{"product_id":"until-the-lions-isbn-9781939810366","title":"Until the Lions","description":"\u003cb\u003eA dazzling and eloquent reworking of the Mahabharata, one of South Asia's best-loved epics, through nineteen peripheral voices. With daring poetic forms, Karthika Naïr breathes new life into this ancient epic.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eKarthika Naïr refracts the epic Mahabharata through the voices of nameless soldiers, outcast warriors and handmaidens as well as abducted princesses, tribal queens, and a gender-shifting god. As peripheral figures and silent catalysts take center stage, we get a glimpse of lives and stories buried beneath the dramas of god and nation, heroics and victory - of the lives obscured by myth and history, all too often interchangeable.\u003ci\u003e Until the Lions\u003c\/i\u003e is a kaleidoscopic, poetic tour de force. It reveals the most intimate threads of desire, greed, and sacrifice in this foundational epic.\"The thirty haunting, heartrending chapters, in a wide range of forms and styles, resonate powerfully with one another...Women whose names are known from the Sanskrit epic but whose character and inner experience are muted there suddenly come to life as full-blooded people caught up in the destruction endemic to a male world.\" \u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e--David Shulman\u003ci\u003e, New York Review of Books\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Naïr, in nearly three hundred pages of connected poems, reimagines the story of the Mahabharata as the lions’ story, giving a voice to nineteen of its characters and allowing them each to tell their own account ... Employing poetic structures including the canzone and the obscure French form \u003ci\u003erimas dissolutas\u003c\/i\u003e, among many others, Naïr deftly shifts from one voice to the next.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e--Bibi Deitz, \u003ci\u003eBomb\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"I am astounded by the personalized shifts with which Karthika stamps her voice on the Mahabharata, so tender, fierce and visionary. It's a liberating experience to be dissolved into what Amjad Nasser called \"the ten metaphors of poetry,\" so to speak, between grief and love, ecstasy and despair, meaning and nonsense.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e--Fady Joudah, \u003ci\u003eShelf Awareness\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“John Dryden famously spoke of translation taking three forms: metaphrase, paraphrase, and imitation. Though written in English, Karthika Naïr's \u003ci\u003eUntil the Lions\u003c\/i\u003e certainly fits this last category. Her feminist take on the Mahabharata, India’s great epic, is an astonishing demonstration of the power of translation to reshape and renew the literature of the past.” \u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e--Edwin Frank, in \u003ci\u003eWords Without Borders\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"The Mahabharata, the larger of India’s two epics, was composed roughly 2,000 years ago...In reading Naïr’s book, I felt as if I had scratched the surface of a palimpsest (the epic) and discovered a room teeming with three-dimensional living souls...\u003ci\u003eUntil the Lions\u003c\/i\u003e adds a brilliant new thread to this rich literary tapestry.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003e--Harvard Review\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Has been rightly hailed as a magnum opus by the critics.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003e--Wasafiri\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"The Mahabharata will always take you back to the deepest existential questions. It continues to instigate superlative writing as well. Karthika Naïr's Until the Lions is an unshakable masterpiece of modern poetry, one of the great retellings of the text.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003e--Indian Express\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Naïr's intervention -- a series of dramatic monologues that give the epic's women psychological depth, wrath and despair -- is brilliantly executed.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003e--Times Literary Supplement\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Until the Lions\u003c\/i\u003e is a triumph of narrative and poetic risk-taking. Five years in the making, Nair's collection of poems, written in the voices of women in the Mahabharata, has been rightly hailed as a magnum opus by critics.\" \u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e--Aditya Mani Jha, \u003ci\u003eWasafiri\u003c\/i\u003e \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003e“Until the Lion\u003c\/i\u003es, a poem cycle set at the margins of the Mahabharata, uses modern forms but doesn’t shy away from the strangeness and ferocity of its setting . . . \u003ci\u003eUntil the Lions\u003c\/i\u003e is, despite or because of its ancient milieu, one of the most powerful anti-war statements I’ve ever read.”\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cb\u003e--Brendan Moody, \u003ci\u003eLate Democracy\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\"Karthika Nair, in \u003ci\u003eUntil the Lions\u003c\/i\u003e, powerfully reimagines the national epic from the margins, allowing the suppressed voices to be centered and given subjectivity. Lyrical and somatically dense, the prose and verse of this book creates an intense and coruscating chorus. In a world that seems more riven by the political tensions of capital and multiplicity, that seems more dangerous and conflicted, this epic feels like a balm.\" \u003cb\u003e– Kazim Ali\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Until the Lions\" is the Mahabharata I longed for as a child. These are the voices I imagined as I sat through enforced viewings of the endless TV series, bristling with waxed mustachios and phallic posturing. Karthika Nair has pulled off a truly epic feat. Both the scope of her ambition and the skill of her execution inspire awe and elation.\" \u003cb\u003e–Shailja Patel\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Whether it’s about war, grief, love-making, or revenge, every poem of Until the Lions is charged with Karthika Naïr’s electric voice. The lines fairly hum with it. In a strange unexpected way, this epic re-singing is also a deeply personal book.\" \u003cb\u003e– Arvind Krishna Mehrotra\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"The most eloquent meditation on the Mahabharata in this generation - a lyrical, unflinching exploration of the souls embodied in many of the great epic characters, a moving and intricate weaving together of their destinies and desires...and a profound lament for the suffering that all human beings must know. In her hands, the ancient epic assumes new life, one that is somehow close to our own experience of the world, familiar yet also utterly strange and new. No one has read the Mahabharata this way before her.\" \u003cb\u003e-- David Shulman\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"In this retelling of the Mahabaratha from the point of view of its hitherto minor female characters, Karthika Naïr uncovers a seminal feminist text.\" \u003cb\u003e-- Jeet Thayil\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Karthika Nair explores the contrapuntal stories of the Mahabharata in a virtuoso collection of dramatic monologues. Queens, warriors, sages, slaves and peasants, even wolves have their say, as the tales of rulers and lovers, parents and children, gods and humans, are retold in metered prose and poetic forms of myriad origin: the Spanish glosa, the Malay pantoum, the Provençal sestina, the Pashtun landay, shaped stanzas and nonce forms. This is a glorious work of storytelling.\" \u003cb\u003e\u003cb\u003e- Marilyn Hacker\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\"\u003ci\u003eUntil the Lions \u003c\/i\u003eis a powerful lesson in how the legacy of hate can flow from one generation to another. Nair's writing is constantly informed by the intricate structures of choreography and, at the same time, has had a profound influence on several prominent dance artists of this generation.\" \u003cb\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003cb\u003e- Alistair Spalding\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/b\u003eFrench-Indian, poet-dance producer\/curator, Karthika Naïr is the author of several books, including \u003ci\u003eThe Honey Hunter\u003c\/i\u003e, illustrated by Joëlle Jolivet and published in English, French, German and Bangla. \u003ci\u003eUntil the Lions: Echoes from the Mahabharata\u003c\/i\u003e, her reimagining of the Mahabharata in multiple voices, won the 2015 Tata Literature Live! Award for Book of the Year (Fiction). Her latest book is the collaborative \u003ci\u003eOver and Under Ground in Mumbai \u0026amp; Paris\u003c\/i\u003e, a travelogue in verse, written with Mumbai-based poet Sampurna Chattarji, and illustrated by Joëlle Jolivet and Roshni Vyam. Naïr was also the principal scriptwriter of the multiple-award-winning \u003ci\u003eDESH\u003c\/i\u003e (2011), choreographer Akram Khan's dance solo; its family show-version; \u003ci\u003eChotto Desh\u003c\/i\u003e (2015) and \u003ci\u003eUntil the Lions\u003c\/i\u003e, Khan's adaptation of one of the chapters of her book.  As a dance enabler, her closest association has been with Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui and Damien Jalet as executive producer of works like \u003ci\u003eThree Spells, Babel (Words), Puz\/zle\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eLes Médusés\u003c\/i\u003e, and as co-founder of Cherkaoui's company, Eastman.PADAT I\u003cbr\u003e I. The Father\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e PAWN TALK: BRASS AND STRING\u003cbr\u003e This is Kurukshetra, Son.\u003cbr\u003e This is where our kings seek\u003cbr\u003e to die – kings, princes, generals,\u003cbr\u003e that whole heedless race of highborn\u003cbr\u003e war-mongers – for a skyway,\u003cbr\u003e swift and direct to heaven. Theirs, you\u003cbr\u003e say, their heaven, not ours, it will still\u003cbr\u003e be their heaven, as it is their earth,\u003cbr\u003e their honour, both already theirs,\u003cbr\u003e and with lives so slaked, heaven\u003cbr\u003e their only conquest left.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e But this is Kurukshetra,\u003cbr\u003e this is where things could\u003cbr\u003e change, Son. I heard the sages\u003cbr\u003e swear: equal will all men be, in hell\u003cbr\u003e or heaven, once killed here. Think, if\u003cbr\u003e even the pariahs – Mahar and Shanar,\u003cbr\u003e Chamar and Chandal, Dhobi, Bhangi,\u003cbr\u003e they whose shades taint the land, so\u003cbr\u003e the scholars also swear – can attain\u003cbr\u003e casteless paradise, such an honour\u003cbr\u003e once slain, perhaps our lives too\u003cbr\u003e shall stand another chance\u003cbr\u003e on so holy a strand\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e as Kurukshetra, sculpted\u003cbr\u003e by Shiva’s own hand, then laid\u003cbr\u003e east of Maru, rainless Maru, north\u003cbr\u003e of wild Khandava, where Takshaka\u003cbr\u003e rules his crafty tribe, south of gentle\u003cbr\u003e Turghna yet westerly, not too far from\u003cbr\u003e Parin. Dharmakshetra, they call her too,\u003cbr\u003e this curl between two sacred rivers –\u003cbr\u003e Saraswati and Dhrishtadvati – that\u003cbr\u003e traverse the eight known worlds,\u003cbr\u003e gleaning virtues – alongside all\u003cbr\u003e the silt and loam and rubble –\u003cbr\u003e from each one to disperse\u003cbr\u003e on the divine hearse\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e that is Kurukshetra.\u003cbr\u003e On these sands, they’d\u003cbr\u003e abound: satya, daya, daan,\u003cbr\u003e kshama, tapas, suchi …Truth,\u003cbr\u003e Largesse, Purity, then – to uncurse\u003cbr\u003e generations still to be sown – Mercy\u003cbr\u003e and Kindness, Son, oh, and Celibacy,\u003cbr\u003e Sacrifice, and some other merits I\u003cbr\u003e can never name throng to make\u003cbr\u003e this Vishnu’s ground, its godly\u003cbr\u003e name his gift to an early,\u003cbr\u003e devout Kuru king.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Look, on Kurukshetra,\u003cbr\u003e night rises like another sun,\u003cbr\u003e a younger, more brilliant one.\u003cbr\u003e To the west stands the Pandava\u003cbr\u003e camp: Yuddhishtira’s legions face\u003cbr\u003e the break of each new dawn, theirs\u003cbr\u003e the demand for war to attain peace\u003cbr\u003e and justice, to retrieve his old realm,\u003cbr\u003e the land he strewed with ease like\u003cbr\u003e sand or dice, the subjects he cast\u003cbr\u003e away in less than a trice. Crown\u003cbr\u003e and honour should be his, our\u003cbr\u003e elders persist, noble soul who\u003cbr\u003e never lies, king with a single\u003cbr\u003e vice: avid, unskilled player.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e While Kurukshetra\u003cbr\u003e can scarce contain the dark\u003cbr\u003e constellation of Duryodhana’s\u003cbr\u003e army: his men – a dazzle of fearless\u003cbr\u003e glory – suffuse the East, from centre\u003cbr\u003e to brim. Good, kind Duryodhana, our\u003cbr\u003e Kuru sovereign, ours, Son, like few have\u003cbr\u003e ever been. Duryodhana, eldest of the one\u003cbr\u003e and hundred mighty Kaurava sons of that\u003cbr\u003e purblind king Dhritarashtra. Duryodhana,\u003cbr\u003e far-sighted like few rulers ever care to be,\u003cbr\u003e reaping not one, nor a few but thirteen\u003cbr\u003e harvests of peace, safety, prosperity\u003cbr\u003e for all his people, even those of us\u003cbr\u003e that survive like vermin\u003cbr\u003e on outer rims.","brand":"Archipelago","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46305546469605,"sku":"NP9781939810366","price":20.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1842\/7735\/files\/9781939810366.jpg?v=1767743303","url":"https:\/\/k12savings.com\/es\/products\/until-the-lions-isbn-9781939810366","provider":"K12savings","version":"1.0","type":"link"}