News at Eleven: [Coleman Barks] says that after teaching

three classes at the University of Georgia, he would pour himself some hot tea and work on one of Rumi's poems, "going into the trance of the poem." He describes this experience as feeling "the soul growth."

Using the images of the poem, he worked to translate it into accessible English from more scholarly or formal English. He calls it "movement toward the emotional and spiritual--toward that which is felt."

from The Block Island Times: Coleman Barks: poet and translator

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