Home Mirabai: Ecstatic Poems by Robert Bly (Translator); Jane Hirshfield (Translator); Afterword by John Stratton Hawley (ISBN: 9780807063866)

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Mirabai: Ecstatic Poems Hardcover - 2004

Name: Mirabai: Ecstatic Poems
Price: 16.00 USD
Availability: InStock
ISBN: 9780807063866

by Robert Bly (Translator); Jane Hirshfield (Translator); Afterword by John Stratton Hawley

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From the publisher

Mirabai is a literary and spiritual figure of legendary proportions. Born a princess in the region of Rajasthan in 1498, Mira (as she is more commonly known) fought tradition and celebrated a woman's right to an independent life in her ecstatic poems. Her royal family arranged an early marriage for her, but she felt a marriage to Krishna was more important. As a result, her life became a model of social defiance and spiritual integrity.
During her lifetime, Mira's reputation spread across her country. She was known as a woman of immense talent and devotion. By the time she died in 1550, she was considered a saint. People across India recited and danced to her poems, and they still do today. In this collection, Robert Bly and Jane Hirshfield, two of America's best poets, have created lively English versions of Mirabai's poems, using fresh images and energetic rhythms to make them accessible to modern readers. Their work makes clear that Mirabai's poetry transcends her time and culture. Columbia University professor of religion John Stratton Hawley provides an afterword to the volume that discusses what is known of Mirabai's life and reputation. With a historian's precision, he shows how Bly and Hirshfield's versions belong to a tradition of reinterpretation and rephrasing that is already centuries old.
Mirabai comes to life through the impressive interpreting of her poems by Bly and Hirshfield. The poems feel as fresh today as they must have felt when this amazing woman sung them herself five centuries ago.

Details

Title Mirabai: Ecstatic Poems
Author Robert Bly (Translator); Jane Hirshfield (Translator); Afterword by John Stratton Hawley
Binding Hardcover
Edition First Edition; F
Pages 103
Volumes 1
Language ENG
Publisher Beacon Press (MA), Boston, Massachusetts
Date November 19, 2004
Illustrated Yes
ISBN 9780807063866 / 080706386X
Weight 0.63 lbs (0.29 kg)
Dimensions 7.32 x 5.8 x 0.65 in (18.59 x 14.73 x 1.65 cm)
Library of Congress subjects Mirabai
Library of Congress Catalog Number 2004019238
Dewey Decimal Code 811.54

Media reviews

We are so fortunate that two magnificent poets have been drawn to Mirabai's music. Like two twining flutes, Robert Bly and Jane Hirshfield ignite these subtle, surrendered-heart notes, as 'a steeped herb' releasing its cure, and even though we ourselves may be bogged down in our 'patch of gooseberry bushes' (both their images), still we catch. -Coleman Barks, author of The Drowned Book and The Essential Rumi

About the author

Robert Bly is the author of The Night Abraham Called to the Stars, a book of poems in the ghazal form, as well as ten other collections of poetry. He has published several books of prose, including "Iron John" and "The Sibling Society." Recently published, "The Winged Energy of Delight" is a gathering of poems by twenty-two poets from various languages that Bly has translated over the last forty years. Bly lives in Minneapolis, Minnesota.