The soul of Rumi A new collection of ecstatic poems

Coleman Barks' translations of Rumi's poems have been instrumental in making Rumi the cultural icon he has become in America. That is in part due to Barks' willingness, even eagerness, to downplay the Islamic foundation of these ecstatic poems. Barks portrays Rumi as a universal mystic, which may arouse the ire of scholars but doesn't dent the appeal of Barks' versions. This new collection, mostly of poems Barks hasn't previously tackled, is likely to maintain that appeal. Presenting the poems in small thematic groups, Barks may not be as concerned with historical context as are Philip Dunn and his associates in The Illustrated Rumi [BKL F 1 01], but he offers the very best of Rumi's beautiful and challenging imagery. The metaphorical representation of fana, the annihilation into God, is brought into particularly compelling focus: "A moth flying into the flame says with its wingfire, try this." Many may never know the Qur'anic verses reflected in Rumi's lines, but as long as Barks is translating them, they will remain popular in English. --John Green

The Islamic mystical poet Rumi (1207- 1273) improvised the evocative poems which his followers wrote down. Translator Coleman Barks's The Essential Rumi won the Persian writer American fans, some of whom revere the poet as a religious guide. Now Barks is back with The Soul of Rumi: A New Collection of Ecstatic Poems. The giant volume includes part of Rumi's 64,000-line Masnavi, as well as many short poems and Barks's copious, informal, personal commentary. (Oct.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved

Chapter One A Green Shawl: Solomon's Far Mosque In the early 1990s -- it was December -- I was sitting in meditation under the green dome that houses Rumi's tomb in Konya. Someone came up and gave me a green shawl. As you might imagine, I treasure it still and use it in my meditation. I love the wrapped, rapt feeling. Going in, feeling the limpid contentment in being oneself and the endless discovery there: the green shawl is that, reminiscent of a child's tent-making delight, the rainy-day times when you spread a sheet over a card table and a chair, anchored it with safety pins, and crept under the shelter where imagination could flower. How we forget this tent making for such long spans is a mystery in itself. Rumi tells of Solomon's practice of building each dawn a place made of intention and compassion and sohbet (mystical conversation). He calls it the "far mosque." Solomon goes there to listen to the plants, the new ones that come up each morning. They tell him of their medicinal qualities, their potential for health, and also the dangers of poisoning. I suggest we all get green shawls. "Remember, the entrance door to the sanctuary is inside you" ("Entrance Door"). Mary's hiding place and the great warehouse ("What Was Told, That" ) are other images of the listening tent, where conversation thrives and love deepens. Rumi often hears it as the birdlike song-talk that begins at dawn under the dome of meditation. Build a far mosque where you can read your soul-book and listen to the dreams that grew in the night. Attar says, Let love lead your soul. Make it a place to retire to, a kind of cave, a retreat for the deep core of being.   Entrance Door How lover and beloved touch is familiar and courteous, but there is a strange impulse in that to create a form that will dissolve all other shapes. Remember, the entrance door to the sanctuary is inside you. We watch a sunlight dust dance, and we try to be that lively, but nobody knows what music those particles hear. Each of us has a secret companion musician to dance to. Unique rhythmic play, a motion in the street we alone know and hear. Shams is a king of kings like Mahmud, but there's not another pearl-crushing dervish Ayaz like me.   What Was Told, That What was said to the rose that made it open was said to me here in my chest. What was told the cypress that made it strong and straight, what was whispered the jasmine so it is what it is, whatever made sugarcane sweet, whatever was said to the inhabitants of the town of Chigil in Turkestan that makes them so handsome, whatever lets the pomegranate flower blush like a human face, that is being said to me now. I blush. Whatever put eloquence in language, that's happening here. The great warehouse doors open; I fill with gratitude, chewing a piece of sugarcane, in love with the one to whom every that belongs!   Mary's Hiding Before these possessions you love slip away, say what Mary said when she was surprised by Gabriel, I'll hide inside God. Naked in her room she saw a form of beauty that could give her new life. Like the sun coming up, or a rose as it opens. She leaped, as her habit was, out of herself into the divine presence. There was fire in the channel of her breath. Light and majesty came, I am smoke from that fire and proof of its existence, more than any external form. I want to be where your bare foot walks, because maybe before you step, you'll look at the ground. I want that blessing. Would you like to have revealed to you the truth of the Friend? Leave the rind, and descend into the pith. Fold within fold, the beloved drowns in its own being. This world is drenched with that drowning. Imagining is like feeling around in a dark lane, or washing your eyes with blood. You are the truth from foot to brow. Now, what else would you like to know?   The Husk and Core of Masculinity Masculinity has a core of clarity, which does not act from anger or greed or sensuality, and a husk, which does. The virile center that listens within takes pleasure in obeying that truth. Nobility of spirit, the true spontaneous energy of your life, comes as you abandon other motives and move only when you feel the majesty that commands and is the delight of the self. Remember Ayaz crushing the king's pearl! (Continues...) Excerpted from The Soul of Rumi by Rumi, Introduction and notes by Coleman Barks, and contribution by John Moyne. Copyright © 2001 by Coleman Barks. Excerpted by permission. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.