Set of 4 Broadsides by Rumi in English and Farsi, Translated by Coleman Barks (2 of 2)

Set of 4 Broadsides by Rumi in English and Farsi, Translated by Coleman Barks (2 of 2)

Out Beyond Ideas

Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing,
there is a field.  I'll meet you there.

When the soul lies down in that grass,
the world is too full to talk about.
Ideas, language, even the phrase each other
doesn't make any sense

There is a Light Seed Grain

There is a light seed grain inside.

You fill it with yourself, or it dies.

I am caught in this curling energy! your hair!

 Whoever is calm and sensible is insane!

The Ground

Today, like every other day, we wake up empty and frightened.
Don't open the door to the study and begin reading.
Take down the dulcimer.

Let the beauty we love be what we do.
There are hundreds of ways to kneel and kiss the ground.

No Walls

The clear bead at the center changes everything.
There are no edges to my loving now.

I've heard it said there's a window that opens
from one mind to another,

but if there's no wall, there's no need
for fitting the window, or the latch.

Born and raised in Chattanooga, Tennessee, poet and translator Coleman Barks received a BA from the University of North Carolina and an MA from the University of California, Berkeley, before returning to the University of North Carolina to earn a PhD. Barks lives in Athens, Georgia, and is a professor emeritus at the University of Georgia. In 2009 he was inducted into the Georgia Writers’ Hall of Fame.