Poetry connecting civilizations in conflict

We’ve long believed that poems can be envoys among cultures, connecting people from civilizations at war with their common humanity & each other. Now, at a time when Islam & Western civilization are in open conflict, and in the midst of the escalating tension & sabre-rattling between the U.S. and Iran, a medieval Persian poet & his contemporary American translator have created a cultural link between them. Can this be the beginning of what Jim Finnegan called “detente, one verse at a time”? We can only hope....

from AccessNorthGa.com, AP Wire (with thanks to JforJames of the NewPoetry list for posting the article):
“Iran honors Georgia poet for his translations of Rumi”
“Setting aside its fierce anti-Americanism, Iran has honored a U.S. national who spent 30 years translating the legendary 13th century Persian poet Rumi into English. Coleman Barks is a ‘great poet, professor and scholar,’ said the chancellor of Tehran University, Ayatollah Abbasali Amid Zanjani, as he awarded an honorary doctorate in Persian language and literature to the retired English teacher from the University of Georgia.... Barks said Rumi has been the most read poet in the United States during the past 10 years. ‘Rumi has given Americans a way to love Islam,’ he said.”

Related notes:
Coleman Barks’ recording of “Spring Morning” was our Poetry mp3 Pick in April, 2001.
His translation of Rumi’s The Book of Love: Poems of Ecstasy and Longing is on our list of the best collections of love poems.
Our Poems for Peace anthology