Spiritual Verses

The spiritual masterpiece of the Persian Sufi tradition—in a brilliant new translation The longest single -authored mystical” poem ever written, the Masnavi-ye Ma’navi, or spiritual couplets,” is the masterpiece of the Persian Sufi tradition. Its author, Jalaloddin Rumi, was a poet and mystic of the highest attainment, but he was first and foremost a spiritual teacher, and his Masnaviis a ladder to the spiritual world, leading the reader to the ultimate goal of the Sufi path—union with God. Alan Williams’s translation into blank verse beautifully conveys the poetry of the original Persian couplets, while his introduction discusses how the modern reader might approach Rumi’s writing.

Mowlana Jalaloddin Balkhi (1207-û1273), known to the world as Rumi, was an Iranian poet of a status in Muslim civilization comparable to the greatest poets of Europe.
Alan Williams is a senior lecturer in comparative religion at the University of Manchester, specializing in Iranian studies.