Muslim poet Rumi speaks to all religions

Great poetry lives on and on, for it is the language of the human spirit.

The Psalms speak to us still with their messages of devotion and love. The Classical Greek plays often tell us more about our natures than most of what has been written since. Shakespeare, writing for Elizabethan audiences in a pre-industrial age, reverberates through time to shake the souls of the living.

Mawlana Jalal-ud-Din Balkhi-Rumi, born in 1207 in Balkh (today, part of Afghanistan) during the early years of Islam, was a Persian-speaking teacher and scholar, going about his business as an imam, practicing his Muslim faith. He lived almost all of his 66 years in Konya (now part of Turkey).

At 37, he met a mystic — Shams of Tabriz — and his life changed forever.

Rumi's students and followers, jealous of his love for Shams, killed the mystic dervish, an act that threw a bereft Rumi into a new space formed partly by the Earth and partly by

the heavens. The teacher gripped a column with one hand and, whirling round it in a profound state of ecstatic mourning, issued forth words. They poured from him like a river's life-giving waters, foaming and churning above the boulders, rushing in torrents at the cusp of the waterfall.

His students listened, riveted. And some began to write down the words, one after another, forming chains of thought, descriptions of the universe. It seemed as if Rumi was explaining the mysteries of life, for he had become a true poet.

This year marks the poet's 800th birthday, and all the world is celebrating. The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) declared this the year of Rumi. Institutions across the United States are presenting readings and lectures. In Charleston, the Sophia Institute has arranged a benefit celebration called "Rumi: Festival of the Soul," to be held at the Sottile Theatre on Saturday. The event features renowned Rumi translator Coleman Barks, and musicians Marcus Wise and David Whetstone playing tabla drums and sitar, respectively.

Rumi was a member of Islam's mystical Sufi sect, which is still active today. It consists of various "orders," all of which seek to cultivate divine love and find ways to forge human connections with the whole of God's creation. The tradition, therefore, is known for its open, ecumenical approach, inviting in all who seek answers to life's mysteries.

During his lifetime, Rumi, who initiated the Mevlevi order of Sufism, was beloved not only by Muslims, but by Christians and Jews as well, for his focus was the common denominator of the human experience.

Nevertheless, Rumi was a devout Muslim who managed to practice mysticism within Islamic orthodoxy, College of Charleston religion professor Lee Irwin said, comparing Rumi to St. Thomas Aquinas or St. Francis of Assisi, Catholics who lived during the same period and who found ways to reconcile religious doctrine with mystical exploration.

Rumi, who wrote extensively, is widely considered among the greatest Islamic thinkers, Irwin said.

He emerged as the Renaissance loomed on the horizon of the medieval world. People were open to a "new poetic vision" which incorporated divine mystery, Irwin said. "He was a literary genius," Irwin said, "a brilliant writer with a timeless quality."

The original Persian texts rely heavily on rhythm and rhyme, characteristics hard to reproduce in another language. Nevertheless, Barks, a poet in his own right, found a way to make Rumi sing. His English reworkings of the texts are among the best-selling poetry books in the U.S.

Barks grew up in Chattanooga, Tenn., and taught poetry and creative writing for 30 years at the University of Georgia.

He said he has been enchanted by literature since childhood. At 12, he found himself mesmerized by language, "by single words that tasted good to me, like 'azalea.' "

He wrote poems and short stories. Years later, at 39, he attended a conference organized by poet Robert Bly and heard Rumi's name for the first time.

Bly handed Barks a book of academic translations of Rumi's work by the scholar Arthur John Arberry, saying, "These poems need to be released from their cages."

So Barks, armed with pen and paper, took the volume to the Bluebird Cafe in Athens and ordered pots of hot tea.

Did it matter that his translations weren't literal or based on the original Persian? "I claim to be a poet in English, so claim to know what a poem sounds like in English," Barks said. The idea was to create a new poem, one that could speak to the hearts of English-speaking readers and listeners, he said. The results, he hopes, will open the hearts of readers and listeners.

Rumi did not produce personal poems, like so many contemporary writers, Barks said. Rather, the poetry was meant to transform listeners, ask fundamental questions, reveal basic truths and explore nature, life and God. They were meant to affect the union of the material and spiritual worlds, he said.

And when these words pour forth, Barks said, fueled by soul and heart, creating this mysterious union, the effect is to be engulfed by a great joy.