of Rumi.<p>I just opened my copy of <i>The Sufi Path of Love</i> by Chittick at random. The chapter is called <i>Attainment to God</i>. Here is (a sample of) Chittick's translation (indentations mine):<p><pre><code> Oh rose,
adorn the meadows and laugh
for all to see!
for you had to hide
among the thorns for months.
Oh garden,
nurture well these new arrivals
the tales of whose coming
you had heard
from the thunder.
Oh wind,
make the branches dance
in the remembrance
of the day you wafed
over union.
Behold these trees,
all of them joyful
like a gathering
of the felicitous
Oh violet
why are you bent over
in heartache?
The lily says
to the buds:
though your eyes are closed
they will soon open,
for you you have tasted
of good fortune.
...
I speak of roses, nightingales
and the beauties of the garden
as a pretext.
Why do I do it?
For the sake of Love's Jealousy!
At any rate, I am describing
God's graces.
The pride of Tabriz and the world,
Shams al-Din [Sun of Religion]
has again shown me
favor.
</code></pre>
<a href="https://www.williamcchittick.com/" rel="nofollow">https://www.williamcchittick.com/</a><p><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Chittick" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Chittick</a><p><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/157126.Sufi_Path_of_Love" rel="nofollow">https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/157126.Sufi_Path_of_Love</a>
I've read Rumi. Now, if you know the C Jung quote paraphrasing that, in the end all human problems are unsolvable from inside the package in which they came, and that change happens from a new perspective which itself requires a new, higher charging life force you might like Rilke's Sonnets to Orpheus.
It's so annoying that when talking about poetry and religion, the author just <i>has</i> to involve current politics.<p>> Islam is regularly diagnosed as a “cancer,” including by General Michael Flynn, President-elect Donald Trump’s pick for national-security adviser, and, even today,<p>This was in the middle of a paragraph about new-age books. How is this relevant? It's so annoying how everything has to do with modern politics.