The Interior Landscape: Classical Tamil Love PoemsA. K. Ramanujan In The Interior Landscape the great Indian poet and translator A.K. Ramanujan has drawn on a celebrated anthology of classical Tamil poetry to compose an unforgettable sequence of love poems. The story unfolds in a series of dramatic exchanges between a shifting array of characters—the lovers, relatives, friends, rivals, and sundry passersby—and as it does we are conducted through five phases of love, from first meeting, anxiety, infidelity and separation to final union, each associated with a lush interior landscape of its own. Immersed in the glories of the natural world, the poems evoke the whole spectrum of love while also capturing the gossip and wisecracking of those who look on from outside. |
Contents
Tēvakulattar What She Said | 1 |
Auvaiyar What the FosterMother Said | 7 |
Auvaiyar What She Said | 13 |
Paraṇar What She Said | 18 |
Ciraikkutiyāntaiyar What He Said in the Desert | 24 |
Patumarattu Mōcikīraṇār What She Said to | 30 |
Catti Nataṇār What He Said | 36 |
Pālaipāțiya Perunkaṭunko What Her GirlFriend | 38 |
Uraiyur Mutukorran What She Said | 50 |
Ōta Ñāni What Her GirlFriend Said | 55 |
Kallaṭanar What She Said | 61 |
Kapilar What She Said to Her Friend | 67 |
Veņmanippūti What She Said to Her GirlFriend | 73 |
Kapilar What He Said | 74 |
105 | |
Kapilar What He Said | 44 |
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400 love poems A. K. RAMANUJAN akam and puram Akam Anthologies Akam poems akam poetry Allur Nanmullai Arici Auvaiyār bamboo bangles Bigger than earth Brahmin Cankam poems Cempulappeyaṇīrār city fell asleep classical Tamil conventions crocodiles with crooked crooked legs dim-witted say Dravidian languages early frost eight anthologies elephant English Eruttalan eyes fat konrai trees flowers forest girl girl-friend gnomic verses goldsmith's nail grammar heart heroine hills imagery India Interior Landscape jackfruit jasmine jungle hen Kannada Kapilar karu kings kuriñci Kuruntokai language Let no sun long white moonlight look love is ripe lover Mācātti male crocodiles mango marutam Milaipperunkantan mother mullai mutal Mysore Narriņai neytal night Okkür owl hooted pālai palmyra Paraṇar passion phrase poetic pools pronounced puram poems reader retroflexes ripe beyond bearing Sanskrit seaside grove season shark sleep South India sun burn Tamil poems tell morning themes Tolkäppiyam town translations two-faced thief types wasteland woman poet