Lalleshwari
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Lalleshwari (1320–1392), locally known mostly as Lal Ded, was a Kashmiri mystic of the Kashmir Shaivism school of philosophy in the Indian subcontinent.
Quotes[edit]
Poetry[edit]
- I didn't believe in it for a moment
but I gulped down the wine of my own voice.
And then I wrestled with the darkness inside me,
knocked it down, clawed at it, ripped it to shreds.- The Poems of Lal Ded, poem 48, p. 10
- It covers your shame, keeps you from shivering.
Grass and water are the food it asks.
Who taught you, priest-man,
to feed this breathing thing to your thing of stone?- The Poems of Lal Ded, poem 59, p. 15
From Kashmiri Poetry[edit]
- yi yi karu'm suy artsun
yi rasini vichoarum thi mantar
yihay lagamo dhahas partsun
suy Parasivun tanthar. - translation:
- Whatever work I did became worship of the Lord;
Whatever word I uttered became a prayer;
Whatever this body of mine experienced became
the sadhana of Saiva Tantra
illumining my path to Parmasiva.
- Whatever work I've done,
whatever I have though,
was praise with my body
and praise hidden
inside my head.- Naked Songs, p. 18
External links[edit]
- Ranjit Hoskote: I, Lalla, The Poems of Lal Dĕd, translated from the Kashmiri with and Introduction and Notes, Penguin India, July 2013
- Barks, Coleman: Naked Songs, Maypop Books, 1992