His death in Benares

By Kabir
Translated By Arvind Krishna Mehrotra
For Geoff Dyer

his front yard
is the true Benares
      — Devara Dasimayya,
          tr. A.K. Ramanujan
His death in Benares
Won’t save the assassin
From certain hell,

Any more than a dip
In the Ganges will send
Frogs—or you—to paradise.

My home, says Kabir,
Is where there’s no day, no night,
And no holy book in sight

To squat on our lives.

Notes:

Read the translator's notes on this poem.

Source: Poetry (March 2011)