Love’s Alchemy: Poems from the Sufi Tradition. Translated by David and Sabrineh Fideler
The thirteenth-century poet Rumi is just one voice in the poetry of Sufism, the timeless Persian mystical tradition.
Translated directly from the Persian, the poems and epigrams collected in Love’s Alchemy represent all of the major poets, including Rumi, of this magnificent art.
Featuring 170 translations from 80 different authors, Love’s Alchemy is one of the most comprehensive collections of Sufi poetry to appear in English; it represents a beautiful and reliable introduction to the tradition, ideas, and forms of Persian mystical poetry. Also included are an extensive introduction, a glossary, and notes that place these wonderful poems in their cultural, historical, and religious context.
REVIEWS
“I have appreciated the highly original, solid, and beautiful work of David Fideler for many years. Love’s Alchemy could come only from his wide knowledge and sense of aesthetics. In its musical words, the Sufi poets paint a delicate word-bridge between the earthly and the spiritual, and they charm us, wakening the human urge to transcend ourselves.” — Thomas Moore, author of Care of the Soul and Dark Nights of the Soul
“Love’s Alchemy is a delightful and absorbing collection of translations from the major Persian Sufi poets. David and Sabrineh Fideler have provided authentic interpretations of these mystical texts in memorable form. Lovers of Rumi will be pleased to find so many other great authors from this tradition.” — Carl W. Ernst, Zachary Smith Professor Department of Religious Studies, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
“This is how Sufis themselves teach Sufism: through poetry as alchemy. And these translations are indeed transmutations, changing the gold of Persian into the gold of English.” — Peter Lamborn Wilson, author of
Sacred Drift and translator of The Drunken Universe
“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