World Poet Series: The Cartographer

Mohan Rana’s intricate metaphysical poems are subtle, like water they define through transparency. His poems undertake the deceptively simple process of understanding things as they are, in their ordinary brilliance. This selection of profound, contemplative verse – so often concerned with memory and time – is an excellent introduction to one of Hindi poetry’s most enthralling voices, and includes an afterword by Alison Brackenbury.

"What gives Rana’s poetry its magnetic quality is that, despite its philosophical profundity, his work is vividly accessible."-Lucy Rosenstein

Mohan Rana (b. 1964) is a Hindi poet who grew up and studied in Delhi and now lives in Bath, England. He writes poems exploring themes of identity, truth, memories and nature. He has published eight poetry collections in Hindi, Jagah (Dwelling, 1994), Jaise Janam Koi Darwaza (As If Life Were a Door, 1997), Subah ki Dak (Morning's Post, 2002), Is Chhor Par (On This Shore, 2003), Pathar Ho Jayegi Nadi (Stone-River, 2007) Dhoop Ke Andhere Mein (In the Darkness of the Sun, 2008), Ret ka Pul (Bridge of Sand, 2012) and Shesh Anek (Much Remains, 2016). His published bilingual chapbooks include Poems (2011) with translations by Bernard O'Donoghue and Lucy Rosenstein and Vivir (2016), a chapbook of Spanish translations.

With each book his reputation as a diaspora poet has grown. Brevity, clarity and precision are defining characteristics of Mohan Rana's poetry. The poet and critic, Nandkishore Acharya, has written that, 'Amongst the new generation of Hindi poets, the poetry of Mohan Rana stands alone; it defies any categorisation. However, its refusal to fit any ideology doesn't mean that Mohan Rana's poetry shies away from thinking - but that it knows the difference between thinking in verse and thinking about poetry. For Mohan Rana the poetic process in itself is also a thought process.'

He has given poetry readings in India, UK and Europe. He has participated in the Ledbury Poetry Festival (2011), Stanza International Poetry Festival (2014), New Delhi World Book Fair (2014), Slovenian Book Fair Ljubljana (2016), English Pen Literary Salon at London Book Fair (2017) and Odisha Art & Literature Festival, Bhubaneswar; India (2018).

His poems have been translated into Belarusian, Spanish, Italian, Norwegian, German, Croatian, Slovenian, Marathi and Nepali.

Lucy Rosenstein did her MA in Indology at Sofia University (Bulgaria) and came to SOAS to further her knowledge of Hindi in 1991 by doing an MA and a PhD in Hindi.

While her early research focused on issues of comparative linguistics and textual criticism, her later work moved away from classical philology and embraced literary studies. She did her PhD on Braj Bhasha verse, followed by work on contemporary Hindi poetry. Her publications include numerous articles and two books: Swami Haridas and the Haridasi sampradaya: A study of early Braj Bhasha verse (Egbert Forsten 1997) and Nayi Kavita 'New Poetry' in Hindi: An Anthology (Permanent Black 2003).

In the last two decades, the main focus of her work has been child and adolescent mental health, but she has continued to nurture and be nurtured by her deep connection with poetry.

Bernard O'Donoghue was born in Cullen, Co Cork in 1945, where he still spends part of the year. Since 1962 he has lived in England, and he now teaches Medieval English at Wadham College, Oxford. He has published many books on medieval poetry, including an anthology of medieval European love poetry entitled The Courtly Love Tradition (1984), and a verse translation of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (Penguin Classics 2006).

A noted literary critic, he is the author of Seamus Heaney and the Language of Poetry (1995). One of the outstanding Irish poets of his generation, his poetry collections are Poaching Rights (1987); The Weakness (1991); Gunpowder (1995), winner of the 1995 Whitbread Poetry Award; Here Nor There (1999); and Outliving (2003). His Selected Poems was published in 2008.

Bernard O'Donoghue received a Cholmondeley Award in 2009. His most recent poetry collection Farmers Cross (2011) was shortlisted for the TS Eliot Prize.