Monday, July 05, 2010

Poems of Avvaiyar

A review I wrote of the ancient Tamil poet Avvaiyar has been published in the Cerise Press.

I'm proud of this one - not because of my own writing, but because I think these are great poems and pretty much no one outside the Tamil-speaking world knows about them (I don't speak Tamil and had never heard of Avvaiyar before). I found the book on a review shelf and picked it up out of curiosity over what Indian writers were doing for the many centuries between the great epics and colonization. Producing beautiful work, apparently; these things were here and just the translator wanting.

It's a slim book and a tiny press, but worth your attention and support. All possible praise to Pruiksma, the translator, and Red Hen Press for giving it to the English-speaking world.

No comments: