"Day and night I guarded the pearl of my soul.
Now in this ocean of pearling currents,
I’ve lost track of what was mine."

The HSU production began with a wealth of material to choose from, thanks to the blanket permission granted by Coleman Barks, the foremost English translator of Rumi’s verses in a series of books widely credited for the Rumi boom. All it took was an email from director Heckel, and Barks immediately agreed. His 500 page compendium called Rumi: The Big Red Book was published earlier this fall.