欧宝娱乐

I keep a copy of the Essential Rumi (trans. Coleman Barks) with me, everywhere I go. My copy, given to me in 2001, has travelled the world with me. I read a poem a day, although sometimes it's a poem every other day. I discovered Rumi through a great book given to me by my mother: The Language of Life, a Companion Book to the Bill Moyers' PBS special about poets alive today... Coleman Barks, a premiere Rumi translator, was among the poets interviewed..... I first fell in love with this quattrain:

The minute I heard my first love story
I started looking for you, not knowing how blind that was.

Lovers don't finally meet somewhere.
They're in each other all along.


That's because I'm romantic, see, and at first, I mistook the meaning- or discovered one of many meanings. Later, when I found many soul mates, knowing that we are all connected, I found a deeper meaning... and NOW, looking for a different soul connection, I seek an even deeper meaning.

Because then there is this other bit that I love:

I, you, he, she, we.
In the garden of mystic lovers,
these are not true distinctions.

The book I carry around with me was given to me by a former creative partner.

Now, filtered through time and memory and point of view, when looking back at what I formerly considered a difficult life (okay, twenty of the years were tough, not the beginning and not my once and future now)... I see pain and ecsasty, and mostly love. And that's the very beginning of how I feel about Rumi, that's the very beginning of what he has done for me. Because the soul has been so afflicted so that it might become strong, and I am thankful for each moment.

p.s. if you anagram the letters of my last name, it spells Rumi.
;)