Jewels of Remembrance: A Daybook of Spiritual Guidance: Containing 365 Selections from the Wisdom of ... Rumi

The current popularity of the 13th-century Sufi saint Jalaluddin Rumi's vast body of poetry stems in part from the Helminskis themselves--from their previous graceful Rumi translations and from their many other contributions to fueling Western interest in Sufism. In Rumi: Daylight (1994), another ""Daybook,"" the couple translated excerpts from the first two of the six books contained in the Mathnawi, the Rumi masterpiece frequently called ""the Koran in the Persian tongue."" Now they follow here with a companion volume drawn from Books III and IV. A sparkling collection, Jewels is destined to refreshen for today's readers the liveliness, wit and sensuousness of Rumi's transcendent vision of the ""complete"" person questing to be reunited with the ""Beloved,"" one of the poet's names for Allah or God. Rumi enthusiasts, both new and veteran, are notoriously ravenous for new insights, and the Helminskis continue generously to provide just that. (July)