Poetry / Poems

Book SynopsisJalaloddin Rumi’s Masnavi-ye Ma'navi, or ‘Spiritual Couplets’, composed in the 13th Century, is a monumental work of poetry in the Sufi tradition of Islamic mysticism. For centuries before his love poetry became a literary phenomenon in the West, Rumi’s Masnavi had been revered in the Islamic world as its greatest mystical text. Drawing upon a vast array of characters, stories and fables, and deeply versed in spiritual teaching, it takes us on a profound and playful journey of discovery along the path of divine love, toward its ultimate goal of union with the source of all Truth. In Book 1 of the Masnavi, the first of six volumes, Rumi opens the spiritual path towards higher spiritual understanding. Alan Williams's authoritative new translation is rendered in highly readable blank verse and includes the original Persian text for reference, and with explanatory notes along the way. True to the spirit of Rumi’s poem, this new translation establishes the Masnavi as one of the world’s great literary achievements for a global readership. Translated with an introduction, notes and analysis by Alan Williams and including the Persian text edited by Mohammad Este'lami.Trade Review‘This new verse translation of the Masnavi, the mystical masterpiece of the greatest and best-loved of Persian poets, Jalaloddin Rumi, is a literary event of the first importance. Alan Williams has made it his principal life’s work to present the profound spirituality of this towering poet of peerless spiritual and psychological insight – a poet for the ages and for all people – in a form that is accessible to readers of today.’ * Carole Hillenbrand, Emeritus Professor, University of Edinburgh, UK *In mid-thirteenth century, as the Mongol hordes were destroying the fabled city of Baghdad, in the small city of Konya to the northwest Rumi was erecting a world of mystical vision in words whose amazing architectonics and blinding beauty would prove hard to imagine and harder to grasp with any sense of immediacy. In Alan Williams' English translation of the Spiritual Couplets, we finally stand a chance not only to access that vision in all its inner glory and eternal grandeur, but ultimately to gain an immediate sense of its graceful relevance not just to our time but to all of humanity through the millennia. * Ahmad Karimi-Hakkak, author of Recasting Persian Poetry *Alan Williams brings us an English version of that epic spiritual masterpiece which is both reliable and fluently readable. The Introduction provides an indispensable key to the Masnavi’s sudden, bewildering shifts between multiple dramatic voices and perspectives, the distinctive feature which makes this poem, for every reader, “the mirror of our innermost state.” * Professor James W. Morris, Boston College, USA *While maintaining the Persian flavour of Rumi’s epic and lyric virtuosities, this superior translation by Alan Williams brings Rumi fully to life in English. Professor Williams combines his erudition and sophistication as a scholar with his poetic flair, to do justice to Rumi’s sublime poetry for a modern readership. * Ali-Asghar Seyed-Ghorab, Associate Professor of Persian, Leiden University, The Netherlands *The Masnavi’s new English translation is the publishing event of the year. At the hands of Alan Williams, Rumi’s “cumulative polyphony” resembles a Shakespeare play where the poet speaks ‘in one character after another . . .’ This monumental poem’s opening couplet, among the most captivating ever written, fills my heart with sadness every time I read it: “Listen to this reed as it is grieving, / it tells the story of our separations”. Who could stop listening to this music after hearing these first notes? * Kaya Genc, author of The Lion and the Nightingale *Table of ContentsPreface Chronology Introduction Further Reading Note on the Translation English translation of the Masnavi Book 1 Notes to Rumi’s Preface Notes to the Masnavi Book 1 Appendix: Analytical Index of the Stories and Discourses of Masnavi Book One Index Persian Text of the Masnavi Book 1, Edited by Mohammad Este?lami

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Book SynopsisThe dramatic, eccentric, startling poetry of V.R. 'Bunny' Lang, rediscovered and in print for the first time since 1975.

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Book SynopsisCome Here to This Gate is a three-part collection, focusing variously on caring for an alcoholic father with dementia, the personal and global conflicts that shape our lives, and what happens when imps, ghosts and boggarts have to reckon with the modern world.

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Book SynopsisRita Ann Higgins' poetry became a national salve during the pandemic, uniquely capturing the mood of the country as read live on radio from RTÉ's Brendan O'Connor Show. This collection of poetry, containing the bank holiday poems heard on the show and many others, sets a tone for all seasons. From bank holidays to saints' days and many other annual celebrations on the Irish calendar year, they are at times uplifting, at times nostalgic, always reflective of real life. With poems such as Lúnasa, I Thought Saw St. Brigit Today, My Mother Loved Me in Red, The Púca, Visiting My Father at Christmas and All Souls' Day, The Long Weekend leaves no question that Rita Ann Higgins is the people's poet.

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Book SynopsisOriginally published in 2000 by Polygon to mark the 250th anniversary of Fergusson''s birth, this new edition contains all Fergusson''s finest poems in both Scots and English, and features a new introductory essay, revised orthography, a substantial section of notes and a glossary.Acknowledged as a crucial influence on Burns, Robert Fergusson was a remarkable poet in his own right. All his work was produced during a few brief years, delighting readers with its vigour and power. Although he wrote much verse in the then fashionable style of Augustan English, it is his Scots verse which, in its great warmth, humanity, satire, and hilarious comedy, is his enduring legacy.His work covers the whole gamut of human emotions and experience and his subject matter ranges from drunken encounters with the notorious City Guard to quieter reflections on pastoral themes. Fergusson died in 1774 at the age of only 24.

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Book SynopsisTaha Muhammad Ali (1931-2011) was a much celebrated Palestinian poet whose work is driven by a storyteller’s vivid imagination, disarming humour and unflinching honesty. Born in rural Galilee, Muhammad Ali was left without a home when his village was destroyed during the Arab-Israeli war of 1948. Out of this history of shared loss and survival, he created art of the first order. His poems portray experiences ranging from catastrophe to splendour, all the while preserving an essential human dignity. Poetry Book Society Recommended Translation.

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Book SynopsisA book of portraits, experiments and objects made of words; they find their locations between Cape Town and London, between the dawn of the new millennium and the present day.

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Book SynopsisUn Nuevo Sol: British LatinX Writers is the first major anthology of UK-based writers of Latin American heritage, a vibrant, new vanguard in British literature. Representing a community that is the eighth biggest in London, one of the fastest growing and best educated, numbering over 200,000 nationally, the work featured here includes fiction, poetry and theatre that exhibits the stunning fluidity with which the writers inhabit their hybrid heritage. Of the ten writers assembled here, some were born in Latin America and came to the UK in their twenties, others are second generation and have a British parent, but their work shares a fierceness, a playfulness with language and a sly political edge. Playing with form, genre, silence and coding, the resulting work channels and celebrates the rich mythology and scope of Latin American literature, but carries a uniquely British gene - a bit of banter, a flash of restrained cheek. It is no accident that some of the contributors are published and have growing international reputations - for example, Brazilian-British novelist Luiza Sauma (Penguin/Viking) and prize-winning Argentinian-British poet Leo Boix (Chatto). The book also includes an interview with the writer-actress Gael Le Cornec, exploring issues of identity, multiple heritage and displacement.

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Book SynopsisBebe Ashely's prizewinning second collection charts the poet's efforts to qualify as a British Sign Language interpreter. Intershot with enquiries into the nature of language as it is spoken and signed, how our medium of communication shapes our words, and the process of leaving and finding home, Harbour Doubts is a collection that tangles with the burning desire to communicate in the isolation of a late capitalist, post-pandemic world. It's also a love letter to the delights of linguistics and language, a three-dimensional exploration of words and the body. Bringing together meditations on language as mediated through sound, sign, vision, and film, this exciting sophomore collection cements Bebe Ashley's reputation as a fearless experimenter.

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Book Synopsis*The Verses of Hurting and Healing* is a poetry collection divided into two phases: Mohi (hurting) and Kabir (healing). Written and illustrated by the author, it speaks to allâthose whoâve healed, are healing, or struggling to move on. A heartfelt journey of love, loss, and self-discovery.

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