The Essential Rumi; Coleman Barks
The Coleman Barks translation of Rumi's poems is truly without equal. Barks is one of those rarest birds in translated literature that "gets it." Approaching the texts with the same frenzied, breathless pace as Rumi himself did when writing them, Barks manages to convey the same odd mixture of Sufi transcendentalism, dionysian revelry, and Zen enlightenment that Rumi is renowned for. Like the "bright weaver's shuttle that flashes back and forth," Rumi's poetic heartbeat thrums "east-west, east-west." Torn between western existentialism and eastern wisdom (to say nothing of that most famous of syntheses, Islamic mysticism), Rumi truly promises something for everyone. He requires only two things, that you "drink all your passion, and be a disgrace." Check.
Here is a selection from Rumi's poem "Be Melting Snow":
Lo, I am with you always means when you look for God,
God is in the look of your eyes,
in the thought of looking, nearer to you than your self,
or things that have happened to you
There's no need to go outside.
Be melting snow.
Wash yourself of yourself.
A white flower grows in the quietness.
Let your tongue become that flower.
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