The Hand of Poetry, Revised Edition

Lectures and new translations illuminating the work of Persia’s mystic poets.
The Hand of Poetry offers entry into the world of beauty and truth. Seven lectures on Persian poetry given by Hazrat Inayat Khan are followed by some of the poetry he discusses, including pieces from Sanai, Attar, Rumi, Saadi, and Hafiz—all newly translated by the poet Coleman Barks. This revised edition also includes two additional chapters by Hazrat Inayat Khan, drawn from original source material.

Hazrat Inayat Kahn, founder of the Sufi order in the West, was born in India in 1882. A master of classical Indian music by the age of twenty, he relinquished a brilliant career to devote himself to the spiritual path. In 1920, acting upon the guidance of his teacher, he became one of the first teachers of the Sufi tradition in the West. For a decade and a half he travelled throughout Europe and the US giving lectures and guiding an ever-growing group of seekers. In 1926, he returned to India where he died the following year.

Coleman Barks is a renowned poet and the bestselling interpreter of Sufi poetry. He has translated more than a dozen volumes of Rumi’s poetry, including The Illuminated Rumi (1997) and The Essential Rumi (1995), often in collaboration with Persian scholar John Moyne. Barks was prominently featured in both of Bill Moyers’s PBS television series on poetry, The Language of Life, and he has collaboratively produced his Rumi translations with music and dance ensembles including the Paul Winter Consort and Zuleikha. In 2004 Barks received the Juliet Hollister Award for his work supporting interfaith understanding, and in 2006 the University of Tehran awarded Barks an honorary doctorate in recognition of his contributions to the field of Rumi translation. Barks’s translations are noted for their accessible lyricism.