Kabir Poems Set to Music:

Dance, my heart! Dance today with joy.
The strains of love fill the days and the nights with music,
and the world is listening to its melodies:
Mad with joy, life, and death, dance to the rhythm of this music.
The hills and the sea and the earth dance.
The world of man dances in laughter and tears.
Why put on the robe of the monk,
and live aloof from the world in lonely pride?
Behold! My heart dances in the delight of a hundred arts;
​and the Creator is well pleased.

​- Kabir
Translated by Rabindranath Tagore
​

My body and my mind are grieved for the want of Thee;
O my Beloved! Come to my house.
When people say I am Thy bride, I am ashamed;
for I have not touched Thy heart with my heart.
Then what is this love of mine? I have no taste for food, I have no sleep; my heart is ever restless within doors and without.
As water is to the thirsty, so is the Lover to the bride.
Who is there that will carry my news to my Beloved?
Kabir is restless: he is dying for sight of Him.

- Kabir
Translated by Rabindranath Tagore
​

Listen carefully,
Neither the Vedas
Nor the Qur’an
Will teach you this:
Put the bit in its mouth,
The saddle on its back,
Your foot in the stirrup,
And ride your wild runaway mind
All the way to heaven.

-Kabir
Translated by Arvind Krishna Mehrotra
​

Kabir 
1398-1518
​
Kabir was a mystic poet and saint of India born around 1399 in Varanasi, an ancient city long known as a cultural and religious center located on the banks of the Ganges River.

He came from a family of weavers, who are considered part of the lower castes in India. He studied religion, but believed that one’s relationship with God was more important than religious rituals. He asserted that to know God, one must meditate, go inside, and become one with God. Loving devotion to God is an important concept in his poetry.

​Considered to be one of the world’s greatest poets, Kabir could not read or write. His students transcribed his words to preserve them.

​Books:

Songs of Kabir
Translated by Arvind Mehrotra
©2011 
​
​​Mystic Poet: Kabir

Available from: Amazon
and other book sellers

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Songs of Kabir
Translated by Rabindranath Tagor
©1915 & 1977 

​Mystic Poet: Kabir
​
Available from: Amazon
and other book sellers

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