A 2009 Nautilus Gold Award Winner, Pure Water is Coleman Barks' inspired live performance of the poetry of Jellaludin Rumi (1207-1273)-- with Sufi stories & jokes, accompanied with music by Bach, O'Carolan, Friesen and others. The performance captured in this recording recalls the essence of the communal celebrations of poetry, stories, jokes, prayer, and music in which Rumi's work was first uttered, but presents it in a distinctive contemporary setting. Coleman's words combine with the cello of Grammy Award-winner Eugene Friesen, carrying the language directly into the heart of the listener with a diverse menu of world folk melodies, Bach, and improvisation. As Rumi wrote: "What is the soul? Consciousness. The more awareness, the deeper the soul, and when such essence overflows, you feel a sacredness around. It's so simple to tell one who puts on a robe and pretends to be a dervish from the real thing. We know the taste of pure water..."

Coleman Barks (born 1937) is an American poet. Although he neither speaks nor reads Persian, he is nonetheless renowned as an interpreter of Rumi and other mystic poets of Persia.