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The Translator of Desires: Poems - Paperback | Diverse Reads

The Translator of Desires: Poems

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A masterpiece of Arabic love poetry in a new and complete English translation

The Translator of Desires, a collection of sixty-one love poems, is the lyric masterwork of Muhyiddin Ibn 'Arabi (1165-1240 CE), one of the most influential writers of classical Arabic and Islamic civilization. In this authoritative volume, Michael Sells presents the first complete English translation of this work in more than a century, complete with an introduction, commentary, and a new facing-page critical text of the original Arabic. While grounded in an expert command of the Arabic, this verse translation renders the poems into a natural, contemporary English that captures the stunning beauty and power of Ibn 'Arabi's poems in such lines as "A veiled gazelle's / an amazing sight, / her henna hinting, / eyelids signalling // A pasture between / breastbone and spine / Marvel, a garden / among the flames!"

The introduction puts the poems in the context of the Arabic love poetry tradition, Ibn 'Arabi's life and times, his mystical thought, and his "romance" with Niẓām, the young woman whom he presents as the inspiration for the volume--a relationship that has long fascinated readers. Other features, following the main text, include detailed notes and commentaries on each poem, translations of Ibn 'Arabi's important prefaces to the poems, a discussion of the sources used for the Arabic text, and a glossary.

Bringing The Translator of Desires to life for contemporary English readers as never before, this promises to be the definitive volume of these fascinating and compelling poems for years to come.

ISBN-13: 9780691181349

Media Type: Paperback

Publisher: Princeton University Press

Publication Date: 04-06-2021

Pages: 368

Product Dimensions: 5.50(w) x 8.50(h) x (d)

Series: Lockert Library of Poetry in Translation #147

Michael Sells is the Barrows Professor Emeritus of the History and Literature of Islam and professor emeritus of comparative literature at the University of Chicago. He is the author of many translations and studies of classical Arabic poetry.

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

“Michael Sells has produced a book of glories, poems like dry stones in reflecting water. This collection is both a visual experience for one who can’t read Arabic and a deep literary thrill for one who can open to these translations. The threads of Quranic sound are spread in patches on the pages. Here we see fulfilled a poetics of bewilderment. Without desire, where would the future be?”—Fanny Howe, author of Love and I: Poems

“Accurate yet not overawed by the Arabic texts, this authoritative translation renders Ibn 'Arabi’s Translator of Desires into a nuanced, flexible, and accessible modern idiom that enables English readers to enjoy the delights of these poetic gems.”—James E. Montgomery, University of Cambridge

Table of Contents

Translator's Introduction xii

Acknowledgments xxxv

Note on Arabic Names xxxvii

The Translator of Desires

1 Bewildered 3

2 Release 5

3 The Offering 11

4 As Night Let Down Its Curtain 15

5 Harmony Gone 19

6 Artemisia and Moringa 23

7 Gowns of Dark 25

8 Who Forever 29

9 Soft-Eyed Graces 33

10 Mirror 35

11 Gentle Now, Doves 37

12 Sunblaze 43

13 Grief Between 47

14 Hadith of Love 53

15 Just a Flash 57

16 Star Shepherd 61

17 God Curse My Love 67

18 As Cool as Life 71

19 The Tombs of Those Who Loved Them 75

20 In a Bad Way 79

21 Your Wish 89

22 Blacksilver 93

23 Blaze 97

24 Stay Now 103

25 Vanished 109

26 Vintage of Adam 113

27 Old Shrine 117

28 No New Moon Risen 121

29 Circling 127

30 Like Sába's Lost Tribes 135

31 Áda Trail 149

32 Fifty Years 155

33 Drowning Eyes 157

34 Sweet the Gaze 159

35 You Now 161

36 Lightning over Gháda 163

37 Come Down to the Waters 165

38 A Persian Girl 169

39 Day Falls Night 171

40 Odd to Even 175

41 My Only Guide 179

42 Sign Masters 185

43 Parting's Hour 189

44 Chimera 193

45 Where Gone 197

46 Cool Lightning 199

47 The Turning 203

48 Brave 205

49 In the Ruins of My Body 209

50 Done 211

51 Nightwalker 213

52 Rídwa 215

53 Like a Doubled Letter 219

54 Dár al-Fálak 221

55 No Cure 225

56 Baghdad Song 227

57 Red Rise 231

58 Is There a Way 233

59 I Came to Know 237

60 Artemisia and Arâr 241

61 Tigris Song 243

Notes to the Poems 245

Appendix 1 Nizam Preface 281

Appendix 2 Qurrat al-'Ayn Preface 284

Appendix 3 Apologia 286

Appendix 4 Ibn 'Arabi's Poem on al-Zahra' 287

Appendix 5 Chronology of Ibn 'Arabi's Life and Times 288

Appendix 6 Establishing the Text: Manuscripts, Editions, and Method 290

Appendix 7 Annotated Chronology of Tarjuman Translations 299

Glossary 303

Notes 309