Coleman Barks

Coleman Barks (April 23, 1937 – February 23, 2026) was an American poet and former literature faculty member at the University of Georgia. Although he neither spoke nor read Persian, he was a popular interpreter of Rumi, rewriting the poems based on other English translations.

Quotes

Translations

The Essential Rumi (1995)

Interpretations of Rumi, based on the translations of John Moyne, Reynold Nicholson and A. J. Arberry

All day I think about it, then at night I say it. Where did I come from, and what am I supposed to be doing? I have no idea. My soul is from elsewhere, I'm sure of that, and I intend to end up there.
- "Who says words with my mouth?" in Ch. 1: The Tavern, p. 2

Who looks out with my eyes? What is the soul?
I cannot stop asking.
If I could taste one sip of an answer,
I could break out of this prison for drunks.
I didn't come here of my own accord, and I can't leave that way.
Whoever brought me here, will have to take me home.
- "Who says words with my mouth?" in Ch. 1: The Tavern, p. 2

This poetry. I never know what I'm going to say.
I don't plan it.
When I'm outside the saying of it,
I get very quiet and rarely speak at all.
- "Who says words with my mouth?" in Ch. 1: The Tavern, p. 2

There is a community of the spirit
Join it, and feel the delight
of walking in the noisy street,
and being the noise.
- "A Community of the Spirit" in Ch. 1: The Tavern, p. 2

Quit acting like a wolf, and feel
the shepherd's love filling you.
- "A Community of the Spirit" in Ch. 1: The Tavern, p. 2

Move outside the tangle of fear-thinking.
Live in silence.
Flow down and down in always
widening rings of being.
- "A Community of the Spirit" in Ch. 1: The Tavern, p. 2

What is the body? That shadow of a shadow
of your love, that somehow contains
the entire universe.
- "Where are we?" in Ch. 2: Bewilderment

Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing,
there is a field. I will meet you there.
When the soul lies down in that grass,
the world is too full to talk about
language, ideas, even the phrase each other
doesn't make any sense.
- "The Great Wagon" Ch. 4: Spring Giddiness, p. 36
- Variant translations:
  - Between wrongness and rightness there is a field. I will meet you there.
    - As quoted in Counselling Psychology: Integration of Theory, Research and Supervised Practice (1998) by Petruska Clarkson
  - Out beyond the world of ideas of wrong doing and right doing, there is a field. I will meet you there.
    - As quoted in Lightning in a Bottle: Proven Lessons for Leading Change (2000) by David H. Baum
  - Out beyond ideas of right and wrong doing, there is a field. I will meet you there.
    - As quoted in Architects of Peace: Visions of Hope in Words and Images (2002) by Michael Collopy, p. 109
  - Out beyond ideas of rightdoing
    and wrongdoing
    There is a field.
    I will meet you there.
    - Strategic Learning in a Knowledge Economy: Individual, Collective and Organizational Learning Processes (2000) by Robert L. Cross and Sam B. Israelit

Spring is Christ,
Raising martyred plants from their shrouds.
Their mouths open in gratitude, wanting to be kissed.
The glow of the rose and the tulip means a lamp is inside.
A leaf trembles. I tremble in the wind-beauty like silk from Turkestan.
The censer fans into flame.
This wind is the Holy Spirit.
The trees are Mary.
- "Spring is Christ" in Ch. 4: Spring Giddiness, p. 37

We talk about this and that. There’s no rest except on these branching moments.
- "Spring is Christ" in Ch. 4: Spring Giddiness, p. 38

There is no reality but God,
says the completely surrendered sheik, who is an ocean for all beings.
- "The Grasses" in Ch. 4: Spring Giddiness, p. 44

Disputational knowing wants customers.
It has no soul.
- "The Sheikh who played with the Children" in Ch. 4: Spring Giddiness, p. 46

Let the lover be disgraceful, crazy, absent-minded.
Someone sober will worry about events going badly.
Let the lover be.
- Ch. 4: Spring Giddiness, p. 46

I can't stop pointing
to the beauty.
Every moment and place says,
"Put this design in your carpet!"
- "Put This Design in Your Carpet" Ch. 11: Union

From Hallaj, I learned to hunt lions, but I became something hungrier than a lion.
- "Hallaj" Ch. 11: Union

This dance is the joy of existence.
I am filled with you.
Skin, blood, bone, brain, and soul.
There's no room for lack of trust, or trust.
Nothing in this existence but that existence.
- "We Three" Ch. 11: Union

The place that Solomon made to worship in,
called the Far Mosque, is not built of earth
and water and stone, but of intention and wisdom
and mystical conversation and compassionate action.
- "The Far Mosque" in Ch. 17: Solomon Poems, p. 191

This heart sanctuary does
exist, but it can't be described. Why try!
Solomon goes there every morning and gives guidance
with words, with musical harmonies, and in actions,
which are the deepest teaching. A prince is just
a conceit until he does something with generosity.
- "The Far Mosque" in Ch. 17: Solomon Poems, p. 191

Gamble everything for love,
if you are a true human being.
- "On Gambling" Ch. 18: The Three Fish, p. 193

Do not believe in an absurdity
no matter who says it.
- "The Three Fish" Ch. 18: The Three Fish, p. 196

Silence
is an ocean. Speech is a river.
When the ocean is searching for you, don't walk
into the language-river. Listen to the ocean,
and bring your talky business to an end
Traditional words are just babbling
in that presence, and babbling is a substitute
for sight.
- "The Three Fish" Ch. 18: The Three Fish, p. 196
- Variant translations or adaptations:
  - Silence is the language of God, all else is poor translation.
    - As quoted in Teachers of Wisdom (2010) by Igor Kononenko, p. 134
  - Silence is an ocean. Speech is a river. Silence is the language of God, all else is poor translation.
    - As quoted in "Rumi’s wisdom", paulocoelhoblog.com (2 October 2015), by Paulo Coelho

Every object and being in the universe is
a jar overflowing with wisdom and beauty,
a drop of the Tigris that cannot be contained
by any skin. Every jarful spills and makes the earth
more shining, as though covered in satin.
- "The Gift of Water" Ch. 18: The Three Fish, p. 200

You knock at the door of Reality. You shake your thought wings, loosen your shoulders, and open.
- "The Gift of Water" Ch. 18: The Three Fish, p. 200

Christ is the population of the world,
and every object as well. There is no room
for hypocrisy. Why use bitter soup for healing
when sweet water is everywhere?
- Ch. 19: Jesus Poems, p. 204

Lovers think they are looking for each other,
but there is only one search: wandering
This world is wandering that, both inside one
transparent sky. In here
there is no dogma and no heresy.
- Ch. 19: Jesus Poems, p. 205

The miracle of Jesus is himself, not what he said or did
about the future. Forget the future.
I'd worship someone who could do that.
- Ch. 19: Jesus Poems, p. 205

Good and bad are mixed. If you don't have both, you don't belong with us.

God's lion did nothing that didn't originate from his deep center.

The cure for pain is in the pain.
Good and bad are mixed. If you don't have both,
you don't belong with us.
- Ch. 19: Jesus Poems

It may be that the satisfaction I need
depends on my going away, so that when I've gone
and come back, I'll find it at home.
- "In Baghdad, Dreaming of Cairo: In Cairo, Dreaming of Baghdad." Ch. 20: In Baghdad, Dreaming of Cairo: More Teaching Stories, p. 206

Learn from Ali how to fight
without your ego participating.
God's lion did nothing
that didn't originate
from his deep center.
- "Ali in Battle" an account of Ali ibn Abi Talib's explanation as to why he declined to kill someone who had spit in his face as Ali was defeating him in battle, in Ch. 20: In Baghdad dreaming of Cairo

I am God's Lion, not the lion of passion....
I have no longing
except for the One.
When a wind of personal reaction comes,
I do not go along with it.
There are many winds full of anger,
and lust and greed. They move the rubbish around,
but the solid mountain of our true nature stays where it's always been.
- "Ali in Battle" in Ch. 20: In Baghdad dreaming of Cairo

This
that we are now
created the body, cell by cell,
like bees building a honeycomb.
The human body and the universe
grew from this, not this
from the universe and the human body.
- "This We Have Now" in Ch. 25: Majesty. p. 262

Do not grieve. Anything you lose comes round in another form.
- "Unmarked boxes" / Ode#1937

Not yet sourced by chapter

Come to the orchard in spring.

Every tree and plant in the meadow seemed to be dancing, those which average eyes would see as fixed and still.

God's joy moved from unmarked box to unmarked box,
from cell to cell.

Observe the wonders as they occur around you.
Don't claim them. Feel the artistry
moving through, and be silent.

Come to the orchard in Spring.
There is light and wine, and sweethearts in the pomegranate flowers.
If you do not come, these do not matter.
If you do come, these do not matter.

He says, "There’s nothing left of me.
I’m like a ruby held up to the sunrise.
Is it still a stone, or a world
made of redness? It has no resistance
to sunlight."
This is how Hallaj said, I am God,
and told the truth!
The ruby and the sunrise are one.
Be courageous and discipline yourself.
Completely become hearing and ear,
and wear this sun-ruby as an earring.

External links

Encyclopedic article on Coleman Barks on Wikipedia