As with a lot of classics if one wants to really dive into it there is no royal way around working your way through the references / original (critical editions

As with a lot of classics if one wants to really dive into it there is no royal way around working your way through the references / original (critical editions). In Rumi's case the translator's stereotype of a western audience as the addressee (by trying to deliver "the spirit of Rumi") imho heavily butchers the rich culture underneath. I guess the justification is that the structure of the poem has to be broken anyways so why not "westernize" it, unfortunately that interpretation got stuck. Here is the paragraph how it is read in Farsi[0] right to left: از کفر و ز اسلام برون صحرائی است ما را به میان آن فضا سودائی است عارف چو بدان رسید سر را بنهد نه کفر و نه اسلام و نه آنجا جائی است Transliteration: az kāfr-o ze ʾeslām borun sahrā-ye ast mā-rā be mijān-ān fazā sewdā-ye ast āref čou badān resid sar-rā benah-ad na kāfr-o na ʾeslām-o na ānğā ğā-ye ast Word-by-Word: From disbelief/heresy/atheism (kāfr) and from islam/belief/faith (ʾeslām) outside desert/sahara/plain (sahrā) is For us in the middle of that world-space/expanse (fazā) trade/ bargain/agreement/(melancholy) (sewdā) is The knower of God/the Mystic (āref) who reaches to that, his head/top (sar) prostrates No disbelief/heresy/atheism (kāfr) and no islam/belief/faith (ʾeslām) and no 'here' (ānğā) 'there' (ğā) is Obviously the structure can now be appreciated in its simplicity also heavily facilitated by the fact that Farsi itself is a Indo-European language. The culturally loaded terms like کفر(kāfr),اسلام(ʾeslām),صحر(sahrā),فضا (fazā),سودا(sewdā),عارف (āref) stand more out and have different possibilities in being 'translated'. سودا(sewdā) for example is an interesting choice, because it also could mean '(deep) melancholy' but in that context resolves to 'come to an agreement', but now with the possible undertone of an existential sadness/yearning. Another example is reading / referencing the greek/latin originals of the stoic texts which gives a much deeper insight into the times and a more finetuned view of the 'conditio humana'. By translating into our language and our times unavoidable ambiguities arise and one has to interpret at times very heavily. TL;DR: I highly encourage everyone deeply impressed by those classical texts to also take a look into the references/originals. [0]https://twitter.com/persianpoetics/status/1334521485608697856 https://twitter.com/persianpoetics/status/133452148560869785...