Reading introduces
character and works
of famed Islamic poet
It's a question Dan Furst never gets tired of answering: "Who is Rumi?"
"Rumi is a poet who lived during the 13th century in Turkey," Furst explained recently. "He is the most important and popular and beloved poet of the Sufi tradition of Islam, and one of the very greatest poets in the world -- I think the equal of Dante and Shakespeare."
Furst will star in "An Evening with Rumi" this weekend at the ARTS at Marks Garage. Four musicians will provide accompaniment on traditional Islamic instruments, and two dancers will represent the spiritual aspect of Rumi's legacy by "turning" during the performance.
'An Evening with Rumi'
Where: The ARTS at Marks Garage, 1159 Nuuanu Ave.
When: 7:30 p.m. tonight and tomorrow, and 2:30 p.m. Sunday
Tickets: $15 general, $12 for students and seniors, available at Serendipity Books, 2885 S. King St.
Furst emphasizes that the turners, Valerie Noor Karima and Fatush, are serious practitioners of the Mevlevi tradition of Sufi. Karima was trained in Turkey and leads the Mevlevi Zikr and Dances of Universal Peace here. Fatush has been a student of Sufi for more than 20 years and is currently a candidate for advanced discipleship in the Mevlevi Order.
"Sangeet, the flute player, was initiated into one of the Sufi orders in 1975 ... and so our pedigrees are pretty solid," he said.
Sufism is "a mystical and feminine wing (of Islam) which departs from the usual reliance on authorities, teachings and writings to the process or action of trying to make contact with God," Furst said. "This is attained through direct ecstatic experience ... music, poetry (or) through turning, (which is) the movement that produced the famous whirling dervishes."
Furst discovered Rumi's poetry in translation while he was living in Japan in the early '90s. The West has had little interest in Islamic literature in the last 500 years, and Furst said that it wasn't until the 20th century that the first academic translations of Rumi's poems were published, primarily for scholars.
The mainstream and nonacademic audience discovered Rumi more recently.
"The poetry is powerful," Furst said. "It's sensual, it's beautiful, it's sexy, it's funny, all at the same time, because Rumi was very much one of those who believed that we don't become holier by retreating from the world and isolating ourselves from it. We find our sanctity in embracing it."
HERMES3.NET
Dan Furst's Web site is dedicated to the inventor of writing, Thoth.
RUMI (his full name is Mowlana Jallaledin Mohamad Rumi) was born in 1207 and spent most of his life in Konya, a city in what is now modern Turkey. Rumi was a well-respected scholar when he met an itinerant Sufi mystic named Shams in 1244. The encounter changed him from an academic and religious teacher who had written very little into a prolific poet whose collected works are believed to surpass those of Shakespeare.
"Rumi, like the other Sufi poets, tends to imagine that we live at home in the presence of God, and (when) we come to Earth to experience this material realm ... we are in a spiritual prison in the body and we're in a kind of state of drunkenness, which means that our consciousness is not as bright and refined and clear as it was when we were in the dimension of spirit. Therefore, we spend our lives trying to escape from this prison and, like the bird of the soul that Rumi writes about so much, to return home."
One of the things that will make "An Evening with Rumi" unusual, he said, is that it will be the first in which an actor will portray Rumi in a staged reading of his works.
"This is, for me, as an actor, one of the most challenging and wonderful features of the show. There are many people in many places reading Rumi to audiences, but I am the first one to wear his costume, to create his body and his voice, and to create his character on stage."
Furst said his recitations are going to be exactly as rendered in translation but that he and the musicians are leaving themselves some room for "spontaneous interaction."
He also hopes to draw the audience into the performance.
"We will ask the people not to applaud until we're done. If you want to laugh, sure, there's lots to laugh at -- some of Rumi's stories have even been banned from school curricula for being too racy -- but the idea is that we are working in a sacred space.
"We want to create an experience of great beauty for our audience at the same time that we make them laugh and cry. What people can expect to see is something that is fun and it's beautiful, but it's still going to be a sacred experience."
For information, visit www.hermes3.net/rumi.htm.
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