Longing to Awaken
Buddhist Devotion in Tibetan Poetry and Song

Holly Gayley (Edited by), Dominique Townsend (Edited by), Lama Jabb (Introduction by)

9780813950693

Paperback / softback, published 31 August 2024

324 pages
22.9 x 15.2 x 3.2 cm, 0.453 kg

An indispensable collection of Buddhist devotional poems and songs

Longing to Awaken features twenty-two translations of Buddhist devotional poems and songs composed by revered Tibetan masters from diverse traditions and time periods. The anthology invites readers to experience a variety of poetic forms that embody a range of emotions, from grief and longing to skepticism and humor, demonstrating the ways that poetry can inspire faith as well as reflect the profundity and at times fraught nature of the teacher-student relationship. This collection gives weight to literary—not simply literal—translation as a crucial endeavor in the transmission of Buddhism today, one with the potential to raise the profile of Tibetan poetry onto the stage of global literature.