From the premier interpreter of Rumi comes the first definitive one-volume collection of the enduringly popular spiritual poetry by the extraordinary thirteenth-century Sufi mystic. more..

An illuminating collection of inspirational poems by a Nobel Laureate

While traveling through one of the poorest regions in India, W. B. Yeats was amazed to discover the women in the tea fields singing the songs and poems of Rabindranath Tagore. This striking scene led the great Irish poet to appreciate the depth of India's far-reaching tradition of poetry and the fame more..

The 15th-century poet Kabir created timeless works of enlightenment that combine the philosophies of Sufism, Hinduism, and the Kabbala. Expressed in imagery drawn from common life and the universal experience, Kabir's poems possess a simplicity and cover a wide emotional range. Features 100 songs translated by Rabindranath Tagore. more..

Stray Birds contains Tagore’s ideas on nature, man, and his environment as he sits at his window and the stray birds of summer sing and fly away. These short, sometimes merely one-line poems are often just an image or the distillation of a thought, but they stay in the mind and do not fly away as easily as the birds. more..

Composed in the twelfth century in north-eastern Iran, Attar's great mystical poem is among the most significant of all works of Persian literature. A marvellous, allegorical rendering of the Islamic doctrine of Sufism an esoteric system concerned with the search for truth through God it describes the consequences of the conference of the birds of the world when they meet to begin the search for more..

1913. The Gardener, a book of prose. Most of the lyrics of love and life, the translations of which from Bengali are published in this book, were written much earlier than the series of religious poems contained in the book name Gitanjali. The verses in this book are far finer and more genuine than even the best in Gitanjali. more..

Classic writings from the great Zen master in exquisite versions by Thomas Merton, in a new edition with a preface by His Holiness the Dalai Lama. Working from existing translations, Thomas Merton composed a series of his own versions of the classic sayings of Chuang Tzu, the most spiritual of Chinese philosophers. Chuang Tzu, who wrote in the fourth and third centuries B.C., is more..

In his perfectly crafted haiku poems, Basho described the natural world with great simplicity and delicacy of feeling. When he composed "The Narrow Road to the Deep North" he was a serious student of Zen Buddhism setting off on a series of travels designed to strip away the trappings of the material world and bring spiritual enlightenment. He wrote of the seasons changing, of the smell of the more..

The six poets presented here -- Ravidas, Kabir, Nanak, Surdas, Mirabai, and Tulsidas -- have contributed more to the religious vocabulary of Hinduism in north India today than any voices before or since. In worship, in education, even in politics, modern Hinduism sings their tune. For half a millennium, these saints' poems have circulated from the banks of the Jumna to the rice fields of Bihar more..

1916. Tagore is an artist of rare lyrical powers, who understands the human soul. Tagore's poems are devotions, mystical, sublimated ecstasy. They are the thoughts of a seer, the perfect union of beauty and truth in poetry. Contents: Fruit Gathering; The Oarsmen; Song of the Defeated; Thanksgiving. more..