Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Love's Alchemy: Poems from the Sufi Tradition
    Love's Alchemy: Poems from the Sufi Tradition
    Love's Alchemy: Poems from the Sufi Tradition
    Ebook227 pages1 hour

    Love's Alchemy: Poems from the Sufi Tradition

    By David Fideler

    4.5/5

    ()

    Read preview

    About this ebook

    Working from the original Persian sources, translators and scholars David and Sabrineh Fideler offer faithful, elegant translations that represent the full scope of Sufi poetry. These concise, tightly focused meditations span only a few lines but reveal worlds of meaning. The poems explore many aspects of human life and the spiritual path, but they center on the liberating power of love.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherNew World Library
    Release dateFeb 9, 2011
    ISBN9781577317494
    Love's Alchemy: Poems from the Sufi Tradition

    Related to Love's Alchemy

    Related ebooks

    Islam For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      Walking With The Sufis

      Oct 7, 2020

      Walking With The Sufis
      4 min read

    • Article

      A Year in Reading: Salar Abdoh

      Dec 1, 2020

      The older I get the more I am drawn to books I know I haven’t the faintest tool to conceive of writing myself. The post A Year in Reading: Salar Abdoh appeared first on The Millions.

      11 min read

    • Article

      A History And Theory Of The Line In English Language Poetry

      Jul 1, 2022

      For me, and for generations of US readers before me, poetry has been defined by the appearance of the line break on the page, that ragged righthand margin signaling that something is at work in the arrangement of the words on paper beyond mere transc

      59 min read

    • Article

      On Memory and Literature

      Jun 30, 2021

      Now we're all possessors of personal supercomputers that can instantly connect us to whole libraries — there can seem little sense to make iambs and trochees part of one's soul. The post On Memory and Literature appeared first on The Millions.

      18 min read

    • Article

      A Poet’s Craft

      Jan 1, 2020

      To begin with a definition: A poem is a text structurally constrained by the repetition of any language element(s). The continuum of poetic constraint is extensive, stretching from operations that a reader will find completely imperceptible to overwh

      9 min read

    • Article

      Treading The Sufi’s Path

      Nov 26, 2022

      Treading The Sufi’s Path
      2 min read

    • Article

      Need A Love Poem For Your Valentine?

      Feb 10, 2020

      Poet and reviewer Elizabeth Lund shares her favorite collections of verse, perfect for reading aloud with your sweetheart this Valentine’s Day.

      3 min read

    • Article

      A Vocalist’s Vocabulary

      Jun 13, 2020

      A Vocalist’s Vocabulary
      1 min read

    • Article

      Love Is Not a Destination: The Millions Interviews Kaveh Akbar

      Jul 21, 2021

      Without some physiological sublimation of the inert font into a living poem—whether via breath or the movement of ocular muscles along a line, fingers across Braille—the poem remains ink on a page. If a poem augurs any holiness, it begins in the body

      6 min read

    • Article

      The Writing Wisdom of Derek Walcott

      Mar 20, 2017

      “The future happens,” says the philosopher in Derek Walcott’s stage retelling of Homer’s Odyssey, “No matter how much we scream.” Walcott died on Friday at the age of 87—and instead of screaming, I’m feeling grateful towards this great poet, playwrig

      7 min read

    • Article

      Songs Of The South

      Jan 9, 2020

      On a July night in Bengaluru, I sat down at a local microbrewery with Walter Hakala, the director of Asian studies at the State University of New York at Buffalo. Over beer, he told me about his latest project: a study of the Deccan region’s Urdu ins

      5 min read

    • Article

      Lost in Translation: Classical Arabic Literature

      Nov 26, 2019

      Arabic’s great riches: the centuries-old tradition of classical literature and the battle-weary corps of translators bringing it into English. The post Lost in Translation: Classical Arabic Literature appeared first on The Millions.

      7 min read

    • Article

      The Field Of Stories

      Aug 18, 2021

      The Field Of Stories
      14 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for Love's Alchemy

    4.5/5

    6 ratings1 review

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 5/5
      A simply wonderful collection of poems. I would recommend this book.

    Book preview

    Love's Alchemy - David Fideler

    MORE PRAISE FOR LOVE’S ALCHEMY

    This is a gem of a book. David Fideler and Sabrineh Fideler have crafted an enticing introduction to some of the greatest mystical poets of Sufism. Highly recommended.

    — Jay Kinney, editor of The Inner West

    The elegant simplicity of the poems makes them a perfect accompaniment to a meditation practice, as well as a wonderful gift idea.

    — Yogi Times

    In addition to the richness of the poems themselves, the reader who may be unfamiliar with Persian poetry is given guidance in the book for understanding this type of poetry. The authors provide teaching on understanding Persian poetry in their introduction and helpful endnotes on particular poems, along with a glossary of terms specific to understanding Sufi poetry. Their translations along with the background information provide an amazing introduction for those new to Sufi poetry, and a wonderful resource for those well acquainted with such poetry.

    — Sufism

    The Fidelers’ translations of the poems, many of which have been brought into English for the first time, are superb and lucid throughout, bringing forth the quintessence of quatrains, ghazals, and other forms of this essential yet elusive verse.

    — Rain Taxi Review of Books

    A wonderful introduction.

    — National Review Network

    LOVE’S

    ALCHEMY

    LOVE’S

    ALCHEMY

    Poems from the

    Sufi Tradition

    Translated from the Persian by

    DAVID AND SABRINEH FIDELER

    New World Library

    Novato, California

    Copyright © 2006 by David and Sabrineh Fideler

    All rights reserved. This book may not be reproduced in whole or in part, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means electronic, mechanical, or other without written permission from the publisher, except by a reviewer, who may quote brief passages in a review.

    Interior design by Tona Pearce Myers

    Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

    Love’s alchemy : poems from the Sufi tradition / translated by David and Sabrineh Fideler.

    p. cm.

    Includes bibliographical references and index.

    ISBN 978-1-57731-535-3 (hardcover : alk. paper)

    ISBN 978-1-57731-890-3 (paperback : alk. paper)

    1. Sufi poetry, Persian—Translations into English. I. Fideler, David

    R., 1961- II. Fideler, Sabrineh, 1972-.

    PK6449.E5L684 2006

    891’. 551009—dc22                                                                             2005035207

    First printing, December 2009

    ISBN 978-I-57731-890-3

    Printed in the United States on 30% postconsumer-waste recycled paper

    10   9   8   7   6   5   4   3   2   1

    Love existed before heaven or earth.

    Love’s presence is not from our time.

    Contents

    Introduction

    The Poems

    Appendix 1:

    Translating Persian Poetry

    Appendix 2:

    Stringing Pearls: The Forms of Persian Poetry

    Glossary

    Notes

    Index of Authors

    About the Translators

    Introduction

    That which frees you

    from your tiny self

    , and many contemporary Persians have memorized dozens of pages of verse by the great writers. Lines quoted from classical poets appear in ordinary conversation; even street peddlers render their sales pitches into verse. In earlier times, court poets were highly rewarded for their works, and the greatest classical poets were the Sufi mystics, whose beautiful, tranquil tombs are still traveled to by thousands each year, partly because of the spiritual blessing (baraka) a pilgrim might acquire by visiting such a holy spot.

    In short, the poetry of the classical Sufi writers is very much alive, and still regarded as the highest literary art in Persian culture today. Historically, the rhythm and form of this poetry have been so closely intertwined with music, calligraphy, and even sacred architecture, that at first it is difficult for us Westerners to grasp such a beautifully integrated world—a world in which the arts are so thoroughly harmonized with one another, with daily life, and with the deepest human needs. While these arts are surely meant to inspire delight, they are not forms of entertainment. All sacred art seeks to open the soul to a direct perception of reality’s spiritual dimension.

    taught and where his tomb is now located. His great teaching-work, the Mathnaw , consisting of rhymed couplets, contains twenty-five thousand verses divided into six books, while his D w n (collected poems) contains some five thousand separate works—over forty thousand verses. Teaching the spiritual power of love and the

    Enjoying the preview?
    Page 1 of 1