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Underground > Books, Criticism & Writing >

Rumi

17:37 / 31.05.06

Molana Jalal-e-Din Mohammad Molavi Rumi, or just Rumi, was an amazing poet. Here's the Wikipedia Jalal ad-Din Muhammad Rumi entry, Khamush dot com, Rumionfire dot com and Rumi dot net to get you started if you are thinking 'Who's Rumi?'.

I really enjoyed Coleman Barks' 'Essential Rumi', and just got a collection by him called 'One-Handed Basketmaking' themed around the joy of craftsmanship. Here's one of my favourite poems of his;

STORY WATER by Rumi, translated by Coleman Barks

A story is like water
that you heat for your bath.

It takes messages between the fire
and your skin. It lets them meet
and it cleans you!

Very few can sit down
in the middle of the fire itself
like a salamander or Abraham.
We need intermediaries.

A feeling of fullness comes,
but usually it takes some bread
to bring it.
Beauty surrounds us,
but usually we need to be walking
in a garden to know it.
The body itself is a screen
to shield and partially reveal
the light that ís blazing
inside your presence.

Water, stories, the body,
all the things we do, are mediums
that hide and show what's hidden.

Study them,
and enjoy this being washed
with a secret we sometimes know,
and then not.

18:46 / 31.05.06

Wow, Rumi was number one in the US and Afghanistan in 2001-
and check out how Coleman Barks;
The story of how Barks, Southern-born poet and University of Georgia English professor, became a Rumi scholar begins in 1977. On the night of May 2, Barks dreamed he was lying in a sleeping bag on the banks of the Tennessee River, near where he grew up. Suddenly a flash of light lit up the sky and, as Barks describes in the introduction to his new book, "The Soul of Rumi": "A ball of light rises from Williams Island and comes over to me -- revealing a man sitting cross legged with head bowed and eyes closed, a white shawl over the back of his head. He raises his head and opens his eyes. I love you he says. 'I love you too,' I answer."

One year later Barks found the same figure in waking life: The man was a Sri Lankan Sufi saint named Bawa Muhaiyaddeen who would instruct Barks -- who did not and still does not speak Farsi, the Persian dialect in which Rumi originally wrote -- to pursue his translations.

Maybe this should go in the Temple...

13:27 / 01.06.06

oh, i love rumi so much... i don't know if any other barbelithers are in the baltimore/dc area, but the weekend of june 17th-18th there is a rumi fest at the american visionary art museum in baltimore. it looks to be pretty fun, with sufi storytellers and lots of rumi-centered celebrations, and may be a good introduction to rumi & sufi practice in general. i'm going to go, so anyone who is in the area/interested should let me know! tickets are reasonable-- $22 for two days worth of events, or $11 for students.