Rumi is best known for his poems expressing the ecstasies and mysteries of love of all kinds – erotic, divine, friendship -and Coleman Barks collects here the best of those poems, ranging from the ′wholeness′ one experiences with a true lover, to the grief of a lover′s loss, and all the states in between: from the madness of sudden love to the shifting of a romance to deep friendship – these poems cover all ′the magnificent regions of the heart′.
Originally released in 2007, “Year of Rumi,” to coincide with the poet’s 800th birthday, by the pre-eminent Rumi poet Coleman Barks. In Rumi: Bridge to the Soul , Coleman Barks—who holds an honorary doctorate in Persian language and literature by the University of Tehran for his decades-long translations of Rumi—has collected and translated ninety new poems, most of them never published before in any form. The “bridge” in the title is a reference to the Khajou Bridge in Isphahan, Iran, which Barks visited with Robert Bly in May of 2006—a trip that in many ways prompted this book. The “soul bridge” also suggests Rumi himself, who crosses cultures and religions and brings us all together to listen to his words, regardless of origin or creed. Open this book and let Rumi’s poetry carry you into the interior silence and joy of the spirit, the place that unites conscious knowing with a deeper, more soulful understanding.
