10 Aug 2014
Great Poets: In Their Own Words
A journey into the BBC archives unearthing glorious performances and candid interviews from some of Britain's greatest poets.
Rumi: Poet of the Heart
In 1244, Jelaluddin Rumi, a Sufi scholar in Konya, Turkey, met an itinerant dervish, Shams of Tabriz. A powerful friendship ensued. When Shams died, the grieving Rumi gripped a pole in his garden, and turning round it, began reciting imagistic poetry about inner life and love of God. After Rumi's death, his son founded the Mevlevi Sufi order, the whirling dervishes. Lovers of Rumi's poems comment on their power and meaning, including religious historian Huston Smith, writer Simone Fattal, poet Robery Bly, and Coleman Barks, who reworks literal translations of Rumi into poetic English. Musicians accompany Barks and Bly as they recite their versions of several of Rumi's ecstatic poems.
Top Billed Cast
Debra Winger Narrator (voice)
Rumi Self - Poet (archive footage)
Coleman Barks Self
Robert Bly Self
Deepak Chopra Self
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