This document discusses the orientalist depiction and interpretation of the 13th century Persian poet Rumi. It notes that Coleman Barks, who translated many of Rumi's works to English, lacked proficiency in Persian and created new "versions" rather than translations. Scholars criticize Barks for removing Islamic influences from Rumi's poems and altering their meaning. The document argues Barks was continuing the orientalist tradition described by Edward Said of representing non-Western cultures according to Western perspectives.

1. RUMI’S
POETRY
&
oRIENTALISM
BY HAFSA MARYAM

2. EDWARD SAID AND
ORIENTALISM
● He was a Palestinian
intellectual
● He was famous for his book
“Orientalism”
● Orientalism is the depiction
of Middle Eastern, Asian and
North African societies.
● Knowledge was seen through the
western lens
● Western scholars wrote about
the east in their own versions

3. What does it have to do with Rumi?

4. Muhammad
Jalaluddin Rumi
Balkhi
● He was a thirteenth century Islamic
scholar and Sufi poet born in
Afghanistan.
● he studied Qur’an as a youth before
moving to Konya, in modern Turkey,
where he wrote the bulk of his
literary collection.
● Today, his Divan-e Shams-e Tabriz
and Masnavi-e Manavi are among the
most admired texts in the classical
Persian literary canon.
● And since the 1990s, he has been
called the best-selling poet in the
United States.

5. Do you know the person who
translated the rumi we are reading?

6. Coleman Barks
...Coleman doesn’t even
know farsi

7. Barks does not
actually have any
proficiency in
working with original
text, therefore, he
formulates new, free-
verse iterations of
rumi’s poems.

8. Unsurprisingly, Barks has been the
subject of numerous critiques from
scholars and journalistic
commentators alike. He has been
charged with unfaithfully
rendering Rumi’s texts and
erasing Islam from his works.
Rumi’s scholars such as Franklin
Lewis refer to Barks’ renderings
not as translations, but as
versions...

9. Coleman barks translation
Out beyond ideas
of wrongdoing
and rightdoing.
There is a field.
I’ll meet you there.

10. Coleman barks
translation
Out beyond ideas
of wrongdoing
and rightdoing.
There is a field.
I’ll meet you there.
Persianpoetics
translation
Beyond kufr and islam there
is a desert plain,
In the middle space are
passions reign,
When the gnostic arrives
there he’ll prostrate
himself.
Not kufr not islam nor is
there any space in that
domain.

11. The comparison changes everything...
The way they have flipped his poetry and
the way he has been De-Islamified
cannot be an accident

12. “Facts get their importance
from what is made of them in
interpretation…
for interpretations depends
very much on who the
interpreter is ,who he or she is
addressing, what his or her
purpose is, at what historical
moment the interpretation
takes place.”

13. Barks is one in a long history of Orientalists divorcing Persian poetry from its context
in order to reflect western culture.
In a 1995 PBS interview, host Bill Moyers said to Barks, “Sometimes I don’t know where
Rumi stops and Barks begins.” Moyers was actually right: the poetry we read in Barks’
works is, in fact, more Barks than Rumi.
( Or As edward said would call it: orientalized)
Thank you