Blind Poets

"rāmaprāṇapriye rāme rame rājīvalocane । rāhi rājñi ratiṃ ramyāṃ rāme rājani rāghave ॥"

"Māghe kirāte nanu naiṣadhīye raghau kumāreऽpi ca ye viśeṣāḥ । tebhyoऽdhikāḥ jāgṛti rāmabhadrācāryodbhave bhārgavarāghavīye ॥"

"mere giridhārī jī se kāhe larī । tuma taruṇī mero giridhara bālaka kāhe bhujā pakarī ॥ susuki susuki mero giridhara rovata tū musukāta kharī ॥ tū ahirina atisaya jhagarāū barabasa āya kharī ॥ giridhara kara gahi kahata jasodā āʼncara oṭa karī ॥"

"vīkṣya tāṃ vīkṣaṇīyāmbujāsyaśriyaṃ svaśriyaṃ śrīśriyaṃ brahmavidyāśriyam । dhīdhiyaṃ hrīhriyaṃ bhūbhuvaṃ bhūbhuvaṃ rāghavaḥ prāha sallakṣaṇaṃ lakṣmaṇam ॥"

"aśaraṇaśaraṇa praṇatabhayadaraṇa dharaṇibharaharaṇa dharaṇitanayāvaraṇa janasukhakaraṇa taraṇikulabharaṇa kamalamṛducaraṇa dvijāṅganāsamuddharaṇa । tribhuvanabharaṇa danujakulamaraṇa niśitaśaraśaraṇa dalitadaśamukharaṇa bhṛgubhavacātakanavīnajaladhara rāma vihara manasi saha sītayā janābharaṇa ॥"

"tahaँ basa basumati basu basumukhamukha nigadita nigama sukarama dharamadhura । durita damana dukha śamana sukha gamana parama kamana pada namana sakala sura ॥ bimala birati rati bhagati bharana bhala bharama harana hari haraṣa harama pura । giridhara raghubara gharani janama mahi tarani tanaya bhaya janaka janakapura ॥"

"mahāghoraśokāgninātapyamānaṃ patantaṃ nirāsārasaṃsārasindhau । anāthaṃ jaḍaṃ mohapāśena baddhaṃ prabho pāhi māṃ sevakakleśaharttaḥ ॥"

"sa brahmacārī nijadharmacārī svakarmacārī ca na cābhicārī । cārī satāṃ cetasi nāticārī sa cāpacārī sa na cāpacārī ॥"

"kākakāka kakākāka kukākāka kakāka ka । kukakākāka kākāka kaukākāka kukākaka ॥"

"lalāmamādhuryasudhābhirāmakaṃ lalāmamādhuryasudhābhirāmakam । lalāmamādhuryasudhābhirāmakaṃ lalāmamādhuryasudhābhirāmakam ॥"

"dhanuḥsrugabhimedure bhṛgupakopavaiśvānare raṇāṅgaṇasucatvare subhaṭarāvavedasvare । śarāhutimanohare nṛpatikāṣṭhasañjāgare sahasrabhujamadhvare paśumivājuhodbhārgavaḥ ॥"

"madanamathana sukhasadana vidhuvadana- gaditavimalavaraviruda kalikadana । śamadamaniyamamahita munijanadhana lasasi vibudhamaṇiriva hariparijana ॥"

"lolālālīlalālola līlālālālalālala । lelelela lalālīla lāla lolīla lālala ॥"

"uttiṣṭhottiṣṭha bho rāma uttiṣṭha rāghava prabho । uttiṣṭha jānakīnātha sarvalokaṃ sukhīkuru ॥"

"Masi kāgada chūyo nahīṃ kalama gahī nahiṃ hātha । bhṛṃgadūta mahaँ saba kahyo eka jānakīnātha ॥"

"kiṃ dṛṣṭavyaṃ patitajagati vyāptadoṣe'pyasatye māyācārāvratatanubhṛtāṃ pāparājadvicāre । dṛṣṭavyo'sau cikuranikuraiḥ pūrṇavaktrāravindaḥ pūrṇānando dhṛtaśiśutanuḥ rāmacandro mukundaḥ ॥"

"Mānavatā hī merā mandira maiṃ hūँ isakā eka pujārī ॥ haiṃ vikalāṃga maheśvara mere maiṃ hūँ inakā kṛpābhikhārī ॥"

"Paṭhyatāṃ bhṛṅgadūtaṃ ca bhṛṅgadūtaṃ pragīyatām । cintyatāṃ bhṛṅgadūtaṃ ca rāmabhaktairdivāniśam ॥"

"kausalyāsuprajā rāma pūrvā saṃdhyā pravartate । uttiṣṭha naraśārdūla karttavyaṃ daivamāhnikam ॥"

"śaśāṅke kutaḥ śyāmatā jātā । pṛcchati jananīmatikutūhalādbālastribhuvanatrātā ॥ kṛṣṇamṛgastava śarabhayādvidhuṃ yāto naitanmātaḥ । kapaṭamṛgaṃ praṇihanmi nāparaṃ tasya vimohakhyātaḥ ॥ daśamukhabhayādbhuvo yātā yā vidhuṃ śyāmatā dṛṣṭā । kathaṃ rāhubhītoऽsau pāyānmahī mūḍhatāspṛṣṭā ॥ tvamatha vīkṣya candramasaṃ nijadayitānanarūpasamānam । śaśini gato śyāmaḥ kila dṛṣṭaḥ kartuṃ tadadharapānam ॥ nahi mātaḥ pīye tava stanaṃ śrutvā manujendrāṇī । sasmitamukhī vismitā jātā cakitā giridharavāṇī ॥"

"kaḥ kau ke kekakekākaḥ kākakākākakaḥ kakaḥ । kākaḥ kākaḥ kakaḥ kākaḥ kukākaḥ kākakaḥ kukaḥ ॥"

"trijagadavana hataharijananidhuvana nijavanarucijitaśataśatavidhuvana । taruvaravibhavavinatasuravaravana jayati viratighana iva raghuvaravana ॥"

"The Odyssey of Homer, trans. William Cowper (1791)"

"The Odyssey, trans. George Herbert Palmer (1884)"

"The Odyssey of Homer, trans. Philip Stanhope Worsley and John Conington (1865)"

"The Odyssey, trans. E. V. Rieu (Penguin Books, 1946)"

"The Iliad of Homer, trans. Edward, Earl of Derby (1864)"

"The Odyssey, trans. Emily Wilson (W. W. Norton & Company, 2017),"

"The Odyssey, trans. Samuel Butler (1898)"

"The Iliad of Homer, trans. Richmond Lattimore (University of Chicago Press, 1951)"

"His gods are perhaps at once absurd and entertaining."

"The Iliad of Homer, trans. Samuel Butler (1898)"

"As learned commentators view In Homer more than Homer knew."

"But how did you come to have this skill about Homer only, and not about Hesiod or the other poets? Does not Homer speak of the same themes which all other poets handle? Is not war his great argument? and does he not speak of human society and of intercourse of men, good and bad, skilled and unskilled, and of the gods conversing with one another and with mankind, and about what happens in heaven and in the world below, and the generations of gods and heroes? Are not these the themes of which Homer sings?"

"Facilius esse Herculi clavam quam Homero versum subripere."

"Notwithstanding the veneration due and paid to Homer, it is very strange, yet true, that among the most learned, and the greatest admirers of antiquity, there is scarce one to be found who ever read the Iliad with that eagerness and rapture which a woman feels when she reads the Novel of Zaïda... The common part of mankind is awed with the fame of Homer, rather than struck with his beauties."

"It was Homer who gave laws to the artist; it was Homer who inspired the poet."

"The Iliad, trans. Robert Fagles (Penguin, 1991),"

"Are vitality and creativity somehow connected with bellicosity? Could there have been Greek civilisation without this restless obsession with fighting? The place of Homer, especially the Iliad, in Greek culture accentuates these disturbing questions. While the cliché that Homer was "the Bible of the Greeks" is misleading – his was in no way a sacred or unquestionable text – he was central to their basic education, and at least as familiar as Shakespeare is to us, if not more so."

"The Iliad of Homer, trans. Alexander Pope (1720)"

"The Odyssey, trans. Robert Fagles (Penguin, 1997),"

"The Odyssey, trans. Robert Fitzgerald (Doubleday, 1961)"

"The poems of Homer and his contemporaries were the delight of infant Greece; they were the elements of that social system which is the column upon which all succeeding civilization has reposed. Homer embodied the ideal perfection of his age in human character; nor can we doubt that those who read his verses were awakened to an ambition of becoming like to Achilles, Hector, and Ulysses: the truth and beauty of friendship, patriotism, and persevering devotion to an object, were unveiled to the depths in these immortal creations."

"The Odyssey of Homer, trans. Samuel Butcher and Andrew Lang (1879)"

"Read Homer once, and you can read no more, For all things else will seem so dull and poor, You'l wish 't unread; but oft upon him look, And you will hardly need another book."

"The Odyssey of Homer, trans. Alexander Pope (1725)"

"The first of the tragedians."

"Greek tragedy could never have flowered without Homer as its pioneer."

"The Iliad of Homer, trans. Andrew Lang, Walter Leaf and Ernest Myers (1883)"

"Κάτθαν' ὁμῶς ὅ τ' ἀεργὸς ἀνὴρ ὅ τε πολλὰ ἐοργώς."