Painting from the Palette of Love: The Mystical Poetry of Kabir

Painting from the Palette of Love: The Mystical Poetry of Kabir

Thomas Rain Crowe
$17.95
Publication Date: August 22nd, 2023
Publisher:
Shambhala
ISBN:
9781645471868
Pages:
96
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Description

Wrap yourself in the boundless love of the Divine with  the mystical poetry of renowned Sufi saint Kabir, here brought to life for modern readers by acclaimed poet Thomas Rain Crowe​.

“When you’ve come all this way to the ocean of happiness,
Do not return home thirsty with an empty cup.
Wake up! Here is some pure water,
Drink as much as you can!”

The enigmatic Indian mystical poet Kabir stands among the greatest spiritual thinkers of human history. At once a Sufi, Hindu, and unbounded disciple of the universal Divine, Kabir and his songs of union and ecstasy lead us beyond our preconceived biases about truth and reality—and invite us to see our life, through his eyes, as an ego-shattering and incomparably joyful dance with the Beloved.  

This 65-poem collection of Kabir’s most rapturous spiritual songs, rendered into modern language by acclaimed poet and Sufi performing artist Thomas Rain Crowe, is brought to life in fresh, evocative language bursting with mystical power. Striking and profound, Crowe’s inspired and poetic adaptations offer a sumptuous taste of true reality—beyond boundaries and in joyful embrace of life and our world.

About the Author

THOMAS RAIN CROWE is an internationally published author, editor, and translator of more than thirty books, including the multi-award-winning nature memoir Zoro’s Field: My Life in the Appalachian Woods (2005); an anthology of contemporary Celtic-language poets titled Writing the Wind: A Celtic Resurgence (1997); a collection of original verse, The Laugharne Poems, written at the Dylan Thomas Boathouse in Laugharne, Wales (1997); two volumes of translations of the poetry of the Sufi poet Hafiz—In Wineseller’s Street (Iran Books) and Drunk on the Wine of the Beloved (Shambhala Publications); and The Perfect Work: Poems of Hafiz, a work of poetry and music (Fern Hill Records, 1999). He has been an editor of major literary and cultural journals and anthologies and is the founder and pub-lisher of New Native Press (www.newnativepress.org). He lived in San Francisco during the 1970s, working alongside the people cited in his book Starting from San Francisco: The Baby Beat Generation and the Second San Francisco Renaissance (Third Mind Books, 2018), and was an original member of the group responsible for the resurrection of Beatitude magazine during those years. A longtime resident of the southern Appalachians, he lives in the Tuckasegee watershed in the “Little Canada” community of Jackson County in western North Carolina.

Praise for Painting from the Palette of Love: The Mystical Poetry of Kabir

“Certain sages belong to the whole of humanity. The fifteenth-century sage Kabir, straddling Indian and Islamic traditions, is among them. His poetry has been translated from the original Hindi by able translators like Rabindranath Tagore previously. With the passage of time, those earlier literal translations are showing their age. Thomas Rain Crowe’s versions here, working with the earlier translations, have a freshness that brings them to contemporary American tastes. His style follows in the tradition of Robert Bly, with a deep familiarity with Sufi wisdom in the American context. Let us take up Thomas Rain Crowe’s updating of Tagore and dance in the realization that ‘The Beloved lives inside of you!’”—Omid Safi, Professor of Islamic Studies, Duke University, and founder of Illuminated Courses and Tours