New York Review Books

November Events for Songs of Kabir

Poet, editor, and University of Allahabad professor Arvind Krishna Mehrotra will be reading from his dazzling new translation of Kabir’s poetry at two events in New York City. Following the attempts of Ezra Pound and Robert Bly, he has revitalized the work of this legendary North Indian bhakti poet, which explodes with passion, satire, metaphysical ideas, and upside-down language. Kabir often boldly addresses the reader, as in the opening to KG 60:

Friend,
You had one life,
And you blew it.

Mehrotra’s translation has been hailed by Eliot Weinberger as “simultaneously a work of long scholarship and a jazz performance of the Kabir tradition.”

November 2, 7pm:
McNally Jackson (52 Prince Street)
Arvind Mehrotra and Jason Grunebaum

November 3, 7pm:
Poets House (10 River Terrace at Murray Street)
25th Anniversary Program

Visit the NYRB Calendar for details.

October 27, 2011, 12:23 p.m.