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Love's Ripening: Rumi on the Heart's Journey
Love is the meaning of our existence, the raw material of transformation, the glorious way of access to Divine intimacy. This teaching infuses the lyric verse of Rumi (1207–1273), the greatest of the Sufi poets. The poems in this collection, taken from among the master’s many volumes of work, focus on one of his greatest themes: how love grows and matures for those on the spiritual path. Kabir Helminski and Ahmad Rezwani have crafted a translation that remains faithful to the original Persian while giving eloquent expression to the joy of Rumi’s astonishing encounter with the Divine.
208 pages, Paperback
First published December 2, 2008
38 people are currently reading
336 people want to read
About the author
Jalal ad-Din Muhammad ar-Rumi
1,171 books15.7k followersSufism inspired writings of Persian poet and mystic Jalal ad-Din Muhammad ar-Rumi; these writings express the longing of the soul for union with the divine.
Jalāl ad-Dīn Muhammad Rūmī - also known as Jalāl ad-Dīn Muhammad Balkhī, Mevlânâ/Mawlānā (مولانا, "our master"), Mevlevî/Mawlawī (مولوی, "my master") and more popularly simply as Rumi - was a 13th-century Persian poet, jurist, Islamic scholar, theologian and Sufi mystic who lived in Konya, a city of Ottoman Empire (Today's Turkey). His poems have been widely translated into many of the world's languages, and he has been described as the most popular poet and the best-selling poet in the United States.
His poetry has influenced Persian literature, but also Turkish, Ottoman Turkish, Azerbaijani, Punjabi, Hindi, and Urdu, as well as the literature of some other Turkic, Iranian, and Indo-Aryan languages including Chagatai, Pashto, and Bengali.
Due to quarrels between different dynasties in Khorāṣān, opposition to the Khwarizmid Shahs who were considered devious by his father, Bahā ud-Dīn Wālad or fear of the impending Mongol cataclysm, his father decided to migrate westwards, eventually settling in the Anatolian city Konya, where he lived most of his life, composed one of the crowning glories of Persian literature, and profoundly affected the culture of the area.
When his father died, Rumi, aged 25, inherited his position as the head of an Islamic school. One of Baha' ud-Din's students, Sayyed Burhan ud-Din Muhaqqiq Termazi, continued to train Rumi in the Shariah as well as the Tariqa, especially that of Rumi's father. For nine years, Rumi practised Sufism as a disciple of Burhan ud-Din until the latter died in 1240 or 1241. Rumi's public life then began: he became an Islamic Jurist, issuing fatwas and giving sermons in the mosques of Konya. He also served as a Molvi (Islamic teacher) and taught his adherents in the madrassa. During this period, Rumi also travelled to Damascus and is said to have spent four years there.
It was his meeting with the dervish Shams-e Tabrizi on 15 November 1244 that completely changed his life. From an accomplished teacher and jurist, Rumi was transformed into an ascetic.
On the night of 5 December 1248, as Rumi and Shams were talking, Shams was called to the back door. He went out, never to be seen again. Rumi's love for, and his bereavement at the death of, Shams found their expression in an outpouring of lyric poems, Divan-e Shams-e Tabrizi. He himself went out searching for Shams and journeyed again to Damascus.
Rumi found another companion in Salaḥ ud-Din-e Zarkub, a goldsmith. After Salah ud-Din's death, Rumi's scribe and favourite student, Hussam-e Chalabi, assumed the role of Rumi's companion. Hussam implored Rumi to write more. Rumi spent the next 12 years of his life in Anatolia dictating the six volumes of this masterwork, the Masnavi, to Hussam.
In December 1273, Rumi fell ill and died on the 17th of December in Konya.
Jalāl ad-Dīn Muhammad Rūmī - also known as Jalāl ad-Dīn Muhammad Balkhī, Mevlânâ/Mawlānā (مولانا, "our master"), Mevlevî/Mawlawī (مولوی, "my master") and more popularly simply as Rumi - was a 13th-century Persian poet, jurist, Islamic scholar, theologian and Sufi mystic who lived in Konya, a city of Ottoman Empire (Today's Turkey). His poems have been widely translated into many of the world's languages, and he has been described as the most popular poet and the best-selling poet in the United States.
His poetry has influenced Persian literature, but also Turkish, Ottoman Turkish, Azerbaijani, Punjabi, Hindi, and Urdu, as well as the literature of some other Turkic, Iranian, and Indo-Aryan languages including Chagatai, Pashto, and Bengali.
Due to quarrels between different dynasties in Khorāṣān, opposition to the Khwarizmid Shahs who were considered devious by his father, Bahā ud-Dīn Wālad or fear of the impending Mongol cataclysm, his father decided to migrate westwards, eventually settling in the Anatolian city Konya, where he lived most of his life, composed one of the crowning glories of Persian literature, and profoundly affected the culture of the area.
When his father died, Rumi, aged 25, inherited his position as the head of an Islamic school. One of Baha' ud-Din's students, Sayyed Burhan ud-Din Muhaqqiq Termazi, continued to train Rumi in the Shariah as well as the Tariqa, especially that of Rumi's father. For nine years, Rumi practised Sufism as a disciple of Burhan ud-Din until the latter died in 1240 or 1241. Rumi's public life then began: he became an Islamic Jurist, issuing fatwas and giving sermons in the mosques of Konya. He also served as a Molvi (Islamic teacher) and taught his adherents in the madrassa. During this period, Rumi also travelled to Damascus and is said to have spent four years there.
It was his meeting with the dervish Shams-e Tabrizi on 15 November 1244 that completely changed his life. From an accomplished teacher and jurist, Rumi was transformed into an ascetic.
On the night of 5 December 1248, as Rumi and Shams were talking, Shams was called to the back door. He went out, never to be seen again. Rumi's love for, and his bereavement at the death of, Shams found their expression in an outpouring of lyric poems, Divan-e Shams-e Tabrizi. He himself went out searching for Shams and journeyed again to Damascus.
Rumi found another companion in Salaḥ ud-Din-e Zarkub, a goldsmith. After Salah ud-Din's death, Rumi's scribe and favourite student, Hussam-e Chalabi, assumed the role of Rumi's companion. Hussam implored Rumi to write more. Rumi spent the next 12 years of his life in Anatolia dictating the six volumes of this masterwork, the Masnavi, to Hussam.
In December 1273, Rumi fell ill and died on the 17th of December in Konya.
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Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews
September 5, 2012
Find a way to your innermost secret.
Let no other perception distract you.
You, yourself, possess the elixir,
so rub it into your skin,
and by this alchemy
your inner enemies will become friends.
And as you are made beautiful,
the Beautiful One will become your own,
the intimate of your once lonely spirit.
Mathnawi VI, 3095-3097
Let no other perception distract you.
You, yourself, possess the elixir,
so rub it into your skin,
and by this alchemy
your inner enemies will become friends.
And as you are made beautiful,
the Beautiful One will become your own,
the intimate of your once lonely spirit.
Mathnawi VI, 3095-3097
February 29, 2012
amazing descriptions of god and true pure love. beautiful.
August 29, 2016
I went into this expecting something magical and beautiful, but that is not what I found. I am not sure if it is a bad translation, if I just didn't like this particular set of poems but would enjoy his others, or if I don't like Rumi at all. Though that seems unlikely because I've seen quotes of his online that I loved. For whatever reason, I had to force myself to read this, line by line, poem by poem. At rimes it was almost painful to have to do so. I will try again, with a different book and a different translator, but this specific book did nothing for me.
March 23, 2014
Wonderfully insightful and soulful. Filled with metaphors of love that only life itself can manifest as pure truths.
June 21, 2012
My 2 main problems with this was
1) it was too religious
2) it got sort of repetitive
1:
The thing is that organized religion tends to stir this aversion in me. This might seem odd, as I am a believer myself, not an atheist, but there seems to be a world of difference between the God/Goddes/Power/Source (I have many names for it) that I believe in, and the God(s) of traditional religions like Christianity, Judaism and Islam (that I know of).
I just dont believe in a god who hands out rewards and punishments, who differentiates, who demands obedience, who is/feels superior and who can be cruel. I just dont. Which is why most some of these poems just put me off. It's just too much of a celebration of a God, who doesnt seem all that likeable or relateable to me. I think of the human life as being in collaboration with God, not as direteced and judged by a mighty, superior god, as these poems are pointing at.
That said, here and there, there are some points and lines that I tought were wellput and beautiful and that I could relate to. They were mostly about the human life, though.
2:
If you have read a handful of these poems, you have more or less read them all. Seriously, I couldnt really distinguish one from another, they were all more or less about the same thing, said in very similar ways. It got old really fast.
And the metaphors for the jubilation Rumi was trying to portray always reverted to wine and drunkeness .
Besides making me wonder if Rumi was an alchoholic or something, it was just tiring, boring and made me lose some of the respect for him. If you only got one metaphor for something, how good of a writer are you? Seriously, try a different metaphor, ok? We get it. Love flows like wine and you get drunk on it. Now, depict it in a different way or move on to a different topic.
I know I am.
1) it was too religious
2) it got sort of repetitive
1:
The thing is that organized religion tends to stir this aversion in me. This might seem odd, as I am a believer myself, not an atheist, but there seems to be a world of difference between the God/Goddes/Power/Source (I have many names for it) that I believe in, and the God(s) of traditional religions like Christianity, Judaism and Islam (that I know of).
I just dont believe in a god who hands out rewards and punishments, who differentiates, who demands obedience, who is/feels superior and who can be cruel. I just dont. Which is why
That said, here and there, there are some points and lines that I tought were wellput and beautiful and that I could relate to. They were mostly about the human life, though.
2:
If you have read a handful of these poems, you have more or less read them all. Seriously, I couldnt really distinguish one from another, they were all more or less about the same thing, said in very similar ways. It got old really fast.
And the metaphors for the jubilation Rumi was trying to portray always reverted to wine and drunkeness .
Besides making me wonder if Rumi was an alchoholic or something, it was just tiring, boring and made me lose some of the respect for him. If you only got one metaphor for something, how good of a writer are you? Seriously, try a different metaphor, ok? We get it. Love flows like wine and you get drunk on it. Now, depict it in a different way or move on to a different topic.
I know I am.
August 9, 2017
This edition of Jalludin Rumi's thought and love is something I rely on. His mysticism moves me away from the world of black and white on the one hand and the world of ever increasing speed of supposed information transfer and communication which I find can be confusing and disheartening. Rumi appeals to me because I can imagine a long ago much different culture and feel the values pouring through time.
July 15, 2022
Another beautiful book!
February 26, 2012
Will come back to these poems time and time again...
September 21, 2012
I would have liked this a lot more if it had been less religious.
March 3, 2016
Just not my cup of tea. It was a gift from someone, so not something I would have normally picked up otherwise.
March 28, 2014
Total bliss, beautiful translations!
November 27, 2020
I gave it two stars , although I love Rumi’s poem. Maybe it’s the translation !
My favorite Quotes :
But you are not a single “you”
My friend- you are the wide sky and the deep sea
Your awesome “you”, which is nine hundredfold ,
Is where a hundred of your you’s will drown
———————————————————————————————
It is difficult to speak to your ripeness
You may still be in your springtime
Unaware that autumn exists
This world is a tree to which we cling-
We, the half ripe fruit upon it
The immature fruit clings tightly to the branch
Because , not yet ripe, it’s unfit for the palace.
My favorite Quotes :
But you are not a single “you”
My friend- you are the wide sky and the deep sea
Your awesome “you”, which is nine hundredfold ,
Is where a hundred of your you’s will drown
———————————————————————————————
It is difficult to speak to your ripeness
You may still be in your springtime
Unaware that autumn exists
This world is a tree to which we cling-
We, the half ripe fruit upon it
The immature fruit clings tightly to the branch
Because , not yet ripe, it’s unfit for the palace.
May 27, 2017
Really moving and thought provoking. I appreciate the simplicity and total lack of arrogance, which I don't often feel in poetry. I felt carried away by the words, and that's just in translation. Would recommend! Also, I could stand to read it a few more times to really absorb the meaning and feeling of the later poems.
One nice quote in particular:
If you yearn for holy felicity,
shed your arrogance
and become a seeker of hearts.
One nice quote in particular:
If you yearn for holy felicity,
shed your arrogance
and become a seeker of hearts.
October 18, 2022
Onto Thee, O Beloved, do i yearn to turn all my love, so as nothing remains of me but Thee and Thee alone in all do i seek till it come through... O Beloved Lord, I love Thee alone, and as thou dwellest in the hearts of all Thine true lovers, O Lord I beseech Thee, O Dearest of all, to guide me to those among Thine true lovers to stand the agony of these fleeting wandering days of bitter exile...
(What ghazals of Shams-e Tabriz have given me so far)
(What ghazals of Shams-e Tabriz have given me so far)
February 23, 2021
As others have said, I expected something magical and lyrical, but this was a bit tedious to get through, especially for such a small book. I would be interested in giving Rumi another try and I did like some verses in some poems enough to give this 3 stars, but... I'm glad I'm done with it.
April 11, 2025
Reading how the editors and translators bend over backwards to justify that the poetry is "totally not gay" and more spiritual in nature is more than amusing to me. I feel like that these translations lost a dimension of Rumi because of that.
May 22, 2018
Rumi is Love. Everything is ecstatic love and one would never even guess that he's talking about a sacred spiritual journey and the connection to the Divine!
It's pure bliss!
It's pure bliss!
June 24, 2020
Divine!
November 27, 2020
It seems that I could not feel his words as they are in English, but I liked some of the poems. An Arabic version would be more attractive.
July 26, 2023
Astonishment is the bird that silences you.
It puts a lid on your kettle
so that you boil.
the quote that summarises perfectly the sensation while readint the poetry of Rumi
It puts a lid on your kettle
so that you boil.
the quote that summarises perfectly the sensation while readint the poetry of Rumi
Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews