Kabir - The Weaver's Songs

Author: Vinay Dharwadker
Translator(s): Vinay Dharwadker
Publisher: Penguin
Year: 2003
Language: English
Pages: 304
ISBN/UPC (if available): 0143029681

Description

One of India's greatest mystics, Kabir (1398-1448) was also a satirist and philosopher, a poet of timeless wit and wisdom. Equally immersed in theology and social thought, music and politics, his songs have won devoted followers form every walk of life through the past five centuries. He was a Muslim by name, but his ideas stand at the intersection of Hinduism and Islam, Bhatia and Yoga, religion and secularism. And his words were always marked by rhetorical boldness and conceptual subtlety.

This book offers Vinay Dharwadker's sparkling new translations of one hundred poems, drawing for the first time on major sources in half a dozen literary languages. They closely mimic the structure, voice and style of the originals, revealing Kabir's multiple facets in historical and cultural contexts. Finely balancing simplicity and complexity, this selection opens up new forms of imagination and experience for discerning readers around the world.

Contents

TRANSLATOR'S NOTE

INTRODUCTIN
Kabir, His Poetry and His World

THE POEMS

I SIXTY THREADS IN THE WARP
Poems from the Northern Texts

II I'VE PAINTED MY BODY RED
Poems from the Western Texts

III THE GANGA DRAINS THE OCEAN
Poems from the Eas