Who translated Rumi best?
Table of Contents
Who translated Rumi best?
Coleman Barks
“Coleman Barks’ translation of the Masnavi and selection from the Divan-i Kabir is currently the bestselling translation of Rumi’s work, but still Nicholson’s translation and commentary is by far the best available translation of Rumi’s work.
Who translated Rumi into English?
It was a collection of poetry by Jalaluddin Rumi, the thirteenth-century Persian poet, translated by Coleman Barks.
What is meant by masnavi?
The title Masnavi-ye-Ma’navi (Persian: مثنوی معنوی) means “The Spiritual Couplets”. The Masnavi is a poetic collection of anecdotes and stories derived from the Quran, hadith sources, and everyday tales. Stories are told to illustrate a point and each moral is discussed in detail.
When was Rumi first translated into English?
Translations of Rumi into English famously began with the genius of William Jones who began publishing his versions of Persian verse in 1772. The first volume of this contained a lyric translation of a poem by Hafiz.
six books
The six books of the Masnavi can be divided into three groups of two because each pair is linked by a common theme: Books 1 and 2: They “are principally concerned with the nafs, the lower carnal self, and its self-deception and evil tendencies.”
Why Maulana Rumi is called Rumi?
He is popularly known as “Rumi” – a name which comes from Arabic and literally means “Roman.” He acquired this name because he spent much of his life in the Seljuk Sultanate of Rum in Anatolia, which had previously conquered the area from the Eastern Roman, or Byzantine, Empire.
What is Rumi best known for?
The ecstatic poems of Jalal ad-Din Muhammad Rumi, a Persian poet and Sufi master born 807 years ago in 1207, have sold millions of copies in recent years, making him the most popular poet in the US. Globally, his fans are legion.
What does Rumi say about the Masnavi?
As Rumi says in the his Arabic prose introduction to the book: “This is the book of the Masnavi and it is the roots of the roots of the roots of the (Islamic) Religion… and it is the Illuminator of the Qur’ân.”
Why is it difficult to translate Rumi’s poetry into English?
Translating Rumi’s poetry into English is challenging, because a lot of the meaning is dependent on cultural and religious references predominantly lost on English audiences. Most translators merely translate the raw text, which is really not enough. Let me illustrate this with an example, from the opening of the Masnavi.
Who translated Mawlana (Rumi)?
While a number of poets and translators have taken their swing at translating Mawlana, the person most responsible for popularizing Rumi in modern-day America and the wider Anglophone world is Coleman Barks. However, it isn’t very accurate to refer to him as a translator, but rather as a popularizer.
Who translated Rumi’s ‘Fihi ma fihi’ into English?
Nicholson was succeeded as Head of the Oriental Languages Department at Cambridge by A.J. Arberry, who was the first person to translate Rumi’s Fihi Ma Fihi into English. This book’s gnomic title translates as ‘In It What Is In It’.