The Notbook of Kabir - by Anand (Hardcover)

Book Synopsis

Kabir is the most alive of all dead poets. He is a fabric without stitches. No centers, no edges. Anand threads his way in.

Over the years, as a publisher and editor, Anand immerses himself in the works of Babasaheb Ambedkar and other anti-caste thinkers. He gives up his practice of music and poetry, blaming his disenchantment on caste. One day in Delhi, Anand starts looking for Kabir. He finds him here, there, everywhere. He begins to pay attention to the many ways in which Kabir's words are sung, and translates them. Soon, Kabir starts looking out for Anand.

The songs of Kabir sung by a range of singers--Prahlad Tipaniya, Fariduddin Ayaz, Mukhtiyar Ali, Kumar Gandharva, Kaluram Bamaniya, Mahesha Ram and other wayfarers--make Anand return to music and poetry. Anand translates songs seldom found in books. Along the way, he witnesses Kabir drawing on the Buddha, often restating ancient suttas in joyous ways.

The Notbook of Kabir is the result of this pursuit with no end in sight. This is the story of how Anand loses himself trying to find Kabir.

Review Quotes

The Notbook of Kabir embodies the dialectic of one becoming many and many becoming one, capturing the universe's whispers in an embrace of uncertainty. It merges Anand--singer, poet, thief, translator, editor, madman, woman--into a singularity that implodes outward.-- "A/nil, author of The Absent Color"

Anand offers us an exquisite treasure, an eclectic, intelligent, sometimes maverick, even playful curation of Kabir's poetry. The Kabir Anand seeks out in the pages of this Notbook is the poet who is astride a song, not trapped in books of learning. Anand's is a compilation into which the reader can dip and find new meaning at every turn of her life. In lyrical and iridescent prose Anand describes why Kabir, in every age, spreads amongst those 'hungry for love and equality'. Kabir's poetry for Anand is 'a realization of fraternity among strangers' across centuries. He describes Kabir's sung-and-heard writing as Kabiri, a boundless community of poetry, a fabric without stitches, wear and tear, woven together by the poet, the singer and the listener into a 'warm blanket of words'. The Notbook of Kabir is a book that will not age.-- "Harsh Mandar, writer and activist"

Another iteration in the inspiring lineages of Kabir transmission and translation. Welcome once again to the essentials and particulars of this unique poetry of devotion and endurance. And may it continue to resound in the prodigious work of Anand.-- "Anne Waldman, poet"

Drawing on the rich experience of hearing Kabir and singing Kabir, Anand has brought us the rare gift of a set of translations that have been mined in the heart and refined in the head.-- "Jerry Pinto, poet, writer, translator"

It is almost impossible to capture The Notbook's essence. Its seductive fragrance lingers on like the sound of silence after the drone of the tanpura fades out. Kabir is a tune that you can't get out of your head, which takes over your life. He has been hummed for centuries without pause. See what happened to Anand. 'Kabir had gone to his head, and he's full of emptiness.' Kabir had fun with god and now Anand has fun with Kabir. He invites us to join him on an unending journey to musically encounter Kabir the legendary master weaver who wrought his loom to produce a simmering tapestry--ethereal and durable at the same time. What resonates powerfully in Thinner than Water, Fiercer than Fire is the cry against injustice and inequality that pierces the deafness that surrounds us. There remains only bliss that is experienced when the ego is a extinguished. The Notbook of Kabir is a life-altering masterpiece.-- "Pushpesh Pant, historian and writer"

Kabir is mysterious, unknowable, playful, intimate, ubiquitous. Anand's remarkable collection does everything a translation should: it invites the reader to revel in the mysteries of Kabir by whatever means necessary. There is something for everyone: the nagari version, the transliteration, the joyous English translation, and notes which connect us to other avenues to the poet, to the versions of performers, the opinings of scholars and the interpretations of thinkers.-- "Daisy Rockwell, Booker Prize-winning translator"

Kabir's timeless wisdom is vibrantly brought to life in this Notbook, offering a fresh perspective through the lens of a vocalist. The masterful English rendering of Kabir's song-poetry, paired with insightful commentary on their aesthetic nuances, will captivate and thrill readers.-- "Anand Teltumbde, writer and scholar"

Playful, deep, beautiful, strange. The poet-musician Anand has taken Kabir and been taken by Kabir to places that are utterly different, unexpected, nyaaraa. I went a little crazy at first trying to compare the English to the original. 'That's not what it says in Hindi, ' I grumbled. But then I just gave up and read the poems, swam, strolled, rolled, was startled, delighted, bemused. These are songs made of words by a person who hears the music. Kabir and Anand have inspired each other. As they say together, 'Such a large lock jangles on your heart/ Who but a poet can pick it apart?'-- "Linda Hess, translator-scholar of Kabir"

The idea of "Kabir" becomes an opportunity for Anand to free himself from writerly convention and create a new kind of text, one that refuses to accept demarcations between commentary, glossary, translation and poetry.-- "Amit Chaudhuri, writer and musician"

To read Anand writing about Kabir, to read Kabir's words through Anand's rendering--this is a book (sorry, a notbook) that keeps on giving. It is history and politics, it is poetry and philosophy, it is prose at its most precise, it is simultaneously tender and savage. Anand's rendition establishes Kabir as a living testament to life itself.-- "Meena Kandasamy, poet, novelist, translator"

About the Author

Anand writes poems in English and Kabiri. He translates poetry from many Indian languages and sets them to ragas. He's a student of dhrupad. As publisher at Navayana, he has worked with a range of writers, translators, artists and poets. He has annotated and edited some of Ambedkar's key writings, and this has informed his poetry and music. Anand lives in Kabirstan.