Stations of Desire

One of the great mystics of all time, Muhyiddin Ibn al-'Arabi was a prolific author who wrote on every aspect of medieval Islamic thought. Among the most widely read of his works, and certainly his most famous collection of poems, was his volume of odes, The Translator of Desires (Turjuman al-Ashwaq), which is regarded as a masterpiece of Arabic and Sufi love poetry.

Michael Sells's Stations of Desire contains the first translations of Ibn 'Arabi's Turjuman into modern poetic English. The translator of a highly praised volume of pre-Islamic qasidas, Desert Tracings, and the newly controversial Approaching the Qur'an, Sells carries into his translations the supple, resonant quality of the original Arabic, so that the poems come to robust life in English. He also provides an insightful introduction along with a selection of his own original poems, which are modeled on the Turjuman and serve as further commentary to the medieval odes and their extension into the present climate of poetry.