The Drowned Book: Ecstatic and Earthy Reflections of Bahauddin, the Father of Rumi

I bought this book to learn more about  Sufi and Rumi. I never took the time to read it. My friend is reading it  and he recommended me to start reading it.  It seems easy to read. Besides, I do love poetry. However, it seems that I am not ready for more reflections at this time, so I am postponing my reading. I did flip through the commentary at the end of the book, to stop on a page 140 quoting a love poem from Etheridge Knight. Whom I did not know before!!! 

"Belly Song" by Etheridge Knight in The Essential Etheridge Knight

and I and I/must admit

that the sea in me

has fallen/ in love

with the sea in you

"Although a popular Islamic mystic who remains important to many Sufi sects, Bahauddin is known to the West primarily as the father of the thirteenth-century poet Rumi, interest in whose work has been revived by Coleman Barks' translations. Reminiscent of Sei Shonagon's Pillow Book, Bahauddin's writing in The Drowned Book is a miscellany that shows Bahauddin jumping from gardening tips to meditations on Qur'anic verses to quasi-erotic explorations of the Sufi's efforts to find unity with God. Readers unfamiliar with Islamic history and Sufi practice will wish the translators had included more explanatory commentary, but the translation itself is engaging and colloquial. The bits of Bahauddin's poetry included (e.g., "Why say autumn is the end of loving? / For us there will be another spring") are a far cry from Rumi's, but Bahauddin's prose reflects the mystical core of Sufi faith and constitutes an excellent example of nonpoetic Sufi writing. Readers interested in the Sufism behind Rumi's poems will find much to enjoy here.