Kabir

To tonsured monks and dreadlocked Rastas, To idol worshippers and idol smashers, To fasting Jains and feasting Shaivites, To Vedic pundits and Faber poets, The weaver Kabir sends one message: The noose of death hangs over all. Only Rama’s name can save you. Say it now .

Plucking your eyebrows, Putting on mascara, But will that help you To see things anew? The one who sees Is changed into The one who’s seen Only if one is Salt and the other Water. But you, says Kabir, Are a dead Lump of quartz.

I won’t come I won’t go I won’t live I won’t die I’ll keep uttering The name And lose myself In it I’m bowl And I’m platter I’m man And I’m woman I’m grapefruit And I’m sweet lime I’m Hindu And I’m Muslim I’m fish And I’m net I’m fisherman And I’m time I’m nothing Says Kabir I’m not among the living Or the dead

How do you, Asks the chief of police, Patrol a city Where the butcher shops Are guarded by vultures; Where bulls get pregnant, Cows are barren, And calves give milk Three times a day; Where mice are boatmen And tomcats the boats They row; Where frogs keep snakes As watchdogs, And jackals Go after lions? Does anyone know What I’m talking about? Says Kabir.

For Geoff Dyer his front yard is the true Benares — Devara Dasimayya, tr. A.K. Ramanujan His death in Benares Won’t save the assassin From certain hell, Any more than a dip In the Ganges will send Frogs—or you—to paradise. My home, says Kabir, Is where there’s no day, no night, And no holy book in sight To squat on our lives.

god my darling do me a favour and kill my mother-in-law —Janabai, tr. Arun Kolatkar Chewing slowly, Only after I’d eaten My grandmother, Mother, Son-in-law, Two brothers-in-law, And father-in-law (His big family included) In that order, And had for dessert The town’s inhabitants, Did I find, says Kabir, The beloved that I’ve become One with.

Brother, I’ve seen some Astonishing sights: A lion keeping watch Over pasturing cows; A mother delivered After her son was; A guru prostrated Before his disciple; Fish spawning On treetops; A cat carrying away A dog; A gunny-sack Driving a bullock-cart; A buffalo going out to graze, Sitting on a horse; A tree with its branches in the earth, Its roots in the sky; A tree with flowering roots. This verse, says Kabir, Is your key to the universe. If you can figure it out.