Open Secret : Versions of Rumi,
Paperback - 91 pages,
by Mawlana Jalaludin Rumi,
Translated by John Moyne & Coleman Barks.


Description :

These quatrains and odes reveal a most human and accessible side of the great poet and mystic. They are the personal records of one man's encounter with the Divine.


"Best poetry in translation (1984)" _{--- Bloomsbury Review}.

"Writer's Choice Award"_{---National Endowment for the Arts}.

 
"Felicitous new translations of Rumi, the witty and mystical, Villon-like poet... These reflections on love, the dance of selves, happiness, acceptance of life's sorrows, and the transitory nature of joy are touchingly sensitive in their search for philosophical peace of mind." _{---Library Journal}.

"These poems reach out, giving us a sense of wonderment and longing." _{---William Stafford, National Endowment for the Arts}.


Excerpt from Open Secret ---


''Say Yes Quickly''

Forget your life. Say God is Great. Get up.
You think you know what time it is. It's time to pray.
You've carved so many little figurines, too many.
Don't knock on any random door like a beggar.
Reach your long hands out to another door, beyond where
you go on the street, the street
where everyone says, "How are you?"
and no one says How aren't you?

 
Tomorrow you'll see what you've broken and torn tonight,
thrashing in the dark. Inside you
there's an artist you don't know about.
He's not interested in how things look different in moonlight.