The Translator of Desires: Poems.

• Author: Zargar, Cyrus Ali

The Translator of Desires: Poems by Muhyiddin Ibn 'Arabi. Translated by MK'H.AEL SELLS. Princeton: PRINCETON UNIVERSITY PRESS, 2021. Pp. xxxviii +323. $24.95 (paper).

Michael Sells's poetically inspired translation and critical edition of a collection of erotic poems by MuhyT al-DTn Ibn 'Arabi (d. 638/1240) marks, in one significant way, a new era in English-language Islamic studies--that of renewed literary translations. It is not. of course, the first such venture, as Jalal al-DTn Rumi's poems--among others--have been translated several times. It is, however, indicative of the maturation of the study of Sufi poetry that readers of Arabic texts in English feel that such a translation is needed, and needed it was. This is not because Reynold A. Nicholson's original translation of Tarjuman al-ashwaq (The translator of desires), undertaken in the early twentieth century (London: Royal Asiatic Society, 1911), suffered from glaring inaccuracies. It certainly had some. One particularly telling example is a word that Nicholson translates not from the poem itself, but from Ibn 'Arabi's later commentary on his poems. Dhakha'ir al-a'laq (Priceless treasures; ed. Cairo, 1968). selections of which Nicholson included in his translation. Nicholson renders Ibn 'ArabT's word for those who have privileged access to the way of love, al-Muhammadiyyin, as "Moslems" (p. 69), when, in fact, Ibn 'ArabT means those elite, spiritually achieved persons who have become Muhammadlike--one might say "Muhammadan saints"--which certainly does not signify all Muslims. Yet. perhaps by force of habit, Nicholson reads the English misnomer for "Muslim" ("Mohammedan") back into this Arabictext. Overall, though, especially considering the lack of resources available, Nicholson's renditions substantiate his reputation as a careful and exacting translator.

Lacking, until now, however, has been a translation that presents Ibn 'ArabT's lyrical poems as lyrical poems--as speech enhanced by emotive expressiveness and stylized literary devices. Michael Sells's talent for conveying in English the artistry of such Arabic poems often appeared in scattered, usually stand-alone versions of poems from the Tarjuman published in journals and edited volumes. Along with translations of some of Ibn 'ArabT's poems. Sells offered his own poems inspired by the Tarjuman, in Stations of Desire: Love Elegies from Ibn 'Arabi and New Poems (Jerusalem: Ibis, 2000). Here, in The Translator of Desires, the...