The Interior Landscape: Love Poems from a Classical Tamil Anthology (Oxford India Paperbacks) Book

In translating these poems from the ancient Dravidian into English, the late A.K. Ramanujan--celebrated poet, translator, and linguist--has rendered two important services: he has introduced Indian and Western readers to an unfamiliar and fascinating literary tradition, and he has provided access to some exquisite examples of a mature classical poetry. In The Interior Landscape, as Ramanujan notes, "passion is balanced by courtesy, transparency by ironies and nuances of design, impersonality by vivid detail, spareness by richness of implication." The poems come from one of the earliest surviving texts of Tamil poetry, the Kuruntokai, an anthology of love lyrics probably recored during the first three centuries A.D. Seventy-six of these classical poems have here been given a modern language and form. In an effort at fidelity to the effect of the images and their placement in the original, Ramanujan has given a visual shape to the poems by typographic devices. With an essay on Tamil poetry explaining its techniques, this collection of quiet, controlled, yet dramatic poems will enrich the understanding of all those interested in Indian poetry while providing hours of pleasure.Read More