RUMI: THE BOOK OF LOVE: Poems of Ecstasy and Longing

Coleman Barks, Jalal Al-Din Rumi, . . HarperSanFrancisco, $21.95 (240pp) ISBN 978-0-06-052316-9

Though his English-only translations of the Sufi poet Jelaluddin Rumi (1207–1273) have sold hundreds of thousands of copies, Barks is anything but celebratory in his preface to this new collection: "I have sold too many books....This love poetry is meant to obliterate you lovers....This is not Norman Vincent Peale urging cheerfulness, conventional morality, and soft focus, white-light and feel-good, nor is this New Age tantric energy exchange." (Feb.)

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