Turn Me to Gold: 108 Poems of Kabir

For years I've had Robert Bly's monumental translations of Kabir (Kabir: Ecstatic Poems) by my bed side and my meditation altar as a source of heart-opening inspiration. Kabir is refreshing prana for the soul no matter the time of the day. He shakes us up from our spiritual complacency. And in Robert Bly's fierce, graceful and transcendental language, the spiritual rebel and lover of God named Kabir leaps off the pages and into our contemporary hearts. In Andrew Harvey's hands, we have a more quiet Kabir, perhaps, yet on each page, there is poetic gold to be mined. Harvey says in the introduction that he spent five years traveling the globe with these poems, shaping each one into a mystical gem with the help of Indian friends and other translations, perhaps even some of Bly's versions. But these poems are Harvey's, not Bly's. When you listen to Harvey speak, he is passionately articulate and fierce in his love of the sacred. He speaks like a poet. He also writes like one. There is song in these lines; there is the soft power of whispered mantras and prayers and the intense focus of a lover who cannot stay sane without a daily drink of the Divine spirit. Not only are these translations vibrantly alive with Indian spirituality, so are the magical photos by Brett Hurd. Having lived in India for several years, his photos brought me back to the holy rivers, the sadhus and the spices and the burning ghats in Varanasi, where Kabir once walked the streets. Yes, this book's poetry is different from Bly's renditions, but now I have two excellent versions of Kabir, like two nadis curving up my spiritual spine, both deserving to be read aloud to yourself, to a friend, a lover, or to the stars. Harvey has created yet another masterpiece for us thirsty wanderers in the modern desert of materialism. But these poems are not for the spiritually faint of heart--they'll shake you out of your slumber, like a morning bell in the ashram, like the piercing shriek of a bird from your mind's jungle. Foreign as this world might be, we hunger for it, we thirst for it. These transluscent translations by Harvey are the gold nuggets of spiritual wisdom we've always been digging for. Kabir, although ancient, is fresh and postmodern in this book. Beyond dogma and tradition, yet deeply steeped in a path of ecstatic worship that is uniqely India. Kabir was a sacred activist in his time who was not afraid of exposing dogma and superstition. In Harvey's beautiful renditions, this medieval poet has become a sacred teacher for a future spirituality the world sorely needs.

I am taking the online course Great Books from Ubiquity University and we are finishing Naomi Klein's "No is Not Enough". My paper for that class focuses on divine intervention being what the world needs now. Divine intervention to me is everyone’s heart breaking to the realization of our human predicament in this sixth mass extinction. Our next book to study is Harvey's "Turn Me to Gold". The sequence is perfect as the divine to me is "The Great Void". Kabir through Harvey's translations speaks to me as nondenominational and pierces through to settle my broken heart via this ancient concept of the divine speaking to mankind. It’s a sweet salve which gives me strength to carry on pursuing happiness (yes happiness) in the face of this daunting task shifting culture to include all life on Earth as sacred.

Andrew Harvey is a vessel of light and shadow. His new book, Turn Me to Gold, is a love letter to Kabir's sublime poetry. Andrew already channels Rumi as no one else can. Add to that now Kabir. Words can't do justice to the profound unity you'll find within these pages. The Beloved is in me, and the Beloved is in you, As life is hidden in every seed, So rubble your pride, my friend, And look for Him within you. This is the music Of soul and soul meeting, Of the forgetting of all grief. This is the music That transcends all coming and going. Into that music My mind vanished.Turn Me to Gold is modern day alchemy.

This is a book that i will not tire. I will not outgrow it. I will never place it in a pile of books to give away for a library sale. Will never loan it to a friend for it would not be returned. This book is one to keep for it is a treasury of wisdom, depth, and beauty. May we read slow, go deep, and be true to the illuminated swinging of Kabir's alive breath through Harvey's genius...

This gorgeous book will uplift your spirit and fill you with loving. Cheers to Andrew Harvey for this beautiful offering!Donna Bond, Author of Original Wisdom; Harness the Power of the Authentic You

Andrew Harvey's interpretation of the poems of Kabir is an amazing and loving dive into this poet's life and sacred activism. If you love Rumi, you'll love Kabir, though Kabir is a bit more demanding in his call to action. Love the book and love Andrew.

What a beautiful book. An elegant translation of Kabir poems and the photography is as poetic and the words.

Good book!

Andrew Harvey has captured the essence of one of my favourite poets, Kabir. It reads like a laser cutting through the clutter of modern life to reveal Clarity beneath it all. It is a reminder that Mankind is individually and collectively far grander yet far more conditioned than we realize. And yet, the reading of these beautiful poems strips away the accretions of time and place.

not my type of thing but the person Im giving it to may enjoy it