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LALLA DED (LALLESHWARI) Selected Poems (Large Print & Large Format Edition) Translation & Introduction Paul Smith Lalla Ded or Lalleshwari is the famous female poet/saint from Kashmir who lived at exactly the same time as Hafiz (1320-1392). Her vakhs (poems/sayings) are sung even today in Kashmir. She was married at a young age but the marriage was a failure and she walked out at the age of twenty-four. She became a disciple of Siddha Srikanth. It must have taken a lot of courage on her part to walk out of a marriage and to walk around unclothed as she did. She was treated with contempt by some and much reverence by others, seeing her as a saint and eventually as God-realized. Her two hundred vakhs are some of the oldest examples of Kashmiri written. She was a bridge between Hindu mysticism and Sufism. Here are many inspired poems with correct form and meaning. Introduction on her Life, Times & Poetry, Sufis & Dervishes: Their Art & Use of Poetry, Selected Bibliography. Appendix: Some vakhs by her famous disciple Nund Rishi. Large Print (18pt) & Large Format (8” x 10”) Edition. Illustrated. 220 pages. Paul Smith (B. 1945) is a poet, author and translator of many books of Sufi poets of the Persian, Arabic, Urdu, Turkish, Pashtu and other languages, including Hafiz, Sadi, Nizami, Rumi, ‘Attar, Sana’i, Jahan, Obeyd Zakani, Nesimi, Kabir, Anvari, Ansari, Jami, Khayyam, Rudaki, Jigar and many others, as well as his own poetry, fiction, plays, biographies, children’s books and 12 screenplays. amazon.com/author/smithpa