The pot and the potter are one,’ said Kashmiri author, translator and scholar Arvind Gigoo to his son Siddhartha in the course of his work on the poetry of Lal Ded. He also added, after this work was over, ‘Lad Ded’s philosophy is eternal. It can take a lifetime, and more, to understand it. My translation will always remain unfinished...

In these words lie the greatness, the mystique and the simplicity of the poetry of Lal Ded, brought to life in this evocative ‘interpretation’ (as Arvind Gigoo prefers calling it instead of a ‘translation’) of 161 vaakhs — verses or sayings — that merge the sensuous with the spiritual, the philosophical with the practical. Bringing decades of scholarship and his lived experience to the work, Arvind Gigoo gives us a unique take on arguably the greatest of poets from Kashmir. This is Lal Ded like no other translation before.

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