August Kleinzahler on Mehrotra's translation of Kabir

"Arvind Krishna Mehrotra's [above] new translation of Kabir brings the poetry of the great 15th-century Indian poet and holy man to life in English for the first time. Not that others haven’t tried: Pound, Robert Bly and, most notably, Rabindranath Tagore in 1915, with a version consisting of thees, thous and thines, delivered in a sandalwood-scented prayer-book-ese that would not have been out of place atop a teak sidetable at one of Mme. Blavatsky’s legendary seances. But it is Mehrotra who has succeeded in capturing the ferocity and improvisational energy of Kabir’s poetry."

Read the review at http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/29/books/review/book-review-songs-of-kabir-by-translated-by-arvind-krishna-mehrotra.html?_r=1

Kleinzahler's Workshop at MWF ...

At the Melbourne Writers Festival yesterday, August Kleinzahler conducted a workshop. This was the blurb for the event:

'This workshop will concentrate on the role of ‘voice’ in poetic practice. We all sound different from one another: background, family, place, education, reading and temperament all play significant roles in determining individual voice. The emphasis will be on locating or finding one’s way to one’s own poetic voice, exploring dramatic monologue, song, extemporaneous rant, personal argot, daily experience and the beat of what goes on in one’s own head. Please bring two poems that sound distinctly like you and no one else.'

Now, isn't that an element to aim at in every poem you write? I'm wondering which of my poems I would bring ... Hmmm, I'll post 'em here when I've thought about it long enough.