Selections from OPEN SECRET
and other sources on CD Read by Coleman Barks &
Dorothy Fadiman
(45 min.)
Producer: Dorothy Fadiman
Assistant Producer: Sharon Bergeron
Translation: Coleman Barks, John Moyne
Music: Flute - Jan Lovett-Keen
Violin - Shams Kairys
Tamboura - Grant Rudolph Recording Engineer: Bruce Kaphan Mix Consultant: Michael Callahan
OPEN SECRET: The poems of the 13th Century Sufi Master Rumi, the
original Whirling Dervish, read by Dorothy Fadiman in collaboration with
the translator
of this poetry, Coleman Barks. Live music performed on flute,
violin, and tamboura
is interwoven with the readings. Vocal and musical
score produced by Dorothy Fadiman.
These fresh translations of Rumi, alternatively presented in the male and female
modes, blend the longing and clarity, the wild humor and the discipline,
the drunkenness and sobriety of Rumi's poetry into one Friendship. The deepest mystery in Rumi's work
is the intimate, though elusive YOU, beloved reminder
of God's presence in everything.
These translations are drawn from two books of Rumi's poetry, OPEN SECRET (Threshhold Books) WE ARE THREE (Maypop Books).
The Life of RUMI Jalaluddin Rumi was born in Afghanistan (1207) to a family of scholars
and theologians. They fled the Mongul invasions, settling in Turkey,
where Rumi succeeded his father as head of the Sufi dervish learning
community.
The direction
of his life changed dramatically when he met
Shams of Tabriz, the man who became his intimate friend and
inspiration. With Shams, he discovered the "Inner Friend,"
a way
of being with God in companionship. Out of Rumi's relationship with
Shams, out of his love-joy-longing, came the poetry, the turning (Rumi
became the original "Whirling Dervish") and the surrender that continues
to ignite and unite lives. When Rumi died in 1273, devotees of many
faiths came to his funeral. He consciously worked to dissolve the
barriers between religious creeds. "I go to the Church,
the Synagogue
and the Mosque...I see only one altar." He continues to be
rediscovered by sympathetic souls from every culture.
