I believe in love at first read. Rumi’s poems always felt like a healing balm to my soul.

I remember the day I realized I couldn’t rely on English translations of Rumi’s works. I was like Rumi in this picture.

We know that no translation can ever replace the original and we are unfortunately unable to learn all the languages in the world.
Many literary and linguistic critics blame the English translator of one of the best-selling versions of Rumi’s poems, Coleman Barks, to have distorted Rumi’s true words. We can all suppose it is true, in a way. Barks is a poet indeed, but he never studied Sufism which is the core of Rumi’s beliefs. On the other hand, we are talking about different eras and a whole another worldview. Moreover, the Persian language used in Rumi’s poems is almost untranslatable. 

Should this motivate Rumi’s fans like me to learn Persian? Why not, but it will take us a lifetime.

After all, we should not forget Rumi’s words: ‘When you do things from your soul, you feel a river moving in you, a joy.’

Did he truly say this though?
We will never know…
Unless we learn Persian.