What, in your opinion, is more important: the intended “meaning” of the poem, which is historically and culturally dependant (cf. the 2015 article by Omid Azadibougar and Simon Patton which criticizes Barks’ versions for not being sufficiently faithful to the originals), or the “feeling” of the poem, which may be accessible to all people everywhere?

Instructions: Choose one of the following poems from The Essential Rumi:

“A Community of the Spirit”
“I Have Five Things to Say”
“Enough Words?”
“A Mouse and a Frog”
“In Between Stories”
“Meadowsounds”
“Cry Out in Your Weakness”
“The Private Banquet”
“Daybreak”
“As Ripeness Comes”

There are three equally important parts to this assignment:

(1) Offer an interpretation of the poem first by identifying as many of the images, metaphors, and references as you can, putting them in historical context. How does this reflect its origins in the thirteenth century?

(2) What does this poem mean to you? Are there any “points of contact” in this poem with your own experience? Can you relate in any way to what Rumi is saying? What does it say to you in the third decade of the twenty-first century?

(3) What, in your opinion, is more important: the intended “meaning” of the poem, which is historically and culturally dependant (cf. the 2015 article by Omid Azadibougar and Simon Patton which criticizes Barks’ versions for not being sufficiently faithful to the originals), or the “feeling” of the poem, which may be accessible to all people everywhere?

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