Review of:Love's Alchemy: Poems from the Sufi Tradition.
The thirteenth-century poet Rumi is just one voice in the poetry of Sufism,
the timeless Persian mystical tradition. The poems and epigrams collected in
Love's Alchemy represent all the major poets of this magnificent lineage,
including Rumi. While many recent bestsellers have been interpretations
based on earlier English translations, David and Sabrineh Fideler work
directly from the original Persian sources.

This book offers faithful yet elegant translations of the best poems written
in ruba'i form: concise, tightly focused meditations that span only four
lines but reveal worlds of meaning. The poems explore many aspects of human
life and the spiritual path, but they center on the liberating power of
love. Also included are an extensive introduction, a glossary, and notes
that place these wonderful poems in cultural, historical, and religious
context.

Featuring 170 translations from 80 different authors, Love's Alchemy is one
of the most comprehensive collections of Sufi poetry to appear in English;
it represents a beautiful and reliable introduction to the tradition, ideas,
and forms of Persian mystical poetry.

Love's Alchemy: Poems from the Sufi Tradition. Published by New World
Library. Hardcover, xix + 215 pages, ISBN 1-57731-535-9, $18.00.
At Amazon.com for $12.00
Advance Praise for Love's Alchemy

"I have appreciated the highly original, solid, and beautiful work of David
Fideler for many years. Love's Alchemy could come only from his wide
knowledge and sense of aesthetics. In its musical words, the Sufi poets
paint a delicate word-bridge between the earthly and the spiritual, and they
charm us, wakening the human urge to transcend ourselves."

— Thomas Moore
Author of Care of the Soul and Dark Nights of the Soul

"Love's Alchemy takes us into the tavern of mystical love, full of
intoxicating treasures of Sufi poetry. Here are the masters of love, Rumi
amongst them, whose words speak directly to the soul. With beauty and wisdom
they teach us the truth of our eternal nature, and how the heart opens to
God. Treasure these poems and allow them to nourish the secret and hidden
parts of your innermost being."

— Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee, PhD, author of
Sufism, the Transformation of the Heart

"Love's Alchemy is a delightful and absorbing collection of translations
from the major Persian Sufi poets. David and Sabrineh Fideler have provided
authentic interpretations of these mystical texts in memorable form. Lovers
of Rumi will be pleased to find so many other great authors from this
tradition."

— Carl W. Ernst, Zachary Smith Professor
Department of Religious Studies, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill


"This is how Sufis themselves teach Sufism: through poetry as alchemy. And
these translations are indeed transmutations, changing the gold of Persian
in the gold of English."

— Peter Lamborn Wilson, author of
Sacred Drift: Essays on the Margins of Islam


"This is a gem of a book. David Fideler and Sabrineh Fideler have crafted an
enticing introduction to some of the greatest mystical poets of Sufism.
Highly recommended."

— Jay Kinney, editor of The Inner West

About the Translators

David Fideler has worked as an editor, publisher, college professor, and the
program director of a humanities center. He gives presentations on Sufi
poetry and holds a PhD in philosophy and cultural studies.

Sabrineh Fideler was born in Tehran and holds a degree in English to Persian
translation from Azad University. She has has translated several books from
English into Persian — all books on languages.

David and Sabrineh currently live in West Michigan.

If you are into sufism,you must buy and read this book.

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