poems, translations, reflections
edited by Nedra Rodrigo & Geetha Sukumaran
ISBN: 9781775256786
Poetry | Translation | Tamil
trace: translating [x] series
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What happens when a two-thousand-year-old language, rooted in a classical poetics of land, is moved, along with its peoples, through colonial and postcolonial upheavals, war and forced or voluntary migrations?
Questioning traditional concepts of time, place, labour, love, purity and gender, this prismatic collection of poems, translations and transcreations draws connections between ancient Sangam landscapes and North America’s Indigenous lands, and between classical Tamil love poems and Southeast Asian migrant labour songs––tending, with care, the wounded memories of fisher-people, plantation workers, and undocumented refugees.
Our own vazhinool runs through this book: our sense of indebtedness to the lands that hold us, and the lands we hold within us: நெஞ்சநிலம், the landscape of our hearts. It is not without some sense of trepidation that we set it afloat now, across unknown lands and waters, into unknown hands.
––Nedra Rodrigo & Geetha Sukumaran (introduction)
Poets & Translators
Aadhavan Dheetchanya, Abi Jeyaratnam, P. Ahilan, Akkini Sugu, Alari, Ammoovanar, Avvaiyar, Cheran, Enbah Nilah, Geetha Sukumaran, Gobiga Nada, V. Iswarya, Jayashree Panniker, Kasro Ponnuthurai, Kalaivani Karunakaran, Leanne Betasamosake Simpson, Nedra Rodrigo, Nillanthan, Rashmy, Regini David, S. Bose, Sathimutha Pulavar, shalan joudry, Subhanya Sivajothy, Subramaniya Bharati, Sukirtharani, Thamilini Jothilingam, Tharmini, Yalini Jothilingam.