Product Description

"Not since the popularity of The Prophet by Kahlil Gibran in the 1960s has a poet made such a dent in American Culture. And if any one person could be said to be responsible for the Rumi renaissance, it would have to be Coleman Barks." --The New York Times (12/6/98)

In 1244, the brilliant scholar Rumi and the dynamic wandering dervish Shams of Tabriz met and immediately felt a deep spiritual connection to one another. "The glance," this mystical experience that occurs in the meeting of the eyes between the lover and the beloved, parent and child, friend and friend, taps a major, yet little-explored theme in Rumi's poetry. Following on the success of The Essential Rumi bestselling translator and poet Coleman Barks brings the spontaneous love lyrics of The Glance. These powerful, complex and all newly translated poems range from ethereal to everyday and express the unique place of human desire, longing, and ecstasy--where in the meeting of eyes there occurs not just the union of two souls but the crux of the universe.

In an illuminating and deeply personal introduction Barks explores the meaning of the glance that allows us to experience love as a presence all around us and always available. He speaks of its many paradoxes: the sweetness of grief, the freedom of limits, the warmth of nakedness, the eloquence of silence. Here, in this exquisitely packaged work, is a new kind of lyric love for our time--one of connection, wholeness, and belonging.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #354143 in Books
• Published on: 2001-08-30
• Original language: English
• Dimensions: .38" h x 5.06" w x 8.51" l, .32 pounds
• Binding: Paperback
• 128 pages

From Booklist
When the great Persian poet Rumi met Shams, his spiritual teacher, the soul-shattering and soul-making encounter and the friendship and ultimate loss that followed became the stuff of poetic legend. In this collection of work culled from the much longer book colloquially referred to as "The Shams," popular Rumi translator Barks focuses on ravishing poems of love and loss that can be read as sexual, relational, spiritual, or all three, for in the context of Rumi's embracing philosophy, soul and body and emotion are not separate but parts of the great mystery of earthly life, a question whose answer is love. Here are some of the most beautiful love lyrics ever spoken (Rumi composed orally rather than in writing), direct and passionate and profound: "out of eternity / I turned my face to you, and into / eternity / we have been in / love that long." Barks' translations are justly famous for their bell-like clarity and sharp simplicity. A highly desirable book, in all senses of desire. Patricia Monaghan

From Kirkus Reviews
The Glance ($18.00; Oct.; 112 pp.; 0-670-88755-2): A new translation of a cycle of ancient poems written by the great 13th- century Sufi scholar. Rumi is most widely known in the West for his love poetry, which has enjoyed a tremendous popular revival in the last few years. Here, he works within the framework of the ghazal, a Persian poem closest in form to the English sonnet, and attempts to convey some sense of the wonder he felt at his friendship with Shams of Tabriz, an itinerant dervish he met in 1244. Almost at first sight, an intense bond sprang up between the two, each acknowledging the other as soulmate and guide, in the tradition of Dante and Beatrice. Their relations centered in the spiritual life, with Tabriz introducing Rumi to ecstatic dancing and meditations of the dervishes, though Rumi described the friendship in almost erotic termsI see my beauty in you. I become / a mirror that cannot close its eyes / to your longing...that convey the intensity of his feeling. Barkss translation is fluid and clear, further strengthening his reputation as one of the foremost Rumi experts writing in English today. (Viking also plans to offer a CD version in October that will feature 12 of Rumis poems enhanced with music.) -- Copyright ©1999, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

About the Author
Coleman Barks's numerous books on Rumi include the bestselling The Essential Rumi and The Illuminated Rumi. A former professor of literature at the University of Georgia, he lives in Athens, Georgia.