Req: on Mr.C.Barks translation

[R.A.]

In "The essential Rumi" there is a poem called"

Whoever brought me here, will have to take me Home
or
Who says words with my mouth?
or
The tavern.

The first line says:
"All day I think about it, then at knight I say it."

Question:
Does another translation exists of this same poem?
If so, please let me know where to find it.

wkr

[Ibrahim Gamard]

Dear wkr,

The poem you asked about was first translated by John Moyne and Coleman Barks
in "Open Secret: Versiions of Rumi," Threshold Books, 1984, p. 37 (later published
in "The Essential Rumi," p. 2 as the first poem in the book). Beneath the
translation, it says: "From the Safa Anthology." This is an immediate clue that
this poem has been attributed to Rumi in an Iranian anthology of Persian poetry,
and is not in the earliest manuscripts edited by Faruzanfar. And since they did
not cite a Faruzanfar ode/ghazal number (as they do in all other cases), this
indicates that Moyne (originally Mo`een) could not find this poem in his
(one-volume) copy of Faruzanfar's edition. Therefore, the poem is very unlikely to
be an authentic Rumi poem. It's also unlikely to have been translated into English
before.

I believe the anthology is one edited by Zabîhullâh Safâ, in 3 volumes,
published in Iran. I do not have the book. I asked Professor Carl Ernst of the
University of North Carolina if he could find the original Persian text, but he
didn't reply, and perhaps he doesn't have access to the book.

I will ask another scholar about it, because I've been asked before to make a
literal translation of it to compare to Barks' version (as his versions which he
made based on Moyne's literal translations often are very distorted when compared
to the original Persian). And regarding this poem, I have had doubts about the
accuracy of the last lines: "This poetry. I never know what I'm going to say. I
don't plan it. When I'm outside the saying of it, I get very quiet and rarely
speak at all."

Ibrahim Gamard

[PBridge130]

Dear wkr,

Another translation MUST exist, as Barks doesn't speak or read Persian. He
bases his interpretations on translations produced by others. Generally, those
other translations are widely available, but this one is credited to the "Safa
Anthology" (see the index in the back of the book), and that means nothing to
me. I'll see what else I can find out for you.

Peter

[R.A.]

Ibrahim Gamard schreef:

> And regarding this poem, I have had doubts about the
> accuracy of the last lines: "This poetry. I never know what I'm going to say. I
> don't plan it. When I'm outside the saying of it, I get very quiet and rarely
> speak at all."

Besides those lines, also the first line of the second verse is puzzling:
This drunkenness began in some other tarvern.

Thank you for your answer;
at least I know that there is no need to look further for another translation.

wkr