Songs of Kabir - Couverture souple

Couverture souple

ISBN 10 : 0486433587 ISBN 13 : 9780486433585

Editeur : Dover Pubns, 2004

Synopsis

"Kabir's poems give off a marvelous radiant intensity." -- The New York Times Book Review. A weaver by trade and a mystic by nature, the 15-century poet Kabir created timeless works of enlightenment that combine the philosophies of Sufism, Hinduism, and the Kabbala. Expressed in imagery drawn from common life and the universal experience, Kabir's poems possess an appealing simplicity. This collection of 100 songs reflects nearly every aspect of the mystic's thought and emotions: ecstasy and despair, tranquil beatitude and fervid illumination, and moments of intimate love. The acclaimed translation is by Rabindranath Tagore, a popular Indian poet and Nobel laureate.

A propos du livre

Présentation de l'éditeur

KABIR was a Hindu mystic of the fifteenth century. A selection of his poems, translated by a more modern Hindu poet, Tagore, is presented in this volume, with an introduction by Evelyn Underhill. His songs were written, she tells us in a popular dialect, not in the literary tongue and were addressed to the people. "All must be struck by the constant employment in them of imagery drawn from the common life, the universal experience. It is by the simple metaphors, by constant appeals to needs, passions, relations which all men understand . . . that he drives home his intense conviction of the reality of the soul's course with the Transcendent."

By trade, Kabir was a weaver, a simple Oriental craftsman, who combined vision and industry, "even as Paul the tentmaker, Boehme the cobbler, Bunyan the tinker, and Tersteegen the ribbon-maker." He was not an ascetic saint, but a man who lived a normal life as a married man, the father of a family. His birth is recorded as in or near Benares about the year 1440. He worked to unify the so-called doctrine of the heart, a religion of love, with the formalism and intellectualism of Hindu theology and the philosophy of the Persian mystics; and the sect he founded claims a million followers in Northern India.

Tagore has given his songs their melodic English translation and Evelyn Underhill's Introduction for the volume outlines the life and philosophy of “Kabir.” A few quotations from his visions of the Infinite will reveal the quality of his genius:

“The flute of the Infinite is played without ceasing, and its sound is love.

When love renounces all limits, it reaches truth.

The moon shines in my body, but my blind eyes cannot see it.

The moon is within me, and so is the sun.

The unstruck drum of Eternity is sounded within me but my deaf ears cannot hear it.

So long as man clamors for the I and the Mine, his works are as naught.

When all the love of the I and the Mine is dead, then the work of the Lord is done

Biographie de l'auteur

Azafran Books was established with a clear aim in mind – to make available a selection of classic books for today’s contemporary readers. The books in our catalogue have been selected from a broad range of themes; such as philosophy (occidental & oriental), mysticism & magic, new thought, religion & spirituality, folktales, mythology, cult fiction, poetry, social commentary, and psychology. Yet they all have a common theme, or purpose – to stimulate our thinking and modes of perception. For this reason, they have been chosen to be re-published and re-presented to the modern reader. Azafran Books have been re-edited, formatted, and presented with new design work – they are NOT scanned copies with original errors. Our books have been carefully re-published to the highest of standards – by a team of dedicated real people – not an algorithm! Our aim at Azafran Books is to bring a range of stimulating books, many of them largely forgotten, to the attention of the reader today. In other words, to bring you ‘Classic Books for a Contemporary World.’

Détails de l'édition

• Éditeur: Dover Pubns
• Date d'édition: 2004
• Langue: anglais
• ISBN 10: 0486433587
• ISBN 13: 9780486433585
• Reliure: Broché
• Nombre de pages: 96
• Coordonnées du fabricant: non disponible
• Personne responsable: Soc. Agr. La Raia Ss; http://www.la-raia.it; ; Strada Monterotondo, 79; Novi Ligure; 15067; Italie