• First ever unabridged translation of the entirety of Book Five of The Masnavi into English
• Known for its high amount of sexually explicit content, including stories about unconventional sex
• Verse translation into heroic couplets of the original Persian poem
• An extensive introduction, notes and glossary provide essential background information
• The ideal introduction to Rumi for the non-specialist reader.

      
'If something else can capture your attention
Then it's not love, but just a trivial passion -
Love is that flame which, once it blazes up,
Burns everything but the Beloved up.'
              
This is the first ever translation of the entirety of Book Five of Rumi's magnum opus, The Masnavi, into English. Prior to this verse translation in heroic couplets, translations were either of selected passages or in lineated prose with passages deemed too salacious rendered into Latin, as was the convention in Britain of the early twentieth century. This fifth book of Rumi's The Masnavi is well-known to contain much sexually explicit content within teaching stories about the path of annihilation of the self in a total and uncompromising way.