intro. kind of a fanatic about translations. especially translations of sufi poetry. so much controversy. so many good translators also. i’ve done a fair amount of non-academic research in this area which i wish to document in one place. so going to slowly thread-tweet a blog post here.
a bibliography follows at the end of this post with image links to each book mentioned below.
note: Amazon no longer allow images but the link on the broken image still works.
1. hallaj. begin at the beginning, arguably (more in 2) d.
922. famously said ”i am the truth” and was decapitated for saying it. the
go-to here is ‘hallaj: poems of a sufi martyr’ translated by carl w. ernst, who
also wrote the shambhala guide to sufism, a good general overview.
one can’t avoid the zealous work of louis massignon trans by
herbert mason when involved in the life and works of hallaj, but that would
cost 250 for the 4 volume life and i’m not there yet. but the brilliant
translations (and introduction) by ernst will work extremely well:
2. rabia. d. 801. proto-sufi and woman poet. don’t have a
go-to here but charles upton’s ‘doorkeeper of the heart: versions of rabia’
looks intriguing despite that unnerving subtitle. upton was an early sf beat
poet and later a sufi. says if rumi is the ocean, rabia is the well.
3. sanai. d.1131. his gem is the enclosed garden of truth
translated in 1910 by stephenson. but kieron d. moore has versified, corrected,
rearranged, researched, and footnoted that rendition in his 2016 publication
for my 2.99 kindle go-to. sanai is the soul’s two eyes says rumi.
4. attar. d.1221. classic is conference of the birds. 4
translations i know: nott 1954, davis/arbandi 1984, avery 1998, wolpe 2017.
went with nott’s prose because connection to gurdjieff. davis is rhymed
couplets. wolpe is verse/prose. avery is annotated & would go with him now.
5. ibn farid. d.1235. the wine ode and poem of the sufi way.
splendid works. ‘ibn al-farid: sufi verse, saintly life’ translation by homerin
is the unquestionable go-to. sublime scholar. look i don’t want to be that guy
but i’d suggest staying away from the ubiquitous paul smith.
6. ibn arabi. d.1240. focusing on tarjuman al ashwaq,
ignoring all the mystical treatises, like taking the sonnets over all
shakespeare’s plays—still radiant but not blinding. nicholson’s 1911
translation (u of cal libraries reprint) is the go-to but sells will be a wait
and see.
7. rumi. d.1273. sit. this is going to take a few tweets at
least. first, there’s the masnavi. it’s called the koran in persian. then
there’s the divan-i shams-i tabrizi. 44292 verses in 3229 ghazals (formal poem)
and 1983 quatrains plus 44 others. to plumb the depths of the sea!
as to the divan, there’s arberry’s foundational translation:
‘mystical poems of rumi.’ 2 vols, 400 poems, pub in 1968 & 1979, one
magnificent vol in 2007. without arberry, there’s no coleman barks as we know
him, no poems to be let out of cages, as robert bly advised him in 1976.
ok coleman barks. there’s nothing wrong with him. has he
americanized rumi? yes. is he a translator? no. but he admits to doing versions
or transcreations, as arberry admitted being as ”literal as possible, with a
minimal concession to readability.” so i bought ‘the big red book’
for years i didn’t really get rumi until one night while
reading the transcreation/translation, helminski’s ‘love is a stranger:
selected lyric poetry of jelaluddin rumi,’ rumi got me. ah, it was paradox
found! the next day i went looking through franklin lewis’ go-to reference,
‘rumi—past and present, east and west’, and saw this: ”bly
and barks…present rumi as a guru rather calmly dispensing words of wisdom” but
he’s ”unresolved paradoxes, and do not impress the reader with a sense of
serene wisdom…but with frenetic search and longing to understand.”
as for the masnavi, i haven’t taken that plunge yet. but it
appears to be 2 worthy translations: nicholson’s 1925-40 multi-volume ‘mathnawi’
& mojaddedi’s in-progress rhymed 2004-? ‘masnavi.’
coda: so i tried transcreating 10 poems in the arberry and
know now why coleman barks:)
8. saadi. d.1291. bustan (the orchard). this is a
placeholder with translations listed but nothing known about their quality:
oldest is a 1911 prose trans. by edwards and there’s a 2004 $$$ bilingual verse
trans by wickens which includes a prose trans of the gulistan by rehatsek.
9. shabistari. d.1320. gulshan-i raz (rose garden of
secrets). again placeholder. there’s the 1920 whinfield translation, ‘the
secret rose garden’ and the 2007 translation by darr ‘the garden of mystery’
published by archetype which looks very promising. unsure on the 2018 haeri.
10. hafiz. d1389. my honest go-to true hafiz is ‘wine &
prayer: eighty ghazals from the divan of hafiz’ translated by gray & anvar.
this is my most beloved book of sufi poetry. but if a completist, the go-to is
‘the collected lyrics of hafiz of shiraz’ translated by peter avery.
now for untrue hafiz. daniel ladinsky is not a translator or
transcreator of hafiz. daniel ladinsky’s hafiz is fake hafiz. they are neither
versions nor variations of hafiz. they are ladinsky’s verse and it’s absurd
that his books are the number one result in searches for hafiz.
other hafiz translations of note. ‘the garden of heaven’
1897 by bell; $3.99. ‘fifty poems of hafiz’ 1947 by arberry. ‘the angels
knocking on the tavern door’ 2009 by bly and lewisohn. ‘faces of love’ by davis
& khatun; 2013 metrical rhymed. ‘hafez’ by squires; 2014 free verse.
in iran, hafiz is called the ‘tongue of the invisible’ and
‘interpreter of the mysteries.’ the couplets in his ghazals are individual gems
but play off each other, giving the poems a dazzling unity. but first and
foremost, there shines through every verse the moon-faced beloved.
11. kabir. d1447. unlike the priors, arab & persian,
kabir is indian. unlike the priors, all sufi, there’s question if kabir is.
he’s included here because he’s kabir and i like him. ‘kabir: the weaver’s
songs’ by dharwadker samples all the kabirs with a 96 pg intro on sources.
12. jami. d1492. the last of the great persian classical
poets. ‘four sufi classics’ from octagon press, 1984, includes pendlebury’s
abridged translation of ‘the abode of spring.’ ‘flashes of light: a treatise on
sufism’ as translated by whinfield in 1906 is available on kindle.
* an anthology and
a survey of sufi poetry.
‘islamic mystical poetry’ ed. mahmood jamal with poetry from
all the above and more. also one-page bios of each poet. various trans.
‘as through a veil’ by annemarie schimmel is the only survey of sufi poetry out there.
THE END
a very informal bibliography
with amazon image links for reference purposes (see it and buy it somewhere else if you'd prefer)
hallaj:
1 ‘hallaj: poems of a sufi martyr’ translated by carl w. ernst
rabia:
2 charles upton’s ‘doorkeeper of the heart: versions of rabia’
sanai:
3 ‘the enclosed garden of truth’ translated in 1910 by stephenson.
4 kieron d. moore ‘the enclosed garden of the truth’
attar:
5 attar. nott 1954
6 attar. davis/arbandi 1984
7 attar. avery 1998
8 attar. wolpe 2017
ibn al-farid
9 ‘ibn al-farid: sufi verse, saintly life’ translation by homerin
ibn arabi
10 tarjuman al ashwaq, nicholson’s 1911 translation (u of cal libraries reprint)
11 'the translator of desires' sells 2021
rumi
12 arberry’s ‘mystical poems of rumi.’ 2 vols, 1968 & 1979, one vol in 2007
13 coleman barks. ‘the big red book’
14 helminski’s ‘love is a stranger: selected lyric poetry of jelaluddin rumi,’
15 franklin lewis’ ‘rumi—past and present, east and west’
16 nicholson’s 1925-40 multi-volume ‘mathnawi’
17 mojaddedi’s in-progress rhymed 2004-? ‘masnavi.’
saadi
18 bustan (the orchard). 1911 prose trans. by edwards
19 bustan (the orchard). 2004 by wickens includes a prose trans of the gulistan by rehatsek.
shabistari
20 1920 whinfield translation, ‘the secret rose garden’
21 2007 translation by darr ‘the garden of mystery’ published by archetype
hafiz.
22 ‘wine & prayer: eighty ghazals from the divan of hafiz’ translated by gray & anvar.
23 ‘the collected lyrics of hafiz of shiraz’ translated by
peter avery.
24 ‘the garden of heaven’ 1897 by bell
25 ‘fifty poems of hafiz’ 1947 by arberry.
26 ‘the angels knocking on the tavern door’ 2009 by bly and lewisohn.
27 ‘faces of love’ by davis & khatun; 2013
28 ‘hafez’ by squires; 2014
kabir
29 ‘kabir: the weaver’s songs’ by dharwadker
jami
30 ‘four sufi classics’ octagon press, 1984, pendlebury’s abridged translation of ‘the abode of spring.’
31 ‘flashes of light: a treatise on sufism’ as translated by whinfield in 1906
misc
32 carl w. ernst, shambhala guide to sufism
33 ‘islamic mystical poetry’ ed. mahmood jamal
34 ‘as through a veil’ by annemarie schimmel
