Publisher's Synopsis
A Selection from Old Tamil, Prakrit and Sanskrit Poetry While the striped frogs croak And the toads peep, The rains have begun. And now, he will be the monsoon guest Of your fine wrists And ample shoulders. Driving his tall chariot With its tinkling bells, Our lover will come back today. Ainkurunuru 468 Dating from the first to late fourteenth centuries CE, this collection of 188 poems is gleaned from the three literary languages of classical India-Old Tamil, Prãkrit and Sanskrit. Martha Ann Selby combines her unique mastery of these languages with her scholarship and poetical skills to offer a pan-Indian flavor of the changing seasons. The poems celebrate the rhythm and beauty of the cycle of time: summer, the rainy season, autumn, early winter, late winter, and spring. Nature is portrayed through a range of sensual, sexual and colorful images and allegories. The autumn poems, for example, depict a world washed clean by rains, ready for love, specifically, clandestine love, set in the hills among mists and blooming wild cane at night. Readers will appreciate the collection's fine poetic quality and be spellbound by the unique beauty of India's six seasons.
