Rumi's poetry has been published in various English editions since the 19th century. And there has been no shortage of translators. Today, through the translations of Coleman Barks, he is the best-selling poet in the English language. The market for his poems is insatiable. He has a loyal following of English readers and serious devotees. Still, in English, Rumi's poems have often been rendered into a literal and academic prose that is awkward and wooden -- or into a New-Age idiom that bears little relationship to the author's original text or his context.
