Book 1, The Tavern : Chapter 1, Introduction & The Tavern through to Feeling Separation Summary

There are multiple introductions to this text. The first one of these is for the New Expanded Edition that was published in 1995. In it, the scholar Coleman Barks informs readers that he has been able to translate and to include an additional eighty-one poems. These are of course not new at all, but have never appeared before in English before the public. Coleman Barks is the author of the introduction. He is also famous for bringing Rumi's work into English at a high standard.

Coleman Barks gets quite personal during the introduction. He shares with readers the essentials of his own intimacy with Rumi's poetry. It began for him in 1976 and has continued. He explains to readers that his feelings about the messages...