The Hand of Poetry, Revised Edition

by Hazrat Inayat Khan, Coleman Barks (Translator)

Overview

Lectures and new translations illuminating the work of Persia’s mystic poets.
The Hand of Poetry offers entry into the world of beauty and truth. Seven lectures on Persian poetry given by Hazrat Inayat Khan are followed by some of the poetry he discusses, including pieces from Sanai, Attar, Rumi, Saadi, and Hafiz—all newly translated by the poet Coleman Barks. This revised edition also includes two additional chapters by Hazrat Inayat Khan, drawn from original source material.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780930872854
Publisher:	Omega Publications
Publication date:	02/01/2012
Edition description:	Revised
Pages:	237
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.70(d)

About the Author

Hazrat Inayat Khan (1882 1927) came to Europe and America from his native India with a message of love, harmony, and beauty that was a new approach to harmonizing Western and Eastern spirituality. He established a school of spiritual training based upon traditional Sufi teachings infused with the vision of the unity of religious ideals and the awakening of humanity to the divinity within. Inayat Khan died in India in 1927, leaving a significant body of recorded discourse and instruction on all things pertaining to spiritual ideals in the midst of life in the world.

Coleman Barks is a renowned poet and the bestselling interpreter of Sufi poetry. He has translated more than a dozen volumes of Rumi’s poetry, including The Illuminated Rumi (1997) and The Essential Rumi (1995), often in collaboration with Persian scholar John Moyne. Barks was prominently featured in both of Bill Moyers’s PBS television series on poetry, The Language of Life, and he has collaboratively produced his Rumi translations with music and dance ensembles including the Paul Winter Consort and Zuleikha. In 2004 Barks received the Juliet Hollister Award for his work supporting interfaith understanding, and in 2006 the University of Tehran awarded Barks an honorary doctorate in recognition of his contributions to the field of Rumi translation. Barks’s translations are noted for their accessible lyricism.

Table of Contents

Foreword Donald Graham ix

Publishers Preface to the 2011 Revised Edition xv

Translator's Preface Coleman Barks xvii

The Mystic Poets of Persia Hazrat Inayat Khan

The Poet and the Prophet 3

The Mystic Poets of Persia I 11

The Mystic Poets of Persia II 17

Sanai: The Good Darkness Coleman Barks

Translator's Introduction 27

Teaching Schoolboys 29

Streaming 31

The Wild Rose of Praise 33

Energetic Work 34

The Good Darkness 35

Naked in the Bee-House 37

Earthworm Guidance 41

The Puzzle 43

The Time Needed 44

A Soul's Journey Through the Time-Worlds 45

Fariduddin Attar Hazrat Inayat Khan 53

Attar: Street Sweeper Coleman Barks Translator's Introduction 63

The Woman Who Dressed as a Man 65

Listening to the Reed Flute 73

Street-Sweeper 74

Looking for Your Own Face 75

The Newborn 76

Mysticism 77

From The Conference of the Birds 78

Jelaluddin Rumi Hazrat Inayat Khan 83

Rumi: Birdsong Moving Through Us Like Rain Coleman Barks

Translator's Introduction 95

We Point to the New Moon 97

The Reed Flute 98

Full Moon, Bilal 100

Say Who I Am 106

Blessing the Marriage 108

A Story Shams Told 109

Dying 110

New Moon, Hilal 113

You don't win here with loud publicity 119

Humble living does not diminish 120

Some souls flow like clear water 121

A craftsman pulled a reed 122

They say I tell the truth 123

Don't try to hold on to this 124

Leave, with your scholarship 125

Friend, this talking about you 126

You that hand me this cup 127

Now 128

The Lame Goat 129

Sheikh Muslihuddin Saadi Hazrat Inayat Khan 133

Saadi: A Wife and a Wasps' Nest Coleman Barks

Translator's Introduction 143

I heard of a man once 145

A certain man, completely naked 146

A powerful, but moody, man 147

A man had a beautiful wife 148

They put a crow in the cage with a parrot 149

I asked a scholar 150

A dervish's wife was pregnant 151

Having tired of the company 152

In Baghdad an old man 153

The King of Arabia heard the story 154

A certain man entered the city 155

Whoever advises a self-sufficient man 156

This happened when I was young 157

One night I was thinking 158

Khwaja Shamsuddin Mohammed Hafiz Hazrat Inayat Khan 161

Hafiz: A Dazzling Turn Coleman Barks

Translators Introduction 171

The Quarry 175

The Wild Deer 176

Renunciation, and the Other Mystery 178

The Substance You Taste 179

Pour Me More 180

The Danger 181

The Zikr Circle 182

The Wind of an Opening Rose 193

A Daughter 184

Your Gestures 185

Growing Tulips 186

Midnight Question 187

Almost Empty 188

I See 189

The Brim 190

Ruknabad 191

Allahu Akbar Pass 192

My Response to Your Offer 193

Lost 194

Shiraz 195

Water Running Together 196

The Signal to Begin 197

The Banquet 198

Shhh 199

A Shift in the Breeze 200

That Moment in This 201

Taking a Riddle into the Tavern 202

Remember 203

The New Guide 204

Inscriptions Over the Door 205

The Wine of the Question 206

Returning 207

A Note on These Translations Coleman Barks 209

Sources 211

About Coleman Barks 215

About Hazrat Inayat Khan 217