Book Description

Originally released in 2007, “Year of Rumi,” to coincide with the poet’s 800th birthday, by the pre-eminent Rumi poet Coleman Barks. In Rumi: Bridge to the Soul , Coleman Barks – who holds an honorary doctorate in Persian language and literature by the University of Tehran for his decades-long translations of Rumi – has collected and translated ninety new poems, most of them never published before in any form. The “bridge” in the title is a reference to the Khajou Bridge in Isfahan, Iran, which Coleman Barks visited with Robert Bly in May of 2006 – a trip that in many ways prompted this book.

82 of the poems had never-before been published in any form. Rumi’s poetry, in addition to bridging cultures and religions, serves as a bridge to carry the reader into the interior silence and joy of the soul. His poems bridge the gap between conscious knowing and soul-deep understanding, bringing the reader into wholeness through the joy of his words; they are a bridge between the mystery of being human and the mystery of the divine - the ‘Soul Bridge’.