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The Translator of Desires: Poems
A masterpiece of Arabic love poetry in a new and complete English translation
The Translator of Desires , a collection of sixty-one love poems, is the lyric masterwork of Muhyiddin Ibn ‘Arabi (1165–1240 CE), one of the most influential writers of classical Arabic and Islamic civilization. In this authoritative volume, Michael Sells presents the first complete English translation of this work in more than a century, complete with an introduction, commentary, and a new facing-page critical text of the original Arabic. While grounded in an expert command of the Arabic, this verse translation renders the poems into a natural, contemporary English that captures the stunning beauty and power of Ibn ‘Arabi’s poems in such lines as “A veiled gazelle’s / an amazing sight, / her henna hinting, / eyelids signalling // A pasture between / breastbone and spine / Marvel, a garden / among the flames!”
The introduction puts the poems in the context of the Arabic love poetry tradition, Ibn ‘Arabi’s life and times, his mystical thought, and his “romance” with Niẓām, the young woman whom he presents as the inspiration for the volume―a relationship that has long fascinated readers. Other features, following the main text, include detailed notes and commentaries on each poem, translations of Ibn ‘Arabi’s important prefaces to the poems, a discussion of the sources used for the Arabic text, and a glossary.
Bringing The Translator of Desires to life for contemporary English readers as never before, this promises to be the definitive volume of these fascinating and compelling poems for years to come.
The Translator of Desires , a collection of sixty-one love poems, is the lyric masterwork of Muhyiddin Ibn ‘Arabi (1165–1240 CE), one of the most influential writers of classical Arabic and Islamic civilization. In this authoritative volume, Michael Sells presents the first complete English translation of this work in more than a century, complete with an introduction, commentary, and a new facing-page critical text of the original Arabic. While grounded in an expert command of the Arabic, this verse translation renders the poems into a natural, contemporary English that captures the stunning beauty and power of Ibn ‘Arabi’s poems in such lines as “A veiled gazelle’s / an amazing sight, / her henna hinting, / eyelids signalling // A pasture between / breastbone and spine / Marvel, a garden / among the flames!”
The introduction puts the poems in the context of the Arabic love poetry tradition, Ibn ‘Arabi’s life and times, his mystical thought, and his “romance” with Niẓām, the young woman whom he presents as the inspiration for the volume―a relationship that has long fascinated readers. Other features, following the main text, include detailed notes and commentaries on each poem, translations of Ibn ‘Arabi’s important prefaces to the poems, a discussion of the sources used for the Arabic text, and a glossary.
Bringing The Translator of Desires to life for contemporary English readers as never before, this promises to be the definitive volume of these fascinating and compelling poems for years to come.
368 pages, Paperback
Published April 6, 2021
21 people are currently reading
1442 people want to read
About the author
Ibn ʿArabi
377 books1,964 followersNote to arabic readers : For the original arabic version of the books, check "other editions" in the book that interests you)
Universally known by the title of "Muhyi al-Din" (The Reviver of the Religion) and "al-Shaykh al-Akbar" (The Greatest Shaykh) Ibn 'Arabī (Arabic: ابن عربي) (July 28, 1165 - November 10, 1240) was an Arab Sufi Muslim mystic and philosopher. His full name was Abū 'Abdullāh Muḥammad ibn 'Alī ibn Muḥammad ibn al-`Arabī al-Hāṭimī al-Ṭā'ī (أبو عبد الله محمد بن علي بن محمد بن العربي الحاتمي الطائي).
Muhammad ibn al-Arabi and his family moved to Seville when he was eight years old. In 1200 CE, at the age of thirty-five, he left Iberia for good, intending to make the hajj to Mecca. He lived in Mecca for some three years, where he began writing his Al-Futūḥāt al-Makkiyya (The Meccan Illuminations). In 1204, he left Mecca for Anatolia with Majd al-Dīn Isḥāq, whose son Ṣadr al-Dīn al-Qunawī (1210-1274) would be his most influential disciple.
In 1223, he settled in Damascus, where he lived the last seventeen years of his life. He died at the age of 76 on 22 Rabi' II 638 AH/November 10, 1240CE, and his tomb in Damascus is still an important place of pilgrimage.
A vastly prolific writer, Ibn 'Arabī is generally known as the prime exponent of the idea later known as Waḥdat al-Wujūd (literally Unity of Being), though he did not use this term in his writings. His emphasis was on the true potential of the human being and the path to realising that potential and becoming the perfect or complete man (al-insān al-kāmil).
Some 800 works are attributed to Ibn 'Arabā, although only some have been authenticated. Recent research suggests that over 100 of his works have survived in manuscript form, although most printed versions have not yet been critically edited and include many errors.
Universally known by the title of "Muhyi al-Din" (The Reviver of the Religion) and "al-Shaykh al-Akbar" (The Greatest Shaykh) Ibn 'Arabī (Arabic: ابن عربي) (July 28, 1165 - November 10, 1240) was an Arab Sufi Muslim mystic and philosopher. His full name was Abū 'Abdullāh Muḥammad ibn 'Alī ibn Muḥammad ibn al-`Arabī al-Hāṭimī al-Ṭā'ī (أبو عبد الله محمد بن علي بن محمد بن العربي الحاتمي الطائي).
Muhammad ibn al-Arabi and his family moved to Seville when he was eight years old. In 1200 CE, at the age of thirty-five, he left Iberia for good, intending to make the hajj to Mecca. He lived in Mecca for some three years, where he began writing his Al-Futūḥāt al-Makkiyya (The Meccan Illuminations). In 1204, he left Mecca for Anatolia with Majd al-Dīn Isḥāq, whose son Ṣadr al-Dīn al-Qunawī (1210-1274) would be his most influential disciple.
In 1223, he settled in Damascus, where he lived the last seventeen years of his life. He died at the age of 76 on 22 Rabi' II 638 AH/November 10, 1240CE, and his tomb in Damascus is still an important place of pilgrimage.
A vastly prolific writer, Ibn 'Arabī is generally known as the prime exponent of the idea later known as Waḥdat al-Wujūd (literally Unity of Being), though he did not use this term in his writings. His emphasis was on the true potential of the human being and the path to realising that potential and becoming the perfect or complete man (al-insān al-kāmil).
Some 800 works are attributed to Ibn 'Arabā, although only some have been authenticated. Recent research suggests that over 100 of his works have survived in manuscript form, although most printed versions have not yet been critically edited and include many errors.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 41 reviews
May 2, 2023
No New Moon Risen
Between Náqa and Láʿlaʿ
Ájran gazelles
Graze the hillsides,
in a covert, hidden
No new moon rises
on that horizon
Without me wishing
it wouldn’t dare
Nor does the bare
stone desert flash
Without me fearing
our exposure
May these eyes
pour tears forever
Sighs rise heavenward,
heart shatter!
Slowly now, driver,
my ribs burn
I wept and wept
at the thought of their leaving
And now they’re gone
I can give no more
Journey to the swale
of the twisting dune
Where they graze
where I lie fallen
There by Ájran waters
are those I love
So tell of a man
left torn apart
Cast down in sorrow
before the ruin
O hidden moon
take something from him
But leave him a glimpse
from behind the veil
(For he couldn’t bear
to behold such beauty)
January 17, 2026
Boring translation (dropped the rhyming from the original, no punctuation, ADDED line breaks). Extremely repetitive: the entire 243-page book can be summed up in basically 5 poems. But I really think most of the boringness can be faulted to the translation. Why replace all the style of the original just to write a poor dupe of Anne Carson? Imagine if your poems were translated nine centuries after you wrote the book and the translator took out all the rhymes and added his own line breaks. Injustice is added because a solid part of the intro was spent talking about how cool the original structures were (which were then removed).
Good: 1) Political elements of the beloved are interesting, at least for the first five times you're analyzing it. 2) From the intro: Michael Sells' description "ghazal poet-lovers" like Majnun Layla and Ibn 'Arabi “becom[ing] ‘martyrs’ to love" was very sweet, for which I have added a quarter of a star. If only he'd brought his skill in writing... to the poems...
Good: 1) Political elements of the beloved are interesting, at least for the first five times you're analyzing it. 2) From the intro: Michael Sells' description "ghazal poet-lovers" like Majnun Layla and Ibn 'Arabi “becom[ing] ‘martyrs’ to love" was very sweet, for which I have added a quarter of a star. If only he'd brought his skill in writing... to the poems...
January 27, 2022
absolutely stunning. like saur good i need to return to this anthology soon
November 28, 2024
Ibn Arabi is one of those authors whose work for me always evokes delight and flashes of insight, even as my understanding trails. Without abandoning philosophical subtlety, his romantic poetry gives shape to divine beauty; beauty's archetype is found in God and so manifests everywhere: in the dove's song, in the city of peace, and perhaps most of all in the form of a wise and lovely young woman. Sells renders these mystical-erotic nasibs gracefully, and his notes are unobtrusive and helpful.
March 11, 2025
Fun translation and some useful notes, but I think it doesn’t capture either the musciality or the depth of all the meanings…
January 27, 2024
I ❤️ love poems
Read
January 28, 2024Read this for lit hum - I ended up really enjoying these poems! They are truly lovely and tender, and to think that a man had this must yearning in him truly warms my heart. Some of the imagery is comically overused, but I will excuse it because they’re good motifs. All in all, good pick from the higher ups at college.
January 26, 2022
(Harmony Gone, 5)
I live on and
in living die
Farewell to her, then,
and to patience, farewell
I live on and
in living die
Farewell to her, then,
and to patience, farewell
Read
September 19, 2023U read one u read 61
January 31, 2023
poor guy
February 9, 2025
What happens to realized love when desire is overpoweringly strong? The natural cure to the persistent disease of desire would seemingly be love, or, in other words, the acquisition of the object of desire. Yet, the force of time must also be considered. How does time affect the meeting of lovers in any way other than degeneration of their union? In The Translator of Desires, Ibn ‘Arabi creates erotic analogues, which often interweave nature and divinity, for Sufi and Islamic theological concepts and practices. For example, the Sufi idea of a momentary manifestation of the divine in the believer, who allows his “ego-self” to expire, is reflected in the central vision of the collection of poems. The poems consistently imagine a fragmented amatory encounter with the beloved, who has eluded the lover. Motivic is the unveiling of the beloved’s face, which evokes the sun and radiance, while also connoting the dark nature of temptation and haram-based prohibition of sexual pursuit. The imagined meeting could be the recollection of a memory or an aspiration for the future. This moment also mirrors the aim of the Hajj, an Islamic pilgrimage involving the visitation of multiple holy sites. Upon circumambulating the Kaaba, the holiest site in the Islamic faith, Muslims may experience an epiphany comparable to the Sufi idea of divine apparition. Throughout The Translator of Desires, the lover visits a multiplicity of sites that invoke the spirit of the beloved, but the ultimate fulfillment of desire is the lover’s Kaabaesque enlightenment, which takes the form of the encounter with the beloved. The poet expresses anxiety over the achievement of the love he so desires. Thus, it is only the initial confrontation that is the objective of desire. Can love last forever if it steadily depreciates after this acme of desirous passion? The paradox of desire is that its disease has no cure, but only an ecstatic respite, which subsequently fades, leading to the reemergence of desire. Perhaps, besides the described brief ecstasy, to revel in the experience of desire is to experience love in its glory.
January 14, 2025
this sucked so bad,
the best part of it was actually the introduction (not by ibn arabi)
"you read one poem, you read it all"
that sums it up perfectly,
the same few themes of pain and angst - grief and a man's feminine desire, same about the background - constant random namedropping of arabian sites and camps and him following it,
its good when its done at the start and fresh, but it just doesnt stop.
now i am pretty sure this is much better in the arabic original and i could only read the translation - and perhaps the translation is also to blame?
it read so awkward and absurd, i had to re-read every poem atleast twice to get it better,
and the notes, ah, some notes were 2-3-4x size the poem, and each poem had notes, and so many of those notes were killjoy irrelevant shit,
for an excellent edition of sufi poetry translated well look into attar's birds translated by dick davis,
this was such an annoying headache to read.
the best part of it was actually the introduction (not by ibn arabi)
"you read one poem, you read it all"
that sums it up perfectly,
the same few themes of pain and angst - grief and a man's feminine desire, same about the background - constant random namedropping of arabian sites and camps and him following it,
its good when its done at the start and fresh, but it just doesnt stop.
now i am pretty sure this is much better in the arabic original and i could only read the translation - and perhaps the translation is also to blame?
it read so awkward and absurd, i had to re-read every poem atleast twice to get it better,
and the notes, ah, some notes were 2-3-4x size the poem, and each poem had notes, and so many of those notes were killjoy irrelevant shit,
for an excellent edition of sufi poetry translated well look into attar's birds translated by dick davis,
this was such an annoying headache to read.
December 31, 2022
If you're expecting the poems in this collection to be 'love poems' in the Western sense, you will be disappointed. Love in already-Islamic Arabic spaces is more of a transcendent / religious sentiment, but the poems are all the more profound because this sense of the sacred is applied to interpersonal love.
January 26, 2024
an amazing translation and the notes are extremely thoughtful and well-written. i need to reread this at some point, as i didn’t have time to focus on all the poems, but “the turning” and “odd to even” are personal favorites. ibn ‘arabi accomplishes a style of poetry that is just beyond understanding but filled with meaning at each reading.
November 10, 2024
This book left my heart broken. Such beautiful poems and I’ll be referring to this book many times this year to take inspiration from the authors lyrical skill. Ibn Arabi was an interesting man who lived as a contemporary to many interesting poets.
April 2, 2025
similar to if not, winter, not the biggest fan of poetry but i liked this one because of the themes of longing, the beloved, and journeying. it felt romantic in a way that was indescribable with just words. hope man gets his girl #huzz
May 22, 2022
very strong and emotional. I loved the theme of Love as a religion.
January 24, 2023
good good poems. class discussion for this is fun and everyone actually makes interesting points #love #slay
February 12, 2023
Excellent portrayal of love as magnetism; a physical and mental interaction
May 28, 2023
Felt kinda sexist but it was one of the only texts by a man of color in lithum so I’ll take what I can get i guess
January 21, 2024
kind of sick. his poetry is killer
January 23, 2024
Striking poetry about grievance and attachment. Poetry touched my heart but 4 stars because of the poorly translated English that doesn’t even capture half of the Arabic semantic’s imagery
January 31, 2024
Beautiful
February 15, 2024
"When they struck camp
they left a land
bearing the tombs
of those who loved them"
they left a land
bearing the tombs
of those who loved them"
March 20, 2024
Gorgeous and haunting. I don't think I've enjoyed a collection of poetry more. There's something powerful in the erotic almost always existing in absence.
May 19, 2024
Leaves a lot to the imagination because of how much text hasn't been recovered, but i do love it...one of the most emotion-invoking texts i read freshman year
July 22, 2024
I like the traveling and nature side of it but bro needs to get over her. Could use some pictures too
January 12, 2025
it's nice but i was a bit underwhelmed.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 41 reviews