Birdsong: Fifty-Three Short Poems

by Rumi

Book Overview

Jelaluddin Rumi (1207-1273) wrote short poems that resonate with the silence and love and great playfulness they spring from, much as birdsong deepens the quiet and, it may be, quickens the growing of... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 096189167X
• ISBN13: 9780961891671
• Release Date: January 1993
• Publisher: Maypop Books
• Length: 63 Pages
• Weight: 0.25 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.2" x 5.5" x 8.5"

Customer Reviews

Elegant simplicity

I have had my copy of Rumi for some time. I have just recently picked it up again. While I had several old favorites, my dog-eared pages marking them, I found some new ones that now captivate. The elegant simplicity--spare verse, carefully crafted structure--of these poems is mesmerizing. Enigmatic and ecstatic they will lift your spirit.

Solid Sufi (ecstatic religious) poetry

Birdsong contains 53 short poems that are reworkings of the translation by A. J. Arberry, a major scholar of Sufism.Not all of the poems have any direct relationship to birds, rather the birdsong of the title refers to a common metaphor in mystic traditions e.g. The Conference of the Birds, a major Sufi work.Barks, as usual, provides excellent translations; he truly makes the poetry of Rumi accessible to the average reader (as compared to some scholarly translations that are precise but no longer poetry or that require technical vocabulary).His selection of poems is also excellent; they are poems that encourage meditative thought. An example: "Stars burn clear / all night till dawn. / Do that yourself, and a spring / will rise in the dark with water / your deepest thirst is for. "

All I want now to do or hear is poetry!

Rumi is brilliant in his acuteness. Birdsong only makes me want to learn and read more about this impressionable thinker. His words truly hold the essence of life. Recommneded to all who adore poetry.

An excellent introduction to a medieval master.

Although any work this short is going to have shortcomings, this is an excellent introduction to the precision, wisdom and wit of Rumi. A great gift and a great read.