The Translator of Desires by Muhyiddin Ibn 'Arabi, translated by Michael Sells

How to translate love? How to grasp the ungraspable essence of the Beloved (whether person, existence, or God)? How to convey the state of utter “bewilderment” (hayra, in Arabic), that mode of ego-less unknowing that leads to a different kind of knowledge? These are the questions that Ibn ‘Arabi grapples with in his famous 13th-century text. And translator Michael Sells tackles these same topics in this translation of a translation, this text wherein desire is never fully fulfilled, where one’s own poetic creations constantly slip through the fingers and leave one wanting. “The lords of love are in love / ensnared, bewildered.” —Kareem James Abu-Zeid

Muhyiddin Ibn ‘Arabi. The Translator of Desires: Poems. Translated by Michael Sells. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2021.