Love Makes The Bitter Sweet

Lovely poem. The world is all about love; love is everywhere. The love inside us can touch anything and everything, and transform the seemingly mundane.
xx

The love you express is the Divine shining through.

This is lovely Could you tell us more about Rumi ?

It's a 13th century Persian Muslim poet, jurist, and theologian. (See wikipedia entry)

http://www.rumi.org.uk/

Rumi also published a small book of poems, the title of which I'll post later this month.

Thanks Miller and Walter.

So is this Rumis Translated poetry because you guys say he was apersian poet?

Yes Indeed these are translations. Sorry for the ignorant questions.

Yes, these are translations from Arabic.

Do you think translated poetry can still maintain it's charm?

Besides in Persian (mostly), Rumi wrote in Arabic, Greek, and Oghuz Turkish.

All this had to be translated, even in the modern versions of those languages.


Yes, poetry maintains its charm in translations.

My teacher (Frau Dehmel) said that Shakespeare had been translated into German so well, that there were Germans who always assumed he was English.

As far a German poetry is concerned, I'd say no. As far as Persian poetry I'd say yes.

I'd be interested to hear Walter's opinion about that. There are no good translations of Heine or Goethe? Schiller?

They don't sound the same in English, at least to me.

I think the love Rumi expresses is also the Divine . I think in Muslim poetry two kinds of love/lovers are described. Mehboob-e-haqiqi is Diveine Love or God. Mehboob-e-majazi is any creation that is loved.

In my opinion, it might be better to think that a rendering of a poem in another language was not a translation of the poem but that it was a commentary to the original poem. And it is sometimes very useful for understanding the poem written in a rather unfamiliar language.

I tend to think that a commentary on poetry could sometimes ruin poetry. You are supposed feels it just the way poet felt it. Experience the same flow of emotions in your brain. That's when you feel the love that is expressed by Rumi. Od course we are loving it so that means it maintains some of it's charm but I would be hesitant to say all of it.

It is nice to have poetry translated into different languages,
at least we can get the gist of it and don't have to miss out on some
beautiful poems. However, I think that even the best translation
won't interpret the true feeling the poet has meant to convey to the
reader.

Satt is right when he said that translating a poem is a commentary,
yet I would call it interpretation, as every translator is reading something
different into a phrase and the outcome could be quite subjective to
the translators own feelings and experience.

When I read Heine or Hesse in English, I can relate to its content better
but I think mainly because I have the German version still in my mind,
and know how it is meant to be.

Poetry means different things at different times, and I remember that
I liked Rumi a lot better when I was at an age where I still searched
for answers. Now I can appreciate his (Rumi) poems, but they have
a different meaning today.

Does this all make sense?