The Mathnawi of Jalalu'din Rumi - Book 2: The Mathnawi of Jalalu'din Rumi - Book 2 - Paperback

by Michael Bielas (Editor), Reynold Nicholson (Translator), Jalalu'din Rumi (Author)

Book 2 of the Mathnawi of Jalaluddin Rumi. Offered as prose in couplet form, based on the 1925 translation by Reynold Nicholson. The translation has been updated using the notes included at the end of Book 4 in Nicholson's original translation, the commentary by Nicholson, and occasional changes suggested by a lifelong student and teacher of the Mathnawi.Rumi presents a description of the nature of life on earth, and the place of human beings in the Divine Play. We are offered insights into uniting our animal level heritage and our angelic experiences into one being, made possible by the Divine Breath of God. The results are seen in the beauty and grace of Rumi's poetry, his lasting gift to all people of the world.

Author Biography

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.