I have grown up hearing about and reading Rumi's poetry. My dad is the one who taught his poetry to my sister and I, my whole family actually. I like his poetry because one, I loved the rhymes, and two, I loved the stories. "Masnavi Ma'navi" is a series of six books of poetry that together amount to around 25,000 verses or 50,000 lines. Rumi is internationally known and all over the world, people praise and study his beautiful poetry. His poetry, beautiful, inspirational, and very much instructional has captured the hearts of many. In fact, many refer to Rumi's poetry as the "second" Quran or Bible as there are many Quranic verses and teachings integrated as well.
There's another book that Rumi has written, maybe a bit less known than his very famous one, named "Divan-e Shams". "A collection of lyric poems that contains more than 40,000 verses, it is written in the New Persian language and is considered one of the greatest works of Persian literature."--Wiki
This one is the lesser known though in so many ways the more beautiful. Shams Tabrizi was Rumi's spiritual teacher and friend. Rumi writes about his devotion to him and the love that he experienced for the Beloved, God.
As I mentioned, I have grown up reading and hearing about Rumi's poetry, especially the Masnavi Manavi one. However, I grew up in America and though my only source was my father who is an expert in this field, it was and still is very difficult to read the poetry in Persian on my own. If I have my dad next to me, I can read it and he can interpret it or help me interpret it. However, now, on my own living many miles away from him, it's a different story. As far as confidences go, I am also not particularly confident about my reading abilities in Persian. I came to the U.S. when I was in the 5th grade so the highest level of education that I completed in Iran was the 4th grade. So basically, I have the knowledge of a fourth grader, regardless of the fact that I am 28 years old, having completed my Masters with years of experience. When it comes to Persian language, though a native speaker, I am very weak when it comes to reading and writing. My literacy has improved immensely in the past four years as I have been living between Iran and the US. I even worked at an office and did serious administrative tasks requiring me to write reports and letters in the mother tongue in Iran. So, I have definitely improved a lot. However, reading poetry and reading Rumi poetry at that, is a difficult task even for an Iranian who was born and raised in Iran. The language is similar (and perhaps more difficult in comparison) to reading Shakespeare or the Canterbury Tales.
Yet, I have recently found myself trying to break this barrier because I find myself being pulled towards reading "Divan-e Shams" for quite some time now. I can't describe the feeling but I keep on feeling like something is missing in my life and I keep remembering his poetry and as soon as I read it a bit, I feel better. Still, I don't want anyone to know what I'm doing. For some reason, this new intense pull I have is something that is so precious to me that I just don't want anyone to ruin it. I feel like I'm already just so fragile when it comes to my endeavors of trying to read in Farsi or write in Farsi that with the slightest breeze, I might just fall down and never get back up again. Thus, I have secretly started this new adventure of reading Shams in secret. I've recently shared my secret desire with a good friend who is as obsessed with his poetry as I am, and much more. She, too was pulled towards Rumi and started with his Divan-e Shams books. She introduced a book I can read (which I found out my dad did own it and it is with my sister in Oakland. I am planning on getting it from her when I go visit her in October.) And until I can get the recommended book, my friend has kindly agreed to send me random poems from the book of Shams on Telegram.
It is so beautiful how as soon as you realize your desire to do something and maybe even speak it out and send it on to the universe, the universe works to help you to get what you desire. Of course, the actual labor of reading it and trying to make sense out of it on my own is all up to me the universe can't transfer the knowledge onto my head. However, the universe has worked to create this opportunity for this to happen if I so desire and I'm truly thankful.
There's another book that Rumi has written, maybe a bit less known than his very famous one, named "Divan-e Shams". "A collection of lyric poems that contains more than 40,000 verses, it is written in the New Persian language and is considered one of the greatest works of Persian literature."--Wiki
This one is the lesser known though in so many ways the more beautiful. Shams Tabrizi was Rumi's spiritual teacher and friend. Rumi writes about his devotion to him and the love that he experienced for the Beloved, God.
As I mentioned, I have grown up reading and hearing about Rumi's poetry, especially the Masnavi Manavi one. However, I grew up in America and though my only source was my father who is an expert in this field, it was and still is very difficult to read the poetry in Persian on my own. If I have my dad next to me, I can read it and he can interpret it or help me interpret it. However, now, on my own living many miles away from him, it's a different story. As far as confidences go, I am also not particularly confident about my reading abilities in Persian. I came to the U.S. when I was in the 5th grade so the highest level of education that I completed in Iran was the 4th grade. So basically, I have the knowledge of a fourth grader, regardless of the fact that I am 28 years old, having completed my Masters with years of experience. When it comes to Persian language, though a native speaker, I am very weak when it comes to reading and writing. My literacy has improved immensely in the past four years as I have been living between Iran and the US. I even worked at an office and did serious administrative tasks requiring me to write reports and letters in the mother tongue in Iran. So, I have definitely improved a lot. However, reading poetry and reading Rumi poetry at that, is a difficult task even for an Iranian who was born and raised in Iran. The language is similar (and perhaps more difficult in comparison) to reading Shakespeare or the Canterbury Tales.
Yet, I have recently found myself trying to break this barrier because I find myself being pulled towards reading "Divan-e Shams" for quite some time now. I can't describe the feeling but I keep on feeling like something is missing in my life and I keep remembering his poetry and as soon as I read it a bit, I feel better. Still, I don't want anyone to know what I'm doing. For some reason, this new intense pull I have is something that is so precious to me that I just don't want anyone to ruin it. I feel like I'm already just so fragile when it comes to my endeavors of trying to read in Farsi or write in Farsi that with the slightest breeze, I might just fall down and never get back up again. Thus, I have secretly started this new adventure of reading Shams in secret. I've recently shared my secret desire with a good friend who is as obsessed with his poetry as I am, and much more. She, too was pulled towards Rumi and started with his Divan-e Shams books. She introduced a book I can read (which I found out my dad did own it and it is with my sister in Oakland. I am planning on getting it from her when I go visit her in October.) And until I can get the recommended book, my friend has kindly agreed to send me random poems from the book of Shams on Telegram.
It is so beautiful how as soon as you realize your desire to do something and maybe even speak it out and send it on to the universe, the universe works to help you to get what you desire. Of course, the actual labor of reading it and trying to make sense out of it on my own is all up to me the universe can't transfer the knowledge onto my head. However, the universe has worked to create this opportunity for this to happen if I so desire and I'm truly thankful.
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