Hush, don't say anything to God Passionate poems of Rumi

A new translation of nearly a hundred poems by the 13th- century Sufi mystic whose work has undergone an immense revival in the West during the last decade. Best known for his love poetry, Rumi was actually a theologian, and most of his verse is explicitly religious in both tone and content, also heavily mystical in the manner of St. John of the Cross. Most of the quatrains take the form of either a direct address to God ('I am your servant / of your lips full of laughter. / You are the source of life. / You are the elixir of immortality') or an exposition of his nature ('To Love is to reach God'), while many of the odes offer homage to Rumi's great friend, Shams of Tabriz ('Shams of Tabriz / you are like the Sun, / for the cloud of speech, / When you rise, / your countenance / evaporates all dialogue'), the Sufi dervish who introduced Rumi to the techniques of ecstatic dancing and prayer. Iranian-born translator Shiva's introduction is concise and helpful and'in spite of its absurd contention that 'Rumi is now the best read poet in America''offers an intelligent evaluation of the author's life and work.