Say I Am You — Four Song Cycles from the Poetry of Jelaluddin Rumi (2003)
When I first read the volume of Rumi poems called Open Secret, translated by poet Coleman Barks, the lines lifted from the page as music itself, curling up as bright tropes and swirling phrases. I sensed these poems would set themselves, and, notwithstanding the detail that goes into any work, that’s what happened. I phoned Coleman Barks in Athens, Georgia, and announced, “You are my brother,” despite which we became long-time friends. In the meantime, I’ve set, with his blessing, dozens of his Rumi versions. Over and over again he shows me how language sings itself.
The first song of Say I Am You describes friendship as “made of being awake,” and enjoins friends to “stay here, quivering with each moment like a drop of mercury.” The second seeks unity with the Friend. Image after image invokes the ultimate resonance of divine union: “I am the morning mist,/ and the breathing of evening… I am a tree with a trained parrot in the branches…Rose and nightingale lost in the fragrance.”
In the Arc of Your Mallet, songs culled from Open Secret, was released in 1988 as a cassette, and is new to CD. The ten songs swing through a tremendous range of feeling. Ecstasy is tempered by longing, in turn giving way to despair; incredulity is trumped by clear revelation.
The three songs of The Speechless Moon (from the 1988 volume These Branching Moments) are steeped in images so vivid that the tone painting of the music simply arises out of the language. Rumi sees beauty and meaning everywhere.
The cameo songs of Eight Quatrains are a condensed version of the 1988 cassette.
Say I Am You (2003)p
is available from
Cold Mountain Music