[ENCORE EPISODE] Coleman Barks: Rumi, Grace, and Human Friendship
Listen to the original audio · Transcribed with NVIDIA Parakeet · Why times can differ in your player
This encore edition is a tribute to Coleman Barks, who at eighty eight years of age died on february twenty third, twenty twenty six. In addition to being a world renowned poet, Coleman was a mystic, a lover of music, literature, and life, and a friend. His rumi translations, from the heart, find a home in our hearts, and his voice, warm and resounding, stays with us. Today my guest is Coleman Barks. Coleman Barks is a leading scholar and translator of the
14th century Persian mystic Jalaluddin Rumi. He taught poetry and creative writing at the University of Georgia for 30 years, and is the author of numerous Rumi translations, and has been a student of Sufism since 1977. His work with Rumi was the subject of an hour-long segment in Bill Moyer's Language of Life series on PBS. With Sounds True, Coleman Barks has released the audio programs. I Want Burning, the ecstatic world of Rumi, Hafis and Lala, a CD called Rumi Voice of Longing, and also a brand new, beautiful three CD collection which is a collaboration between Coleman Barks and cellist David Darling.
It's called Just Being Here, Rumi and Human Friendship. In this episode of Insights at the Edge, Coleman Barks and I spoke about the relationship between Rumi and his teacher, whom he called the Friend, Shams of Tabriz, and how Coleman received insight into this friendship based on his own relationship with a Sufi teacher named Guru Bawa, Bawa Muhayadin. We also spoke about how Colman first began translating Rumi, and how the translation process involves Kolman falling into a type of trance as part of the process. Finally, Coleman and I spoke about grace, and as part of our conversation, we listened to some new pieces from the recording Just Being Here, Rumi and Human Friendship.
We already have this episode, so unlocking it is cheap and permanent: the full transcript (62 minutes, 6,856 words), segment and word-level timestamps, and .txt, .srt, .vtt and word-level JSON downloads, as many times as you like, forever.
No account needed, we create one from your checkout email. With credits it is 1 credit; packs start at 5 episodes for $3.49, and monthly plans are cheaper still.