SOURCE: Carroll, Paul. “Paul Carroll: on Bly's Kabir.” The American Poetry Review 9, no. 1 (January/February 1979): 30-31.

In the following review, Carroll praises Robert Bly's translation of selected works of Kabir and considers the nature of God and faith as revealed in Kabir's poetry.

Kabir is one of the great poets of the love of God. He wrote his poems in old Hindi and Punji between about 1460 and 1518. He was the son of a poor basket weaver in Benares; early in life, he became a disciple of the great Ramanada and, in turn, attracted disciples himself, while raising a family through his work as a weaver of wool. So joyous, so deep, so radiant and so natural is the love embodied in his lyrics that reading them can be both awesome and frightening. If the reader feels moved to seek a comparable love he may well end terrified: the...