Coleman Barks

{{Infobox writer

| name = Coleman Barks

| image = Coleman Barks 2004.jpg

| caption = Barks in 2004

| birth_name = Coleman Bryan Barks

| birth_date = {{Birth date and age|1937|04|23}}

| birth_place = Chattanooga, Tennessee

| death_date =

| death_place =

| occupation = Poet

| nationality =

| period =

| genre = American poetry

| notableworks = Gourd Seed, The Essential Rumi

| movement =

| spouse = Kittsu Greenwood (1962–?, divorced)

| partner =

| children = Benjamin, Cole

| relatives = Elizabeth Barks Cox (sister)

| signature =

| website = {{url|https://www.colemanbarks.com/}}

}}{{Sufism}}

File:Coleman Barks reading.jpg, Norway, June 25, 2011]]

Coleman Barks (born April 23, 1937) is an American poet and former literature faculty member at the University of Georgia. Although he neither speaks nor reads Persian,{{cite book |first=Coleman |last=Barks |title=The Essential Rumi: New Expanded Edition |publisher=Harper Collins Publishers |year=2004 |quote=On the more literal level, the texts I work from to produce these poems are unpublished translations done by John Moyne, Emeritus Head of Linguistics at the City University of New York, and the following translations by Reynold Nicholson and A. J. Arberry, the famous Cambridge Islamicists... |page=365}} he is a popular interpreter of Rumi, rewriting the poems based on other English translations.

Early life and education

Barks is a native of Chattanooga, Tennessee. He attended the Baylor School, then the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and the University of California, Berkeley.{{Cite web |title=Coleman Barks |url=https://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/articles/arts-culture/coleman-barks-b-1937/ |access-date=2022-05-15 |website=New Georgia Encyclopedia |language=en-US}}

Barks was a student of the Sufi Shaykh Bawa Muhaiyaddeen.{{cite magazine |first=Andrew |last=Lawler |url=https://www.thesunmagazine.org/issues/382/walking-around-in-the-heart/ |title=Walking Around In The Heart Coleman Barks On Rumi, Sensuality, And The Path With No Name |magazine=The Sun |date=October 2007 |access-date=2022-06-05}}

Career

Barks taught literature at the University of Georgia for three decades.

Barks makes frequent international appearances and is well known throughout the Middle East. Barks' work has contributed to an extremely strong following of Rumi in the English-speaking world.{{cite web |first=Steve |last=Holgate |url=http://usembassy.state.gov/posts/in1/wwwhspmayjune9.html |title=Persian Poet Conquers America |website=usembassy.state.gov |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070622114625/http://usembassy.state.gov/posts/in1/wwwhspmayjune9.html |archive-date=2007-06-22 }} Due to his work, the ideas of Sufism have crossed many cultural boundaries over the past few decades. Barks received an honorary doctorate from University of Tehran in 2006.{{cite news |author=Staff writer |url=https://www.tehrantimes.com/news/118392/University-of-Tehran-grants-honorary-doctorate-to-Coleman-Barks |title=University of Tehran grants honorary doctorate to Coleman Barks |date=May 18, 2006 |newspaper=Tehran Times |access-date=2022-06-05}}

He has also read his original poetry at the Geraldine R. Dodge Poetry Festival. In March 2009, Barks was inducted into the Georgia Writers' Hall of Fame.{{Cite web |url=https://georgiawritershalloffame.org/honorees/coleman-barks |title=Hall of Fame Honorees: Coleman Barks |website=Georgia Writers Hall of Fame |publisher=University of Georgia |access-date=2022-06-05}}

=Rumi interpretations=

Barks has published several volumes of his interpretations of Rumi's poetry since 1976, including The Hand of Poetry, Five Mystic Poets of Persia in 1993, The Essential Rumi in 1995, The Book of Love in 2003 and A Year with Rumi in 2006.{{cn|date=June 2022}}

=Controversies=

Barks has been criticized for removing references to Islam from the poetry of Rumi.{{Cite news |last=Ali |first=Rozina |date=January 5, 2017 |title=The Erasure of Islam from the Poetry of Rumi |url=https://www.newyorker.com/books/page-turner/the-erasure-of-islam-from-the-poetry-of-rumi |access-date=October 25, 2024 |work=The New Yorker |language=en-US |issn=0028-792X}}

=Original poetry=

Barks has published several volumes of his own poetry, including Gourd Seed, "Quickly Aging Here", Tentmaking, and, in 2001, Granddaughter Poems, a collection of his poetry about his granddaughter, Briny Barks, with illustrations by Briny. Harper published his first book of poetry, The Juice, in 1972.{{Cite web |title=Coleman Barks |url=https://lannan.org/bios/coleman-barks |access-date=October 25, 2024 |website=Lannan Foundation}}

Discography

{{cite AV media

|people = Barks, Coleman; Robert Bly

|date = 1989

|title = Poems of Rumi

|type = Cassette

|publisher = Audio Literature

|isbn = 0-944993-10-9

}}

{{cite AV media

|people = Barks, Coleman; Hamza El Din; Steve Coughlin

|date = 1991

|title = Like This: More Poems of Rumi

|type = Audiobook

|publisher = Audio Literature

|isbn = 0-944993-14-1

}}

{{cite AV media

|people = Barks, Coleman; Dorothy Fadiman

|date = 1993

|title = Selections From Open Secret (Poems of the 13th Century Sufi Master Rumi)

|type = Cassette

|publisher = Coleman and Dorothy

}}

{{cite AV media

|people = Barks, Coleman

|date = 1997

|title = Dust Particles in Sunlight: Poems of Rumi

|type = Cassette

|publisher = Omega Publications

|isbn = 0-930872-60-6

}}

{{cite AV media

|people = Barks, Coleman.

|date = 1997

|title = The Hand of Poetry

|type = Cassette

|publisher = Omega Publications

|isbn = 0-930872-57-6

}}

{{cite AV media

|people = Barks, Coleman. Mary Sinclair, Lory Messina

|date = 1997

|title = The Woman Who Dressed As a Man: Poems of Attar

|type = Cassette

|publisher = Omega Publications

|isbn = 0-930872-59-2

}}

{{cite AV media

|people = Barks, Coleman

|date = 2001

|title = I want Burning

|type = CD

|publisher = Sounds True Incorporated

|edition = Unabridged

|isbn = 1-56455-830-4

}}

{{cite AV media

|people = Barks, Coleman; Marcus Wise; David Whetstone; Robert Bly

|date = 2001

|title = Rumi: Voice of Longing

|type = CD

|publisher = Sounds True Incorporated

|edition = Unabridged

|isbn = 1-56455-832-0

}}

{{cite AV media

|people = Barks, Coleman

|date = 2005

|title = Rumi

|type = CD

|publisher = Canadian Broadcasting Corporation

|isbn = 0-660-19370-1

}}

= Other credits =

class="wikitable plainrowheaders sortable" style="margin-right: 0;"

! scope="col" |Year

! scope="col" |Song

! scope="col" |Artist

! scope="col" |Album

! scope="col" |Role

2015

|"Kaleidoscope"

|Coldplay

|A Head Full of Dreams

|Vocals (Interpretation of Rumi's "The Guest House"

2022

|"Across the Oceans"

|Mamak Khadem

|Remembrance

|Vocals (Rumi interpretation)

References

External links

{{official|https://www.colemanbarks.com/}}
[https://web.archive.org/web/20070424210543/http://www.guernicamag.com/poetry/288/four_new_translations_of_rumi/ Four new translations of Rumi by Barks]
[https://www.newyorker.com/books/page-turner/the-erasure-of-islam-from-the-poetry-of-rumi The Erasure of Islam from the Poetry of Rumi]

Category:1937 births

Category:Living people

Category:American male poets

Category:American spoken word poets

Category:American Sufis

Category:American translators

Category:American Iranologists

Category:Poets from Tennessee

Category:Sufi poets

Category:University of California, Berkeley alumni

Category:University of Georgia faculty

Category:University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill alumni