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LATEST BOOK

Bhagavad Gita - Translated by Mani Rao. (Penguin Books India, 2011. India edition)

 

REVIEWS:

Mani Rao’s courageous approach to the Gita not only revitalizes an ancient philosophy but also restores power and majesty to the text’s poetry.

–Arshia Sattar

 

Mani Rao brings a felicitous mix of textually informed vigilance and playful irreverence to bear on her translation of the Bhagavad Gita. With its contemporary musicality and relaxed tone, Rao’s version opens up this central text of modern Hinduism for a new generation of readers.

– Ranjit Hoskote

Bhagavad Gita - A translation of the poem. (Autumn Hill Books, 2010. USA/Canada edition)

Cover of the Bhagavad Gita translation by Mani Rao

REVIEWS:

“The great virtue of The Bhagavad Gita is courage, and in her luminous new translation, Rao is courageous indeed. Her lines venture to keep pace with the original, stride for stride, revelation for revelation. As Wittgenstein wrote, ‘courage is always original.” I can avow that Rao’s is the first truly original version of this sacred text to appear in decades.”

– Donald Revell

“Mani Rao has transformed the most famous spiritual poem in India to a multi-layered poem, giving shapes to multiple meanings and sounds to multiple forms. Just as Arjuna saw the universe in Krishna’s mouth and like the endless tree, the tree of life, which reveals its roots above and leaves below, Mani Rao has shown us this universe, this endless life with its supporting philosophy, as a poem to be perceived directly, intuitively, cutting through reason and linearity to arrive at the underlying undying poetry and grace of this epic work.”

– Frederick Smith

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NEW

  • “Sing to Me” and “Monkey Puzzle” from a manuscript selected as Anomalous Chapbook Contest Notable, read here.
  • “Poem, Sisyphus” in the latest issue of Omniverse, read here.
  • “Ode to Kali” and “Ravana’s Garden” in Muse India‘s issue on ‘Poetizing Indian Heritage,’ read here.
  • Poems “Midas, A Casino In Vegas,” “Ouranos Returns,” and “Cupid & Psyche” in the latest issue of Mascara (Issue 12, 2012), read here.
  • Five poems just out in Harper Collins Anthology of Poetry by Indians, 2012. Read “Shiva’s Digs” here.
  • Review of Arvind K. Mehrotra’s Songs of Kabir. Translation Review (Vol 83, Issue 1, 2012).
  • Review of Mohammad A Quayum’s Rabindranath Tagore: Selected Short Stories. Cha (Mar 2012, Issue 16.)

FORTHCOMING

  • Essay “A Brief History of the Bhagavad Gita’s Canonization” in Religion Compass.
  • “Pan” and “By Thoth” in OutLoud Too Anthology, Hong Kong, 2013. Editors: Vaughan Rapatahana, Kate Rogers and Madeleine Marie Slavick.
  • “Sing to Me” and “Monkey Puzzle” in Anomalous chapbook 2013.
  • Seven poems in Indo-English Poetry Anthology by Hidden Brook Press, edited by Vivekanand Jha.

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LINKS

 

ESSAYS:

  • “Cuntree.”  Read in 91st Meridien.
  • “Writing to Stop.” Read in 91st Meridien.
  • “Automatic Writing – Real, Surreal, Hyper-real” in Fulcrum 7. Download pdf here.
  • “Repetitiveness in Gita translations.” Read in eXchanges.
  • Translator’s Note on the Gita translation. Read in eXchanges.
  • “Stretch.”  XCP. Download pdf here.
  • “Halloween” in Dimsum. Download pdf here.
  • “Decoding Augustine via Saussure.” In-Between Journal of Literary Criticism. Download pdf here.
  • “Caterpillar to Butterfly: Thoreau’s dietary journey.” Thoreau Society Bulletin. Read here.
  • “Lorine Niedecker Condens.” Interim. Read here.

POEMS:

TRANSLATIONS:


Mani Rao is the author of eight poetry books and a translation of the Bhagavad Gita.