Kabir: Selected Couplets from Sakhi in Transversion

The book opens a new vista in the sphere of verse translation in India. In the introductory part there is a departure from a mass of Hindi criticism. The bases of selection of dohas from the Sakhi are: (1) Kabir’s proverbial and worldy wisdom, (2) analogy-finding gift, (3) richness and variety of imagery, (4) recurrent theme of death, (5) gift for satire, and (6) rhetorical powers. this introductory part primarily focusses on Kabir as poet, which is his ‘real estimate’. Thus, the introductory part is a piece of scholarly criticism judging and appreciating Kabir’s Sakhi on the canons of English literary criticism. The versification (four-line stanzaform in loose lambic tetrameter lines) has an easy flow and almost parallels the flow of Kabir’s dohas. With the Hindi version and notes, the book will be a valuable reading especially for the English-speaking readers.