Rumi: A Daybook

~* RUMI* ~ A Daybook Translation & Introduction by Paul Smith The great Sufi Master and poet Jalal-ud-din Rumi was born in 1207 in Balkh. Rumi’s love and his great longing for the Perfect Master Shams –e Tabriz found expression in music, dance, songs and poems in his collection of poems/songs or Divan. This vast work included thousands of ghazals and other poetic forms and nearly two thousand ruba’is which he would compose for many years, before he became a God-realised Perfect Master himself and also afterwards. Most of the poems in this Daybook are taken from his collection of ruba’is, but there are also selected couplets from his ghazals and his profound Masnavi. Introduction on his Life and Times, Selected Bibliography. The correct rhyme-structure has been kept in all 366 poems. Pages 383. COMMENTS ON PAUL SMITH’S TRANSLATION OF HAFIZ’S ‘DIVAN’. “It is not a joke... the English version of ALL the ghazals of Hafiz is a great feat and of paramount importance. I am astonished. If he comes to Iran I will kiss the fingertips that wrote such a masterpiece inspired by the Creator of all.” Dr. Mir Mohammad Taghavi (Dr. of Literature) Tehran. “Superb translations. 99% Hafiz 1% Paul Smith.” Ali Akbar Shapurzman, translator of English to Persian and knower of Hafiz’s Divan off by heart. “Smith has probably put together the greatest collection of literary facts and history concerning Hafiz.” Daniel Ladinsky (Penguin Books author). Paul Smith is a poet, author and translator of over 80 books of Sufi poets of Persian, Arabic, Urdu, Turkish and other languages including Hafiz, Sadi, Nizami, Rumi, ‘Attar, Sana’i, Jahan Khatun, Obeyd Zakani, Mu’in, Amir Khusrau, Nesimi, Kabir, Anvari, Ansari, Jami, Khayyam, Mansur Hallaj, Rudaki, Yunus Emre, Mahsati, Bulleh Shah, Shah Latif, Lalla Ded, Mu’in and many others, as well as his own poetry, fiction, plays, biographies, children’s books and 12 screenplays.