Kabir: Ecstatic Poems

by Kabir, Robert Bly (Translator), John Stratton Hawley (Afterword)

Overview

Originally published in 1976, with more than 75,000 copies in print, this collection of poems by fifteenth-century ecstatic poet Kabir is full of fun and full of thought. Columbia University professor of religion John Stratton Hawley has contributed an introduction that makes clear Kabir's immense importance to the contemporary reader and praises Bly's intuitive translations.

By making every reader consider anew their religious thinking, the poems of Kabir seem as relevant today as when they were first written.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780807063804
Publisher:	Beacon Press
Publication date:	04/15/2007
Pages:	128
Sales rank:	122,783
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 7.30(h) x 0.30(d)

About the Author

Robert Bly is the author of the groundbreaking New York Times bestseller Iron John, which launched the men's movement to national fame, as well as several collections of original poetry, most recently,The Night Abraham Called to the Stars: Poems. He has translated numerous poets into English, including Kabir, Pablo Neruda, Cesar Vallejo, Juan Ramon Jimenez, and Frederico Garcia Lorca. He lives in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

Table of Contents

	Preface	ix
I	The Gardener Is Coming	1
II	The Wanting Creature	19
III	The Bride Wants Her Lover	37
IV	The Guest Is Inside You	53
	Afterword	77
	Acknowledgments	103

Editorial Reviews

Kabir's poems give off a marvelous radiant intensity that never fails…they have exactly the luminous depth that permits and invites many rereadings.—Hayden Carruth, New York Times Book Review

"One of the luminous experiences of American poetry… Kabir is a poet who connects the modes of thinking, feeling, intuition and sensation at every turn of thought and phrase."—Jonathan Cott, Rolling Stone

"Robert Bly earns the thanks of us all. I, for one, will reread [Bly's Kabir] often. Kabir can be seen as a welcome member to that brotherhood of mystic American poets, novelists and painters."—Paul Carroll, The American Poetry Review

"Without Bly, modern American poetry would be unrecognizable in its current form. Without his poems, his translations, and his devotion to poetry, American literature would have taken a different turn in its rich and influential history." —Ray González, The Bloomsbury Review

From the Publisher