Coleman Barks
2003
Harper Collins
The book is a collection of poems by Rumi, organised by themes that revolve around love and life. Some of the themes that were covered included Spontaneous Wandering, Sudden Wholeness, Madness, Absence, Romance and Friendship.
The commentary by Barks is interesting and a good read in itself. The poems, it seemed, were somewhat lost in translation. Poetry isn’t my favourite genre and reading Rumi, I realised that I probably enjoy reading poetry in Hindi or Urdu a lot more than I enjoy it in English. Particularly this kind of poetry that transcends. I feel that poetry of this kind should be magical, uplifting, and I did not feel the connect in this book.
Barks shares this incident about his interaction with a company that wanted to put Rumi’s verses on greeting cards: “Rumi’s poetry wants to dissolve the lovers. Annihilation is the point.” Well, I didn’t feel the dissolve and in that I think the book was lost on me. It may be that I was not in a state of mind to be dissolved or it may be that I expected too much. Nevertheless, some verses that I loved:
“It doesn’t matter that you’ve broken your vow a thousand times. Still come, and yet again, come.”
“We are here, then, but with no awareness of being here.”
“Which is worth more, a crowd of thousands, or your own genuine solitude? Freedom, or power over an entire nation.”
“I’m like a ruby held up on the sunrise. Is it still a stone, or a world made of redness?”
“The minute I heard my first love story I started looking for you, not knowing how blind that was. Lovers don’t finally meet somewhere. They’re in each other all along.”
In each of the above, it is more the thought behind the verse than the words that are magical. What do you think?