The Masnavi

The Oxford World Classics is an iconic series in the world of literature. It helps bring the classics of the world to the average reader, often works that would be ignored by the average reader unless they were introduced to them in this easily accessible way. Like the other books in this series we get to explore ancient literature of the Near East, and in this case the classic author named Rumi. This is the third, of six, books of his epic length poem on spirituality, grace, and the soul of man. He crosses many faiths, beliefs, and philosophies to help bring a clearer picture of what man could be. Being the middle book it would be helpful if the reader had read the previous two. But this is excellent for a short introduction to Rumi’s work, and how poetry helped shaped society back in the ancient world.

The translation is a fairly good job, with a short introduction to introduce the work, place it in its context and then examine the larger role it had shaping world literature. The actual poem is fairly readable, though it can be quite lengthy, and therefore daunting for most people.