By Patricia King
Newsweek
December 21, 1998
Move over, Brad and Leo. The newest love machine is a 13th-century Persian
mystic poet named Jalal al-Din Mohammad Balkhi--or Rumi for short. A mere
700 years after his death, Rumi's got two hot releases out: a CD called
"A
Gift of Love," with celebrities like Madonna, Martin Sheen, Demi
Moore and Goldie Hawn reading their favorites among his poems, and a best
seller (for a book of verse) called "The
Love Poems of Rumi," edited by mind-body guru Deepak Chopra--also
a huge fan. And his fame is spreading fast. A few weeks ago Chopra was
outside the Memphis airport wrestling with his suitcases when a 19-year-old
skycap suddenly realized he had a celebrity at hand. "Aren't you the
dude who is talking about Rumi?" the skycap asked Chopra. "Deep
stuff, man. It's cool."
He's clearly not the only one who thinks Rumi's cool. Amazon.com
lists 113 Rumi-related titles, including two books with 365 verses
for daily comfort. Philip Glass's avant-garde opera "Monsters of Grace,"
which features Rumi's poetry, is currently touring the country. Haydn Reiss,
director of the documentary "Rumi: Poet of the Heart," narrated
by Debra Winger, was afraid that the marketplace would move on to something
like "Chinese mountain hermit poets" by the time his film came
out this year. Instead, he was pleasantly surprised that the 750 people
waiting in line at Portland, Ore.'s Northwest Film Center this summer were
there not to see "Tony n' Tina's Wedding," as he feared, but
his film.
Rumi's appeal is a little mysterious; the poems are not exactly easy
reads. Chopra offers this explanation in the CD liner notes: "These
poems reflect the deepest longing of the human heart as it searches for
the divine." That's good to know because the verses, translated from
Farsi, tend to be terse and a little intense. For example, Moore's favorite,
"Do You Love Me?" includes the following lines: "I've disappeared
from myself/and my attributes./I am present only for you." But where
some saw obscurity, Madonna saw potential lyrics. Chopra gave her his Rumi
manuscript last year when she was staying at his house in La Jolla, Calif.
The poems struck her as intrinsically musical, and she suggested an album.
Chopra unleashed his formidable Rolodex and found that he didn't have to
twist any arms. "Everyone was already reading Rumi," he says.
"These people were passionately in love with Rumi."
Rumi himself was passionately in love with Shams of Tabriz, an ascetic
he met when he was 37, "a grand event in the mystical life of the
planet," according to the liner notes. Although most scholars believe
that the relationship between the two men was platonic, Rumi's soulmate
inspired the sensuous verses featured on the CD. When Shams disappeared--possibly
killed by Rumi's jealous followers--legend has it that the grief-stricken
Rumi wound round and round a pole reciting verse, the basis for the "whirling
dance" ritual still practiced by the Mevlevi order of Sufis founded
by Rumi.
Not exactly a Hallmark moment--which is why Coleman Barks, a retired
University of Georgia English professor, balked when the card company wanted
to use his translations of Rumi poems on Valentine's Day cards. He told
the caller: "But this is the kind of love that obliterates the lovers."
Hallmark wisely decided to look for some other poet or "some other
holiday." But Chopra is not deterred. He's looking forward to a Barnes
& Noble Valentine's special on his "Love Poems" book. And
to a remixed danceable version of Moore's "Do You Love Me?" track
that has already been successfully test-marketed in New York nightclubs.
Chopra is convinced that a "free spirit" like Rumi--who broke
all the rules of his staid, academic upbringing after he met Shams--is
on board for the ride. "I'm sure he's dancing right now," says
Chopra. Either that, or he's rolling in his grave.
From Madonna's Favorite: 'Bittersweet'
Now I am sober
There is only the hangover
and the memory of love
And only the sorrow
From Demi's Favorite: 'Do You Love Me?'
If I love myself
I love you.
If I love you
I love myself.
