RUMIColeMan

BaRks

With Music by David Whetstone and Marcus Wise

“Perhaps the world’s greatest spiritual poet – the gold of Rumi pours down through Coleman’s words.”

– JaCk koRnfielD, authoR of “a Path With heaRt”

Voice of Longing

Sounds True, Inc., Boulder, CO 80306© 2002 Coleman BarksRecorded at World View Productions in Minneapolis, MNAll rights reserved. No part of this album may be used or reproduced in any manner without written permission from the author and publisher. Published 2002

Also by Coleman Barks:Sounds TrueI Want Burning (2001)For a free catalog of audios, videos, and music, please contact:Sounds True, PO Box 8010, Boulder, CO 80306-8010.Phone 800-333-9185 / www.soundstrue.com

The following is a list of first lines of the poems appearing on this program, including the books by Coleman Barks in which they can be found.

SeSSion one 1. “Birdsong brings relief ” – Birdsong (Maypop

Books, 1993) a. “Let your throat-song” – Birdsong b. “I was happy enough to stay still” – Birdsong c. “When the soul first put on the body’s shirt”

– Birdsong d. “Which is worth more, a crowd of thousands”

– Birdsong e. “How long are you going to beat me”

– Birdsong 2. “This is how I would die” – Birdsong a. “Flowers open every night” – Birdsong b. “Spring paints the countryside” – Birdsong c. “Love swells and surges the ocean” – Birdsong d. “Stars burn clear” – Birdsong e. “In a boat down a fast-running creek”

– Birdsong f. “Childhood, youth and maturity” – Birdsong 3. “Soul of the world,” – Say I Am You (Maypop

Books, 1994)

a. “Not until someone dissolves,” – Say I Am You

b. “A poet tries to say love’s mystery,” – Say I Am You

c. “As salt dissolves in ocean,” – Say I Am You d. “Love told me to reject mind,” – Say I

Am You e. “Looking for ocean, I find” – Say I Am You 4. “Again, the violet bows to the lily.” – Say I

Am You 5. “Intricate sounds, not words. I catch” – Open

Secret (Shambhala Publications, 1999) a. “No one knows what makes the soul” – Say I

Am You 6. “You said, ‘Who’s at the door?’” – Say I Am You 7. “The soul must suffer secrets” – Birdsong a. “As essence turns to ocean” – Birdsong b. “I placed one foot on the wide plain”

– Birdsong c. “I said, ‘I will lift your hand” – Birdsong d. “Lovers in their brief delight” – Birdsong e. “Pale sunlight” – Birdsong f. “How will you know the difficulties”

– Birdsong g. “You thought union was a way” – Birdsong h. “A lightwind coming downhill” – Birdsong i. “What’s the lover to do” – Birdsong 8. “I saw grief drinking a cup of sorrow” – Birdsong a. “Slave be aware that the Lord” – Birdsong b. “I used to have fiery intensity” – Birdsong c. “You’ve so distracted me” – Birdsong d. “You’re in my eyes” – Birdsong e. “You’re not a slave” – Birdsong f. “People want you to be happy” – Birdsong g. “When you come back inside my chest”

– Birdsong h. “Are you jealous of the ocean’s generosity?”

– Birdsong i. “You’re the spring.” – Birdsong j. “Drumsound rises on the air” – Birdsong k. “I realize that the dawn” – Birdsong l. “Around and around all night – Birdsong

m. “Would you like to have revealed to you” – Birdsong

n. “I want to be where” – Birdsong o. “This love is beyond the range of language”

– Birdsong p. “We’re not afraid of God’s blade” – Birdsong q. “Love is that that never sleeps” – Birdsong r. “Love lit a fire in my chest, and anything”

– Birdsong s. “The way of love is not” – Birdsong 9. “In this river the soul is a waterwheel” – Say I

Am You a. “Be helpless and dumbfounded,” – Say I

Am You

SeSSion Two 1. “A sufi was wandering the world.” One-Handed

Basket Weaving (Maypop Books, 1992) 2. “Love comes with a knife, not some shy

question,” – Say I Am You 3. “Someone may be clairvoyant, able to see” – Say I

Am You 4. “Last night my teacher taught me the lesson of

poverty,” – Open Secret a. “A chickpea leaps almost over the rim of the

pot” – We Are Three (Maypop Books, 1988) b. “Jesus on the lean donkey,” – This Longing

(Shambhala Publications, 2000) c. “Listen to this, and hear the mystery inside:”

– This Longing 5. “On Resurrection Day your body testifies

against you.” – This Longing a. “We have a huge barrel of wine, but no cups.”

– Open Secret b. “Who makes these changes?” – This Longing c. “There is a light seed grain inside.” –

Open Secret d. “You that come to birth and bring the

mysteries,” – Birdsong

e. “I would love to kiss you.” – Open Secret f. “This mud-body” – Birdsong g. “My worst habit is I get so tired of winter”

– These Branching Moments (Copper Beach h. Press, 1987) i. “My spirit saw how dull and down” – Birdsong j. “There’s a bankruptcy that’s pure gain.”

– Unpublished k. “I went to the doctor. ‘I feel lost,” –

We Are Three l. “There was once a sneering wife” –

We Are Three 6. “Someone says, Sanai is dead.” – These

Branching Moments 7. “Those full of fear are not really on the way.”

– Say I Am You 8. “We tremble, thinking we’re about to dissolve”

– Say I Am You a. “You that give new life to this planet,” – Say I

Am You 9. “Before Muhammed appeared in physical form,”

– Say I Am You a. “When Abu Bakr met Muhammad, he said,”

– Say I Am You 10. “I, you, he, she, we.” – Say I Am You 11. “There is no prison so dark and small” – Say I

Am You a. “When a baby is taken from the wet nurse,”

– Say I Am You12. “Moses heard a shepherd on the road praying,”

– Delicious Laughter (Maypop Books, 1990)

AW 0 0 4 9 2 W

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Coleman Barks… is one of the most popular translators of Rumi in the English language. He was a featured poet on Bill Moyers’ public television special “Love’s Confusing Joy” and has performed in many major stage productions of Sufi poetry, music, and dance. In collaboration with Persian linguist John Moyne, Coleman Barks has translated and published more than 15 collections of ecstatic Sufi poetry, including The Illuminated Rumi and The Essential Rumi.