By Dorie Turner - AP/Houston Chronicle
Sunday, September 24, 2006
ATHENS, GA. - Coleman Barks gets dreamy-eyed when he talks about his favorite poet. But the retired University of Georgia professor's love for the ancient Persian mystic Rumi is more of a spiritual quest than a literary obsession.
Barks, 69, who's spent the better part of his three-decade career transforming the often elusive writings of Rumi into digestible verse, is largely credited with introducing the poet's works to the Western world.
It's a skill that landed Barks at the University of Tehran in Iran in May for a ceremony honoring him - a prestigious honor that's rare in a time when relations between the United States and Iran are frosty at best.
Though some see Barks' work as a link between the U.S. and the Islamic world, Barks balks at such a suggestion.
"Rumi is the bridge," he said during a recent interview at a coffee house in Athens, where he lives and which is home to the University of Georgia.
"He is the Afghan national poet, and he is one of the most-read poets in the United States in the last 10 years," Barks said. "For a medieval, 13th-century Islamic mystic to be a favorite poet of American culture and Afghan culture when we're at war with them, that's something."
The Chattanooga, Tenn., native has sold more than 500,000 copies of his 17 books of Rumi translations, a feat that is unheard of in poetry circles. Those sales are in part thanks to tensions between the U.S. and Islamic countries, which has sparked an interest in the ancient religion among Americans, Barks said.
Jalal al-Din Rumi was born in 1207 in what is now Afghanistan. His family moved around the Persian empire, eventually settling in present-day Turkey. His poems are transcribed from spontaneous verse that he spouted while talking to groups. Rumi was a Sufist, the mystic branch of Islam, and he founded the Mawlawi Sufi order, better known as the "whirling dervishes" where followers dance in circles as a form of worship.
Mark Tauber, deputy publisher with HarperSanFrancisco, which prints Barks' books, said the texts reach a wide audience, ranging from Sufi Muslims to college students.
The company markets the book under general spirituality and poetry.
"He's got such great word-of-mouth," Tauber said.
During the ceremony in Tehran three months ago, where Barks received an honorary doctorate, the university's chancellor Ayatollah Abbasali Amid Zanjani told Barks that the professor "introduced Rumi to English speakers around the world."
"You did a great job - magnificent," Zanjani said. "We appreciate that very much."
Recognizing his unique expertise, the U.S. State Department sent Barks to Afghanistan last year to talk about the poet - the first time the agency has sent a lecturer to the country since the U.S. invasion in October 2001.
Steve Lauterbach, who helped arrange the trip for the State Department, said Barks' visit to Afghanistan launched an effort to bridge the two cultures. Sending U.S. speakers to other countries is common, but it is much more rare to send them to countries like Afghanistan where tensions run high, he said.
"It's an opening," Lauterbach said. "It shows that the two peoples have more in common than you might think otherwise."
Saturday, December 02, 2006
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Saturday, December 02, 2006
Rumi: a bridge between nations
By Dorie Turner - AP/Houston Chronicle
Sunday, September 24, 2006
ATHENS, GA. - Coleman Barks gets dreamy-eyed when he talks about his favorite poet. But the retired University of Georgia professor's love for the ancient Persian mystic Rumi is more of a spiritual quest than a literary obsession.
Barks, 69, who's spent the better part of his three-decade career transforming the often elusive writings of Rumi into digestible verse, is largely credited with introducing the poet's works to the Western world.
It's a skill that landed Barks at the University of Tehran in Iran in May for a ceremony honoring him - a prestigious honor that's rare in a time when relations between the United States and Iran are frosty at best.
Though some see Barks' work as a link between the U.S. and the Islamic world, Barks balks at such a suggestion.
"Rumi is the bridge," he said during a recent interview at a coffee house in Athens, where he lives and which is home to the University of Georgia.
"He is the Afghan national poet, and he is one of the most-read poets in the United States in the last 10 years," Barks said. "For a medieval, 13th-century Islamic mystic to be a favorite poet of American culture and Afghan culture when we're at war with them, that's something."
The Chattanooga, Tenn., native has sold more than 500,000 copies of his 17 books of Rumi translations, a feat that is unheard of in poetry circles. Those sales are in part thanks to tensions between the U.S. and Islamic countries, which has sparked an interest in the ancient religion among Americans, Barks said.
Jalal al-Din Rumi was born in 1207 in what is now Afghanistan. His family moved around the Persian empire, eventually settling in present-day Turkey. His poems are transcribed from spontaneous verse that he spouted while talking to groups. Rumi was a Sufist, the mystic branch of Islam, and he founded the Mawlawi Sufi order, better known as the "whirling dervishes" where followers dance in circles as a form of worship.
Mark Tauber, deputy publisher with HarperSanFrancisco, which prints Barks' books, said the texts reach a wide audience, ranging from Sufi Muslims to college students.
The company markets the book under general spirituality and poetry.
"He's got such great word-of-mouth," Tauber said.
During the ceremony in Tehran three months ago, where Barks received an honorary doctorate, the university's chancellor Ayatollah Abbasali Amid Zanjani told Barks that the professor "introduced Rumi to English speakers around the world."
"You did a great job - magnificent," Zanjani said. "We appreciate that very much."
Recognizing his unique expertise, the U.S. State Department sent Barks to Afghanistan last year to talk about the poet - the first time the agency has sent a lecturer to the country since the U.S. invasion in October 2001.
Steve Lauterbach, who helped arrange the trip for the State Department, said Barks' visit to Afghanistan launched an effort to bridge the two cultures. Sending U.S. speakers to other countries is common, but it is much more rare to send them to countries like Afghanistan where tensions run high, he said.
"It's an opening," Lauterbach said. "It shows that the two peoples have more in common than you might think otherwise."
Sunday, September 24, 2006
ATHENS, GA. - Coleman Barks gets dreamy-eyed when he talks about his favorite poet. But the retired University of Georgia professor's love for the ancient Persian mystic Rumi is more of a spiritual quest than a literary obsession.
Barks, 69, who's spent the better part of his three-decade career transforming the often elusive writings of Rumi into digestible verse, is largely credited with introducing the poet's works to the Western world.
It's a skill that landed Barks at the University of Tehran in Iran in May for a ceremony honoring him - a prestigious honor that's rare in a time when relations between the United States and Iran are frosty at best.
Though some see Barks' work as a link between the U.S. and the Islamic world, Barks balks at such a suggestion.
"Rumi is the bridge," he said during a recent interview at a coffee house in Athens, where he lives and which is home to the University of Georgia.
"He is the Afghan national poet, and he is one of the most-read poets in the United States in the last 10 years," Barks said. "For a medieval, 13th-century Islamic mystic to be a favorite poet of American culture and Afghan culture when we're at war with them, that's something."
The Chattanooga, Tenn., native has sold more than 500,000 copies of his 17 books of Rumi translations, a feat that is unheard of in poetry circles. Those sales are in part thanks to tensions between the U.S. and Islamic countries, which has sparked an interest in the ancient religion among Americans, Barks said.
Jalal al-Din Rumi was born in 1207 in what is now Afghanistan. His family moved around the Persian empire, eventually settling in present-day Turkey. His poems are transcribed from spontaneous verse that he spouted while talking to groups. Rumi was a Sufist, the mystic branch of Islam, and he founded the Mawlawi Sufi order, better known as the "whirling dervishes" where followers dance in circles as a form of worship.
Mark Tauber, deputy publisher with HarperSanFrancisco, which prints Barks' books, said the texts reach a wide audience, ranging from Sufi Muslims to college students.
The company markets the book under general spirituality and poetry.
"He's got such great word-of-mouth," Tauber said.
During the ceremony in Tehran three months ago, where Barks received an honorary doctorate, the university's chancellor Ayatollah Abbasali Amid Zanjani told Barks that the professor "introduced Rumi to English speakers around the world."
"You did a great job - magnificent," Zanjani said. "We appreciate that very much."
Recognizing his unique expertise, the U.S. State Department sent Barks to Afghanistan last year to talk about the poet - the first time the agency has sent a lecturer to the country since the U.S. invasion in October 2001.
Steve Lauterbach, who helped arrange the trip for the State Department, said Barks' visit to Afghanistan launched an effort to bridge the two cultures. Sending U.S. speakers to other countries is common, but it is much more rare to send them to countries like Afghanistan where tensions run high, he said.
"It's an opening," Lauterbach said. "It shows that the two peoples have more in common than you might think otherwise."
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