Love Stands Alone: Selections from Tamil Sangam Poetry

by A.R. Venkatachalapathy

The breathtaking poems in Love Stands Alone speak to us across time, space, language and culture. The interior, akam, and the exterior, puram, form their two overarching themes. The akam poems are concerned with love in all its varied situations: clandestine and illicit; conjugal happiness and infidelity; separation and union. The puram poems encompass all other aspects of worldly life: wars and battlefields, the munificence of kings and chieftains, and the wisdom of bards.
With a comprehensive introduction by A.R. Venkatachalapathy, M.L. Thangappa’s translations delight the senses and bring alive a world long past.

Genres: Poetry, Literature, India, Classics

256 pages, Kindle Edition

First published July 15, 2013

About the author

A.R. Venkatachalapathy, a professor at the Madras Institute of Development Studies, Chennai, has held the Indian Council for Cultural Relations’ Chair of Indian Studies at the National University of Singapore. He is published widely, both in English and Tamil, on the social, cultural and intellectual history of colonial Tamil Nadu.

Reviews

[Gill · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book, which is a present from a dear friend. I gave it 4 stars.

Incidentally I find it strange that Goodreads acknowledges the person who wrote the introduction as the author, rather than the person who did the translations. I wonder if this is normal? I think that M.L. Thangappa also needs to be included in the Goodreads information about the book.

I found the 50 page introduction very interesting, especially the part about the use of writing materials, and also about Tamil and Sanskrit.

The poems are divided into two main categories, Akam poems which are about the inner life and Puram poems which are about the outer life.

In Akam poems no-one is mentioned by name, and they are set in a specific context. The thematic content is matched with the physical setting. Many of them are about women..

My favourite of the Akam poems are:
Rain-soaked water lily ( Kurunthokai 117)
Love stands alone (Kurunthokai 174) - the title poem
The antelopes (Akananuru 135) - my favourite poem of all
The cruellest hour (Kalithokai 119)

My favourite of the Puram poems are:
Your land, O king (Purananuru 5)
When the moon was full (Purananuru 112)

[Dhanaraj Rajan · Rating 4 out of 5]

It contains some good translations of some of the poems from Sangam literature (compendium of ancient Tamil literature).

[Alex Linschoten · Rating 4 out of 5]

An excellent entry point into Sri Lankan poetry from the classical period. These poems read like modern poetry, despite their age. Highly recommended.

[Deepak Srinivas]

an internet user commenting on fellini's satyricon opined that if we went back into the past, it would be so alien to us that it would appear to be a dream - it is a thought that has fascinated me, and sangam poems, in their entirety, via both content and syntax, seem to exude this alluring otherworldly distance - the themes of yearning and infatuation are of course universal - but the very syntax of it, of environment intertwined with narrative, flowers as essential descriptors, this rigid categorisation of poems for a cultural matrix that still eludes complete comprehension for now. the content: a world of rich images - parrots bursting from the fields, herons like human witnesses, hills and forests haunted by tigers and elephants roaring waterfalls and screeching bamboo trees - psychovisual simmerings - thinning wrists and clattering bangles on those who yearn, wet fields and fishes and storks as both visions of grandeur and of lust - the subconscious - kings as a fifth limb of the individual, their being integral to the spiritual health of the person and the collective unconscious, a unrestrained, irreverent rage against death, bravery in war and quests for wealth and gallivanting with women as axles in the character arcs of man, and, in proportion to this, poems that spring up from the spiritual crises when man loses all of this, (like a karmic whiplash from all those poems, all this words spent detailing the pain and yearning of the women that these vagabonds leave in their wake) spectres of the halcyon past looming in the frail present to create a gradient, a contrast for our poets to exploit, to draw out the cosmic futility, the uncanny, affecting ephemerality of it all.

a beautiful rendering of the cultural fabric of a bygone era.

favorite poems:

will he wipe away my tears, akananuru 395 - psychedelic and vivid

leaning on the pillar, purananuru 86 -
not sure whether this is condemning or condoning the meat thresher of war, most likely the latter, but it is still affecting - the absence of the mother's son is felt strongly in the laconic writing

when the moon was full, purananuru 112 - devastating for the same reason the previous one was

like a minstrel, purananuru 226 +
it's living that counts, purananuru 239
powerful elegies.

[Aishwarya · Rating 5 out of 5]

This anthology is special and close to my heart. Love Stands Alone is a Tamil-English translation of selected Sangam poems. Sangam period is vast and cannot be explained in a single post, so I will brief about the categories. We have two sections, one talks about subjective feelings titled "Akam" and "Puram" about valour, bravery in war.

Sangam poems are sociological and, linguistic evidences of Tamil language's richness. These entries are shorn of epithets and qualifying phrases that capture the readers despite of their Nationality.

Now, how authentic is the translation of ML Thangappa? Should you prefer AK Ramanujan over Thangappa? Thangappa's translation comes close to the original anthology because he captures the essence as it is and fortunately, it's not word-for-word translation. You can comfortably choose Ramanujan over him because it falls under your personal preference. Both the translaters are equally good and celebrated.

"I feel an urgency to get up/ and smash things,
To knock and break my head,/ to send out violent shrieks
As if in mad frenzy.
This cool night breeze/ kindles the fire of love in me.
But this callous village is sweetly sleeping."
(Avvaiyar, Paalai Thinai, Kurunthokai 28).

Each poem falls under one of the five "thinai" lands and it's characteristics (Kuruji - Mountain, Mullai - Forest, Marutham - cropland, Neithal - seashore, Paalai - desert), representing intensified feelings of the speaker to the listener, who is usually the friend of the Lady Love or the man. Akam poems are filled with clandestine feelings of the lovers, hopeful waiting for a partner, infidelity and sulking, anxious wife waiting for her husband's return, and the lover's departure to earn wealth which feels more like parting.

Would you pick this book up in the future?! 💚

[Divya · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is my first proper reading of any sangam poetry, albeit translated, and it is a wide-ranging collection. The comprehensive introduction, setting the context and explaining the structure of the tradition with clarity, was immensely helpful, given that I knew nothing about it. The translations are mellifluous and I have many favourites, one of which is borrowed in the title of the book, "Love stands alone". I found the akam more enjoyable than the puram category of poems, but there are gems in both. Most works are filled with symbolism, often inspired from the natural world; the classification of the poems itself based on seasons that represent emotions and landscapes that describe human intricacies.

This book has been a wonderful introduction to sangam literature and I am excited to read more.

[The Old Stoic · Rating 4 out of 5]

Amazing poems from the Sangam era.. when 2000 years ago a poet sang 'Yaadhum Oore Yaavarum Kelir'.

Enjoyed reading these poems, although I feel that the translation may have taken away some of the charm.

[Divya · Rating 5 out of 5]

each and every word of the poems in the book reflects our own life. this book would help us to admire life and nature.

[Nakeeran Krish · Rating 5 out of 5]

Must read

[Carmen Palm · Rating 5 out of 5]

Gorgeous poems! Loved it

[Siyamala · Rating 4 out of 5]

👍

Good book to read and a treasure of tamil classical literature .this is a
.very good book in English translation

[Michael Kim · Rating 3 out of 5]

A quick read - with themes of longing, nature/rain, and flattering patrons of the arts or rulers.

[Siva Prasath T R · Rating 5 out of 5]

Love stands Alone is a selections from 2000 year old #TamilSangamPoetry.
As quoted by #WiliamWordsworth "Poetry is the spontaneous outflow of power feelings". .The poems in this corpus total 2,381 composed by as many 473 poets
But this book comprises of wide ranging collection of 200 breathtaking poems speak to us across time, space,language and culture. These poems are broadly divided into #Akam (Interior) and #Puram ( Exterior). Author has provided wonderful introduction to #SangamLiterature.The speciality of sangam poems is its are classification based of five different Thinai (#landscapes), and mostly oriented towards Kaalam (#Seasons), Malar ( #flowers) especially #Nature. #Akam poems concerned with #love in all its varied situations. Other than Akam are considered as Puram poems. I personally felt Akam is much more interesting and lovely than puram since, close to our heart.This book is for those who can't read them in original, poem can only be as good as translators. #PoemLovers certainly love this book❤️
𝑾𝒊𝒏𝒏𝒆𝒓 𝒐𝒇 𝒕𝒉𝒆 2012 𝑺𝒂𝒉𝒊𝒕𝒚𝒂 𝑨𝒌𝒂𝒅𝒆𝒎𝒊 𝑻𝒓𝒂𝒏𝒔𝒍𝒂𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏 𝑨𝒘𝒂𝒓𝒅.

[Archana Sivassubramanian · Rating 4 out of 5]

Terrific and yet heartwarming, Love Stands Alone is a collection of translations of truly amoral poems from the sangam era. Poetic license supercedes taboos and one must truly surrender to the magnanimity in perspectives to appreciate the nuances of such beautiful poetry. Such sweetness, So much pain, so rhythamically conveyed. Dying to read the native text now.

[Gita Madhu · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good initiative -good cover also

[Zainuddeen]

i love this book