In this bold, new translation of the Gita, poet Mani Rao cuts past
conventions and uses space and language innovatively to deliver an
experience of immediacy for the reader. At the same time, she adheres
strictly to the meaning of the original and is sensitive to the nuances of the
Sanskrit original with all its wordplay and texture.
Mani Rao’s Bhagavad Gita sets a new standard for the translation of
canonical spiritual texts.
About the Author
Mani Rao is the author of eight poetry books including Ghostmasters
(2010) and Echolocation (2003). Her poems and essays have appeared
in journals including Indian Literature, Kavya Bharati, Almost Island,
Wasafiri, Meanjin, Washington Square, eXchanges, Fulcrum, Asia Literary
Review, West Coast Line, Iowa Review, Colorado Review, Interim, and
in anthologies including Penguin’s 60 Indian Poets, Zoland Poetry,
W.W. Norton’s Language for a New Century and The Bloodaxe Book of
Contemporary Indian Poets.
Born in 1965, Rao was raised in India. She worked in television and
advertising in India, Hong Kong and New Zealand for twenty years,
including at Star TV for nearly a decade, before turning to literary
and scholarly interests full-time. She was a visiting fellow at the Iowa
International Writing Program in 2005 and 2009, and the 2006 University
of Iowa International Program’s writer-in-residence. She has a BA in
English from Stella Maris College, Chennai, a Master of Fine Arts (MFA)
in poetry from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, and is a PhD student
of religious studies at Duke University.
Is it yours too, Tuesday 18 October, 2011
