{"id":2694,"date":"2014-07-10T09:30:03","date_gmt":"2014-07-10T01:30:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/?p=2694"},"modified":"2014-07-09T23:39:13","modified_gmt":"2014-07-09T15:39:13","slug":"mani-rao-at-hku-translating-the-bhagavad-gita-as-a-modern-poem","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/?p=2694","title":{"rendered":"Mani Rao at HKU: Translating the Bhagavad Gita as a Modern Poem"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.chinese.hku.hk\/poster\/20140714.pdf\" target=\"_blank\"><img data-attachment-id=\"2695\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/?attachment_id=2695\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/Rao-poster.bmp\" data-orig-size=\"\" data-comments-opened=\"1\" data-image-meta=\"[]\" data-image-title=\"Rao poster\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"\" data-medium-file=\"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/Rao-poster.bmp\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/Rao-poster.bmp\" decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-2695 size-large\" src=\"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/Rao-poster.bmp\" alt=\"Rao poster\" width=\"1\" height=\"1\" \/><\/a><strong>TRANSLATING <\/strong><strong><strong>THE SANSKRIT <em>BHAGAVAD GITA<\/em> <\/strong><strong>AS A MODERN POEM<\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n<blockquote><p>A talk and reading by Mani Rao about the process and challenges when translating the canonical spiritual text of the Gita.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cRao\u2019s\u00a0 version\u00a0 of\u00a0 the <em>Bhagavad\u00a0 Gita<\/em> unpacks\u00a0 the\u00a0 original Sanskrit with a range of avant garde techniques\u2014in prosody, diction, mise-en-page and lineation\u2014rendering a new translation of the well-known philosophical text unlike any before it.\u201d \u2013 <em>The Oxford Companion to Modern Poetry, 2013<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe great virtue of The Bhagavad Gita is courage, and in her luminous new translation, Rao is courageous indeed. Her lines venture to keep pace with the original, stride for stride, revelation for revelation. As Wittgenstein wrote, \u2018courage is always original.\u2019 I can avow that Rao\u2019s is the first truly original version of this sacred text to appear in decades.\u201d \u2013 <em>Donald Revell<\/em><\/p>\n<p>\u201cMani Rao has transformed the most famous spiritual poem in India to a multi-layered poem \u2026 a poem to be perceived directly, intuitively, cutting through reason and linearity to arrive at the underlying undying poetry and grace of this epic work.\u201d \u2013 <em>Frederick Smith<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Mani Rao is the author of eight poetry books and two books of translation. Mani worked at Star TV Hong Kong for a decade before turning to writing and scholarly pursuits full-time. She has an MFA in creative writing, and is currently doing a PhD in Religious Studies in the USA. <a href=\"http:\/\/www.manirao.com\"><em>http:\/\/www.manirao.com<\/em><\/a> has links to her books and writing.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><strong>Date and Time: <strong>July 14, 2014<\/strong> (Monday); 5:30-6:45pm<br \/>\nVenue: Room 730, Run Run Shaw Tower, Centennial Campus, University of Hong Kong<br \/>\nAll are welcome<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>TRANSLATING THE SANSKRIT BHAGAVAD GITA AS A MODERN POEM A talk and reading by Mani Rao about the process and challenges when translating the canonical spiritual text of the Gita. \u201cRao\u2019s\u00a0 version\u00a0 of\u00a0 the Bhagavad\u00a0 Gita unpacks\u00a0 the\u00a0 original Sanskrit &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/?p=2694\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[3],"tags":[1423,1424,441],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8srwF-Hs","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":711,"url":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/?p=711","url_meta":{"origin":2694,"position":0},"title":"Xi Chuan in Eleven Eleven","author":"Lucas Klein","date":"February 12, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"The new issue of Eleven Eleven, the journal of the MFA Writing Program at the California College of the Arts, is now up, featuring my translations of three Xi Chuan pieces: \"Ill Fortune C 00024\" \u5384\u8fd0 C 00024, \"Ill Fortune O 09734\" \u5384\u8fd0 O 09734, and \"King of Chess\" \u68cb\u738b.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Links&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Links","link":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/?cat=3"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3273,"url":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/?p=3273","url_meta":{"origin":2694,"position":1},"title":"Lucien Stryk Award Shortlist","author":"Lucas Klein","date":"September 16, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"ALTA has posted the shortlist for this year's Lucien Stryk Award, which honors book-length translations into English of poetry or Zen Buddhist texts from Hindi, Sanskrit, Tamil, Thai, Vietnamese, Chinese, Japanese, and Korean into English. 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