A.K. Ramanujan has been recognized as one of the world’s most profound scholars of South Asian language and culture. His celebrated translations from classical Tamil and medieval Kannada, and his prize-winning collection of poems are brought together for the first time in this classic edition. The omnibus includes four volumes of his verse in English The striders, Relations, Second Sight, The Black Hen, as well as posthumous editions of his collected and uncollected poems. These are followed by his translations of ancient Tamil and medieval Kannada poetry. The love poems in The Interior Landscape, as well as Poems of Love and War, come from Tamil texts of the first three centuries A.D. Hymns for the Drowning is a selection of poems by Nammalvar, the revered saint-poet of the ninth century, whose devotional hymns addressed to Visnu are among the earliest bhakti texts. The widely known vacanas in Speaking of Siva, by four major saints of the later bhakti protest movement of the tenth century AD, have influenced writers, artists, dancers, and composers throughout the world. Also included in this collection is an interview by Chirantan Kulshrestha and an essay by A.K. Ramanujan on translating Tamil poetry, both of which add significantly to our understanding of the connectedness between the translations and his poems. The works in the volume have individually made a unique contribution. Brought together, they allow us to see the continuity and range of the whole tradition, which Ramanujan has helped to illuminate and define. The Oxford India Ramanujan is a collector’s item for Ramanujan aficionados as well as for all those interested in Indian English poetry and literature in translation.
There are no reviews yet.