Skip to main content

The Word for Poet

In Sanskrit the word "kavi," the “poet,” is derived from the verbal root /ku, “to speak." Abhinavagupta in Dhvanyaloka 1.1L, tells us that “poetry must be spoken” (cf., Ingalls Translation, p. 59). Elsewhere Ksiravamin (cf., AK 2.7.5) derives the word precisely as Abhinava does here: … “One is called a poet because he speaks, he describes” (3.43bL, footnote 10, p. 657). To be a poet is to be heard. Speak up, Poets. All of you. #rajanakajarata

Though the sky is filled with drunken clouds
and the woods with arjunas thrashing in the downpour,
these black nights too when the moon has lost its pride
carry off my heart (Ingalls, 2.1dL, p 211).

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Wishing You the Lucky Part of The Lucky

Wishing You the Lucky Part of The Lucky, or Here We Go Again Last March 2017 it took me some 16+ hours to get to Scottsdale, because it's very much winter here and anything can happen. Today I'm headed back to Scottsdale, or so says American with their _fourth_ rerouting. Deja vu all over again, as the great Yogi says. We shall see. My host Bill Banks is so gracious and understanding ---and the good folks of Arizona. I will do everything I possibly can to make it.  What I may not have been given in talent I've always tried to admit openly so that I could make a better wager in effort. You gots what you got, you try like hell, and then the chips fall. We didn't need Macolm Gladwell to tell us this, but he did a fine job (mostly) making the case. What I've long acknowledged as limitation or boundary, I have challenged with sheer terrier-esque determination. You win some, lose some, and need some luck too. Some of the best lessons of yoga are not all that complicat...
Post a Comment
Read more

Rajanaka Jāratā, Everything that Fevers the Heart

In Sanskrit the word "jāratā" is used primarily at the end of a compound--- I have never seen it used otherwise, though anyone familiar with the language knows that we only know what we have seen and there is always more to meet the eye.  "Jāratā" means something like "to be in love with," "having an affair with," and I mean to use the compound rājānaka-jāratā as a place to put notes, references, poetry, lyrics, anything that Rajanaka is in love with , reaching beyond Indian traditions and towards everything that inspires the mind but moreso fevers the heart. So I will start here: A Note on the Storm that Does Not Abate: Agni, Menos, and the Inner Incandescence When we experience hardship and that turns to desperation, and we watch the world pass us by, we turn in all sorts of directions looking for meaning. We likely gather up failure, shame, and resentment and inflict more upon ourselves _and_ also understand that we've been had, that th...
Post a Comment
Read more

Hope West's Advent-ure Calendar: DAYS FOUR TO SIX

Hope writes, Door 4. Formal, archaic in his speech, he greeted her with a thousand blessings. She found herself quite relieved to come across Ganapati again. The grounds of this temple are tangled, expansive, and its alleys ever so dark. To find Ganesha a second time—or had he found her?—seemed of formidably good fortune. The Tiger, while a distinguished travelling companion indeed, as all cats large and small, preferred his own company. Wandering off, dissolving into the shadows, he often would leave the little Canadian girl to her own devices. Ganapati’s steadfast alliance, then, was much appreciated. “Pursue your path,” the Great Being encouraged. “Even when it undulates like the cobra of my belt. Even when the trail seems broken. A path twists, bends. That is its way. To follow it, you must bend with it—even be willing to break.” Nodding, she listened intently as he continued, “Look to the wide sky, to the stars, to get your bearings. But keep this ever...
Post a Comment
Read more