By Sara Williams - City on a Hill Press - Santa Cruz,CA,USA
Thursday, May 25, 2006
Rumi: Five Things To Say, a recently released album, features Rumi’s poetry read and translated by Barks and accompanied by the music of Santa Cruz’s Barry Phillips (cello) and Shelley Phillips (Celtic harp, oboe, English horn, and Chinese flute).
Coleman Barks is a famous poet. Wait. Isn’t that an oxymoron?
Perhaps, though, contradictions take haven in the poetic world.
Barks, born and raised in Tennessee, takes 13th century Islamic poetry written in strict Persian rhyme and meter by Sufi mystic Jalaluddin Rumi and molds it into accessible English. Both Barks and to Rumi have enjoyed world-wide acclaim (including an honorary doctorate to Barks from Tehran University in Iran), popularity, and even money, something quite unheard of in the world of poetry.
In the United States, Barks’ translations of Rumi have sold, and continue to sell, more than any other poet dead or alive.
Both Barry and Shelley Phillips referred to Barks as “Nasruddin,” a trickster who appears in Muslim folklore and is always “the butt of the joke,” Shelley Phillips said. “It’s like a comedy show. Of course there’s a spiritual quality. But he is not so prim…You’ll be laughing and laughing and then he’ll do a really intense poem.”
Maybe contradiction makes room for healthy balance.
Barks’ translation of the title track, “Five Things,” reads, “So the lover speaks, and everyone around/ begins to cry with him, laughing crazily, moaning in the spreading union of lover and beloved. This is the true religion.”
Part of the success of the album, Shelley Phillips notes, is that it “cuts through the [current] tension between Christian and Muslim cultures.” The spiritual nature of Rumi’s poetry blend euphonically with shape note hymns sung by a 30 person choir. “[Shape note] is nondenominational. Even Wiccans and Buddhists can sing together. And it turns out that Coleman is a brilliant bass singer.” Barks will join the choir when he’s not reading poetry.
Not only are there extreme emotions expressed, but the Phillipses’ music flows, streamy rather than preset and stagnant. The music is very improvisational relating back to Sufi tradition. Jim Moore, a long-time friend of Barks who introduced him to the Phillipses said, “When the Sufis were sharing music and poetry together sometimes...the teacher, in this case, Rumi, would be moved by something [in the music], and he would just start flowing like freestyle rappers today, with this rhyming [poetry]. He’d have a scribe who would write it down. Barry and Shelley are brilliant improvisationalists.”
Shelley Phillips said, “Coleman likes to keep us very fresh and spontaneous.”
The Phillipses utilized their training in American music while recording Five Things To Say with Barks. “By changing it to American free verse and having it [accompanied by] Americana, it makes it more easy for [the audience] to hear the truth outside of its original roots, its original form,” Moore said.
Rumi was a Sufi mystic, writing in Persia (now part of Afghanistan) during a turbulent atmosphere—not unlike today. His poetry is still widely read in the Muslim world.
Poetry often aspires to achieve a sort of timeless universality. Barks and the Phillipses’ interpretation and accompaniments help to transfer Rumi across borders and religions. The combination of Americana music—often rooted in Christianity, if nondenominational—a southern speaker, and Islamic poetry makes for an eclectic blend.
Wednesday, November 01, 2006
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Wednesday, November 01, 2006
Rumi: Five Things to Say
By Sara Williams - City on a Hill Press - Santa Cruz,CA,USA
Thursday, May 25, 2006
Rumi: Five Things To Say, a recently released album, features Rumi’s poetry read and translated by Barks and accompanied by the music of Santa Cruz’s Barry Phillips (cello) and Shelley Phillips (Celtic harp, oboe, English horn, and Chinese flute).
Coleman Barks is a famous poet. Wait. Isn’t that an oxymoron?
Perhaps, though, contradictions take haven in the poetic world.
Barks, born and raised in Tennessee, takes 13th century Islamic poetry written in strict Persian rhyme and meter by Sufi mystic Jalaluddin Rumi and molds it into accessible English. Both Barks and to Rumi have enjoyed world-wide acclaim (including an honorary doctorate to Barks from Tehran University in Iran), popularity, and even money, something quite unheard of in the world of poetry.
In the United States, Barks’ translations of Rumi have sold, and continue to sell, more than any other poet dead or alive.
Both Barry and Shelley Phillips referred to Barks as “Nasruddin,” a trickster who appears in Muslim folklore and is always “the butt of the joke,” Shelley Phillips said. “It’s like a comedy show. Of course there’s a spiritual quality. But he is not so prim…You’ll be laughing and laughing and then he’ll do a really intense poem.”
Maybe contradiction makes room for healthy balance.
Barks’ translation of the title track, “Five Things,” reads, “So the lover speaks, and everyone around/ begins to cry with him, laughing crazily, moaning in the spreading union of lover and beloved. This is the true religion.”
Part of the success of the album, Shelley Phillips notes, is that it “cuts through the [current] tension between Christian and Muslim cultures.” The spiritual nature of Rumi’s poetry blend euphonically with shape note hymns sung by a 30 person choir. “[Shape note] is nondenominational. Even Wiccans and Buddhists can sing together. And it turns out that Coleman is a brilliant bass singer.” Barks will join the choir when he’s not reading poetry.
Not only are there extreme emotions expressed, but the Phillipses’ music flows, streamy rather than preset and stagnant. The music is very improvisational relating back to Sufi tradition. Jim Moore, a long-time friend of Barks who introduced him to the Phillipses said, “When the Sufis were sharing music and poetry together sometimes...the teacher, in this case, Rumi, would be moved by something [in the music], and he would just start flowing like freestyle rappers today, with this rhyming [poetry]. He’d have a scribe who would write it down. Barry and Shelley are brilliant improvisationalists.”
Shelley Phillips said, “Coleman likes to keep us very fresh and spontaneous.”
The Phillipses utilized their training in American music while recording Five Things To Say with Barks. “By changing it to American free verse and having it [accompanied by] Americana, it makes it more easy for [the audience] to hear the truth outside of its original roots, its original form,” Moore said.
Rumi was a Sufi mystic, writing in Persia (now part of Afghanistan) during a turbulent atmosphere—not unlike today. His poetry is still widely read in the Muslim world.
Poetry often aspires to achieve a sort of timeless universality. Barks and the Phillipses’ interpretation and accompaniments help to transfer Rumi across borders and religions. The combination of Americana music—often rooted in Christianity, if nondenominational—a southern speaker, and Islamic poetry makes for an eclectic blend.
Thursday, May 25, 2006
Rumi: Five Things To Say, a recently released album, features Rumi’s poetry read and translated by Barks and accompanied by the music of Santa Cruz’s Barry Phillips (cello) and Shelley Phillips (Celtic harp, oboe, English horn, and Chinese flute).
Coleman Barks is a famous poet. Wait. Isn’t that an oxymoron?
Perhaps, though, contradictions take haven in the poetic world.
Barks, born and raised in Tennessee, takes 13th century Islamic poetry written in strict Persian rhyme and meter by Sufi mystic Jalaluddin Rumi and molds it into accessible English. Both Barks and to Rumi have enjoyed world-wide acclaim (including an honorary doctorate to Barks from Tehran University in Iran), popularity, and even money, something quite unheard of in the world of poetry.
In the United States, Barks’ translations of Rumi have sold, and continue to sell, more than any other poet dead or alive.
Both Barry and Shelley Phillips referred to Barks as “Nasruddin,” a trickster who appears in Muslim folklore and is always “the butt of the joke,” Shelley Phillips said. “It’s like a comedy show. Of course there’s a spiritual quality. But he is not so prim…You’ll be laughing and laughing and then he’ll do a really intense poem.”
Maybe contradiction makes room for healthy balance.
Barks’ translation of the title track, “Five Things,” reads, “So the lover speaks, and everyone around/ begins to cry with him, laughing crazily, moaning in the spreading union of lover and beloved. This is the true religion.”
Part of the success of the album, Shelley Phillips notes, is that it “cuts through the [current] tension between Christian and Muslim cultures.” The spiritual nature of Rumi’s poetry blend euphonically with shape note hymns sung by a 30 person choir. “[Shape note] is nondenominational. Even Wiccans and Buddhists can sing together. And it turns out that Coleman is a brilliant bass singer.” Barks will join the choir when he’s not reading poetry.
Not only are there extreme emotions expressed, but the Phillipses’ music flows, streamy rather than preset and stagnant. The music is very improvisational relating back to Sufi tradition. Jim Moore, a long-time friend of Barks who introduced him to the Phillipses said, “When the Sufis were sharing music and poetry together sometimes...the teacher, in this case, Rumi, would be moved by something [in the music], and he would just start flowing like freestyle rappers today, with this rhyming [poetry]. He’d have a scribe who would write it down. Barry and Shelley are brilliant improvisationalists.”
Shelley Phillips said, “Coleman likes to keep us very fresh and spontaneous.”
The Phillipses utilized their training in American music while recording Five Things To Say with Barks. “By changing it to American free verse and having it [accompanied by] Americana, it makes it more easy for [the audience] to hear the truth outside of its original roots, its original form,” Moore said.
Rumi was a Sufi mystic, writing in Persia (now part of Afghanistan) during a turbulent atmosphere—not unlike today. His poetry is still widely read in the Muslim world.
Poetry often aspires to achieve a sort of timeless universality. Barks and the Phillipses’ interpretation and accompaniments help to transfer Rumi across borders and religions. The combination of Americana music—often rooted in Christianity, if nondenominational—a southern speaker, and Islamic poetry makes for an eclectic blend.
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