Coleman Barks and Omid Safi are two giants in Sufi teaching, study and research. They promote the key tenets of Sufism, namely fully embracing God’s divine presence and perpetual introspection. A poet himself, Barks is considered to have successfully introduced Persian poet and Sufi prophet Rumi to Westerners. Safi is a professor of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies at Duke University, serving as its director of the Islamic Studies Center. He is an acclaimed author himself and enthusiastic teacher of Rumi and Sufism. Coleman and Safi tell Sara Jamshidi how Rumi has reshaped our understanding of Islam and Sufism in the West.
Coleman Barks
Omid Safi
Interview with Coleman Barks and Omid Safi for Peacemindedly Podcast
Coleman Barks and Omid Safi Quotes
YouTube Raw footage of the conversation between Coleman Barks, Omid Safi and Sara Jamshidi for Peacemindedly Podcast
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Poet Coleman Barks has dedicated much of his life’s work to introducing the 13th-century Islamic mystic Jelaluddin Rumi to contemporary audiences. In this episode of THE LANGUAGE OF LIFE, Barks brings Rumi to life in poems that are ecstatic, wise and hilarious.
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BILL MOYERS: They are here to celebrate life. They are have come to celebrate language. Poetry readings are flourishing across America in many different places in wondrous variety. Nowhere is the renaissance of poetry more vivid than in the historic village of Waterloo, New Jersey. Every two years, thousands of people gather to hear some of the world&#;s best poets at the Geraldine R. Dodge Poetry Festival.
The poet Coleman Barks is a son of the American South who teaches English at the University of Georgia. For many years he has devoted himself to the poetry of the 13th century Persian mystic, Rumi.
COLEMAN BARKS: There are love dogs no one knows the names of. Give your life to be one of them.
BILL MOYERS In this hour, Coleman Barks with the Fall-Winter Consort and the Poetry of Rumi.
MAN: Coleman Barks comes to us from Chattanooga, Tennessee. He&#;s taller. And Athens, Ge
The Illuminated Rumi Quotes
“Fasting
By Mevlana Jelaluddin Rumi
( - )
English version by Coleman Barks
There's hidden sweetness in the stomach's emptiness.
We are lutes, no more, no less. If the soundbox
is stuffed full of anything, no music.
If the brain and belly are burning clean
with fasting, every moment a new song comes out of the fire.
The fog clears, and new energy makes you
run up the steps in front of you.
Be emptier and cry like reed instruments cry.
Emptier, write secrets with the reed pen.
When you're full of food and drink, Satan sits
where your spirit should, an ugly metal statue
in place of the Kaaba. When you fast,
good habits gather like friends who want to help.
Fasting is Solomon's ring. Don't give it
to some illusion and lose your power,
but even if you have, if you've lost all will and control,
they come back when you fast, like soldiers appearing
out of the ground, pennants flying above them.
A table descends to your tents,
Jesus' table.
Expect to see it, when you fast, this table
spread with other food, better than the broth of cabbages.”
&#; Rumi, The Illuminated Rumi
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Background Reading
So, who is Rumi? This 13th-century Persia poet is one of the most popular poets in America today, widely read, appearing in dozens of translations, the subject of video documentaries, CD music productions, and -- quite simply -- devotion. Rumi has played an incredibly important role in my own life: it was after reading the animal stories in Rumi's Mesnevi (as translated by Coleman Barks to be specific, and to be even more specific, in a book called Delicious Laughter) back in that I decided to learn some Persian, go to graduate school, study these teaching tales and here I am now. Sharing Rumi with you this week.
And who was Rumi? He was, hundreds of years ago, the center of a mystical and devotional movement in Islam. The 13th century was a turbulent time, and Rumi's family fled from their home in Afghanistan to Turkey, where Rumi became the leader of a religious community. He died in Turkey in , and the religious order that he founded - the Mevlevi Order of Whirling Dervishes - is still dancing today. Rumi is actually known by many names, and these different names reflect the circumstances of his life. He was born in Balkh (modern Afghanistan) in t
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