I would like to now give my assessment of Coleman Barks's popular English-language translations of Rumi.
Many people who grew up Muslim who know the Persian original say that Coleman Barks takes the Islam out of Rumi. That is, that he removes the context of traditional Islamic culture that the Persian originals are steeped in.
I have read Coleman Barks's translations of Rumi. I know why.
Coleman Barks is recognizing his limitations. Poetry is very hard to translate well. To translate poetry well, you need to be a great poet yourself. Omar Khayyam's Rubaiyat is so well known in the west because it is one of the few works of Persian poetry that has a really legendary translation.
Coleman Barks recognizes his limitations. He knows that he cannot translate everything, every little reference. So he focuses on translating the God in Rumi.
That's why Coleman Barks's translations take the Islam out of Rumi. Because he knows he cannot translate every nuance. And so he focuses on translating the God in Rumi.
Which means that other things, like the Islamic historical and cultural context, are often neglected. He translates them if he can- it is not like there are no references to traditional Islamic culture- but that is not what he focuses on.
He focuses on translating the God in Rumi.
And trust me- I have never heard the God in a sacred work translated as well as in Coleman Barks's Rumi. As a work of sacred literature translated into English from another language, it's up with the best parts of the King James Bible. We are lucky to have a translation this wonderful of Rumi into English. Coleman Barks's translations of Rumi are a miracle.
That's my assessment of Coleman Barks's translations of Rumi! God loves you!
Sincerely,
David S. Annderson
P.S. The Rubaiyat is a collection of poems. Rubaiyat is Persian for 'Quatrains', four-line poems. Edward Fitzgerald arranged the short poems, which ruminate on the same consistant themes, as if to form a larger work, and then left the title in the original Persian. Others have done this very well as well- Schubert's song cycles are of short verses by the same poet arranged into a larger work just like Fitzgerald's translation of Omar Khayyam. God loves you!