Reading Arberry's Translations of Ghazals Together With The Persian Texts

Here is a link to Prof. A.J. Arberry's excellent English translations from Persian of 400 ghazaliyyât from Mawlana Rumi's Dîwân online.

This is the 2008 (paperback) edition that combines the translations from "Mystical Poems of Rumi" (1968) and "Mystical Poems of Rumi: Second Selection" (1979). The many typographical errors (mainly in the second volume) were corrected by Franklin Lewis.

These are accurate translations (with some explanatory notes) directly from the best Persian edition (by Forûzânfar). These are the translations that have been re-Englished and reinterpreted by Coleman Barks and other "Rumi translators" who do not read Persian.

To find the Persian text for Arberry's "Poem 1" (p. 37: "What excuses have you to offer, my heart, for so many short-comings?"), go to Arberry's Notes (p. 378) where it is stated, "Poem 1 F3". This means that it is ghazal no. 3 in the Persian edition of Forûzânfar.

Here is a link to a version of Foruzanfar's Persian edition of the ghazals online.

Click on the first letter range ("alif tâ khe"), then click on the third link ("ghazal shomâre 3"), which lists the first bayt of the ghazal ("ay del che andêshîda'ê dar `uZr-é ân taqSîr-hâ).

To find the poetic meter of the ghazal, go to the ghazal concordance on the website.

Here is the link. Then type a search for "F-3" in order to find the poetic meter for the ghazal. It is necessary to know the poetic meter in order to know where the eZâfe [é] is present (or not present) in the poem. For example, the meter for F-3 is (reading from left to right): XXoX XXoX XXoX XXoX. Or: AY DEL che AN-DEE-SHEE-da-EE, DAR 'UZ-ré AAN TAQ-SEE-r(e)-HAA.

If you wish to find the Persian text for another ghazal, find the "F" number of the desired poem in Arberry's notes and type in the number (using Persian numbers) into the search box (jost-jû).