Dear Editor,
Your March issue caught my eye because of Kabir and Gottfried Benn. I never thought I would read Benn in English. I loved Michael Hofmann’s note and the translations, particularly “People Met.” Also, Anna Kamienska’s “Industrious Amazement: A Notebook” was a surprising, intriguing read.
And as to Kabir: while walking from the bookstore to the subway with my young friend George, I mentioned worries about a dog whose household we both know, and who had been badly limping lately, and off-handedly G. said: “Well, then the cats will have to carry him.” Down on the platform we both opened our purchases, his graphic novel, my Poetry magazine. And there, on the first page, in the middle of Kabir’s “Brother, I’ve seen some”: “A cat carrying away / A dog,” and concluding “This verse, says Kabir,/Is your key to the universe. / If you can figure it out.”
Lovely, to walk around New York City with poetry in your pocket and walking right next to you, too.