In 1976 Coleman Barks, Ph. D. began translating the poems of Jelaluddin Rumi, a thirteenth-century Sufi mystic, a poet as famous in the Islamic world as Shakespeare is in the West. He has since become the primary translator bringing Rumi’s poems into contemporary English, publishing sixteen volumes of Rumi’s poetry, including The Glance: Songs of Soul-Meeting and The Essential Rumi. A poet in his own right, a publisher, and teacher of contemporary American poetry, he taught for thirty-four years at the University of Georgia, Athens, where he was named Poet and Professor Emeritus of English. Currently, he collaborates in performances with musicians, including members of the Paul Winter Consort. His work was featured in two PBS series with Bill Moyers, The Language of Life (1995) and The Sounds of Poetry (1999).

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