Book 2 of the Mathnawi of Jalaluddin Rumi. Offered as prose in couplet form, based on the 1925 translation by Reynold Nicholson. The translation has been updated using the notes included at the end of Book 4 in Nicholson's original translation, the commentary by Nicholson, and occasional changes suggested by a lifelong student and teacher of the Mathnawi. Rumi presents a description of the nature of life on earth, and the place of human beings in the Divine Play. We are offered insights into uniting our animal level heritage and our angelic experiences into one being, made possible by the...

The poetry of Rumi is in two parts. The first part is his ecstatic and fiery love poetry. It is a passionate description of the state of awareness he reached after integrating the lessons he and Shams discovered and shared during their time together. This work, which Rumi referred to as the collection of Shams Tabrizi, is a group of poems which give flight to the human spirit in their beautiful and reassuring messages of hope. Many selections from this extensive collection have been translated in to English and are widely available. This first group of his poetry marked a new awareness of...