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Wild Words: Four Tamil Poets
In 2003, a group of men and women, setting themselves up as guardians of Tamil culture, objected publicly to the language of a new generation of women poets - particularly in the work of Malathi Maithri, Salma, Kutti Revathi and Sukirtharani - charging the women with obscenity and immodesty. More than a decade later, a deep divide still persists in the way readers and critics perceive women poets. Tamil women poets have been categorized as 'bad girls' and 'good girls'. The traditional values prescribed for the 'good' Tamil woman are fearfulness, propriety and modesty. Our poets have chosen, instead, the opposite virtues - fearlessness, outspokenness and a ceaseless questioning of prescribed rules. This anthology celebrates the poetry of the four poets through Lakshmi Holmstrom's English translation.
- GenresPoetry
132 pages, Paperback
First published November 24, 2015
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
January 2, 2019
Wild Words by Lakshmi Holmström
I have been reading this poetry collection for a week now, ritualistically. It compiles some of the well known poems of four contemporary Tamil Women poets, translated into english by Lakshmi Holmström.
Dr S. Revathi, Salma, Malathi Maithri and Sukirtharani- Each devoted to her cause of writing and activism- shook the society out of its complacency on the voice of women.
Needless to say that feminism and womanism are some core themes of these poems.
It encapsulates the essence of longing, love and assertion; from eyes of women who embarked on a journey to express themselves unapologetically, thus, smashing the hypocritical suppression of natural instincts.
As Helen Cixous once remarked in her famous text of feminist critical theory - The Laugh of Medusa: the need of women who write with their bodies ( #L'EcritureFeminine ), so we see these fiery poetesses- affirming a life beyond the patriarchal circumscription.
In words of the body and soul. Kutti Revathi, as she writes in her poem Face ToFace-
"First I remind myself of everything:
the diadems denied;
the public spaces where the body must hide its shape;
The oppressions that preclude our pleasure in nature...
I reject it all."
When Revathi speaks of bodies, Salma of the wedding night, Malathi Maithri of desire and Sukirtharani of her Dalit village- the arrow strikes the foundation of patriarchy and we see a powerful articulation of the I.
Read it if- •You like #poetry • You like the work of these authors or want to know about them •You want to gift it or keep in your feminist poetry collection •You want the sensual and psychological articulation of your thoughts• You want to feel all geared up to smash patriarchy!
I have been reading this poetry collection for a week now, ritualistically. It compiles some of the well known poems of four contemporary Tamil Women poets, translated into english by Lakshmi Holmström.
Dr S. Revathi, Salma, Malathi Maithri and Sukirtharani- Each devoted to her cause of writing and activism- shook the society out of its complacency on the voice of women.
Needless to say that feminism and womanism are some core themes of these poems.
It encapsulates the essence of longing, love and assertion; from eyes of women who embarked on a journey to express themselves unapologetically, thus, smashing the hypocritical suppression of natural instincts.
As Helen Cixous once remarked in her famous text of feminist critical theory - The Laugh of Medusa: the need of women who write with their bodies ( #L'EcritureFeminine ), so we see these fiery poetesses- affirming a life beyond the patriarchal circumscription.
In words of the body and soul. Kutti Revathi, as she writes in her poem Face ToFace-
"First I remind myself of everything:
the diadems denied;
the public spaces where the body must hide its shape;
The oppressions that preclude our pleasure in nature...
I reject it all."
When Revathi speaks of bodies, Salma of the wedding night, Malathi Maithri of desire and Sukirtharani of her Dalit village- the arrow strikes the foundation of patriarchy and we see a powerful articulation of the I.
Read it if- •You like #poetry • You like the work of these authors or want to know about them •You want to gift it or keep in your feminist poetry collection •You want the sensual and psychological articulation of your thoughts• You want to feel all geared up to smash patriarchy!
August 16, 2021
"Wild Words" is an anthology translated by Laxshmi Holmström which celebrates the writing of four Tamil poets who were once threatened to be publicly burnt alive for writing 'obscene' and 'immodest' poems. We are talking about Malathi Maithri, Salma (name changed), Kutti Revathi and Sukirtharani, the four talented and fearless women who refused to be diminished and challenged every such force which tried to supress their freedom to write.
The book is 122 pages long, was first published around 2000-2002 and contains about a dozen poems by each one of the writers. Although every poem is distinct in its own way, there are common themes, notably the politics of female sexuality and a woman's relationship with her body. They talk about daily life, puberty, bleak marriages, lack of belongingness and the fors and againsts of childbirth and motherhood. They talk about us, our sisters, our mothers and grandmothers and paint out the untold reality which clings to each in various forms.
Despite not being a fan of translated poetry, I couldn't help but admire Holmström's rich flown and brilliant translation in this one.
Two filmmakers, Anjali Monteiro and K.P Jayasankar made a documentary on these headstrong poetesses entitled 'She Write'. It is available on YouTube.
To conclude, this anthology serves as a tribute to all those brave female writers whose literary ambitions were once tried to be destroyed. It asks us the questions, how far have we, as a society, come since Sappho wrote her first poem and how much is still left to go ?
The book is 122 pages long, was first published around 2000-2002 and contains about a dozen poems by each one of the writers. Although every poem is distinct in its own way, there are common themes, notably the politics of female sexuality and a woman's relationship with her body. They talk about daily life, puberty, bleak marriages, lack of belongingness and the fors and againsts of childbirth and motherhood. They talk about us, our sisters, our mothers and grandmothers and paint out the untold reality which clings to each in various forms.
Despite not being a fan of translated poetry, I couldn't help but admire Holmström's rich flown and brilliant translation in this one.
Two filmmakers, Anjali Monteiro and K.P Jayasankar made a documentary on these headstrong poetesses entitled 'She Write'. It is available on YouTube.
To conclude, this anthology serves as a tribute to all those brave female writers whose literary ambitions were once tried to be destroyed. It asks us the questions, how far have we, as a society, come since Sappho wrote her first poem and how much is still left to go ?
April 20, 2019
"Upon the almirah
against the room’s walls
between the swirling fan’s blades
a bat clashes,
falls, scatters.
But birds, thousands of miles away
flying across the blue of the sky
and the massing of mountains
and have never, so far,
lost their way."
.
.
"In their minds
I, who smell faintly of meat,
my house where bones hang
and my street
where young men wander without restraint
making loud music
from coconut shells strung with skin
are all at the furthest point of our town.
But I, I keep assuring them
we stand at the forefront."
.
.
RATING: 4.5/5
The Harper Perennial keepsake series, the whole lot of them, is such a stellar display of regional literature translated into English. All twenty books, taking both sets into consideration, are unparalleled gems when it comes to the representation of vernacular voices and bringing them to the current mainstream. Wild Words is a brilliant gem which celebrates the above mentioned women poets and showcases in English transaction a small, yet powerful, sample of their work over a decade. Things got lost in translation I am sure, but Holmstrom has done a wonderful job nonetheless.
.
.
The poems are striking and rebellious, even as they subvert norms and create spaces for the freeing of suppressed narratives. The unapologetic verses embrace everything without a sense of internalised shame which comes with societal oppression even as they talk about love, longing, desire, autonomy, family and identity. Salma and Kutti Revathi were my favourites from among the four, but the entire collection is worth reading on the merit of its creation alone; of course the fact that the poems themselves are visionary goes without saying.
.
against the room’s walls
between the swirling fan’s blades
a bat clashes,
falls, scatters.
But birds, thousands of miles away
flying across the blue of the sky
and the massing of mountains
and have never, so far,
lost their way."
.
.
"In their minds
I, who smell faintly of meat,
my house where bones hang
and my street
where young men wander without restraint
making loud music
from coconut shells strung with skin
are all at the furthest point of our town.
But I, I keep assuring them
we stand at the forefront."
.
.
RATING: 4.5/5
The Harper Perennial keepsake series, the whole lot of them, is such a stellar display of regional literature translated into English. All twenty books, taking both sets into consideration, are unparalleled gems when it comes to the representation of vernacular voices and bringing them to the current mainstream. Wild Words is a brilliant gem which celebrates the above mentioned women poets and showcases in English transaction a small, yet powerful, sample of their work over a decade. Things got lost in translation I am sure, but Holmstrom has done a wonderful job nonetheless.
.
.
The poems are striking and rebellious, even as they subvert norms and create spaces for the freeing of suppressed narratives. The unapologetic verses embrace everything without a sense of internalised shame which comes with societal oppression even as they talk about love, longing, desire, autonomy, family and identity. Salma and Kutti Revathi were my favourites from among the four, but the entire collection is worth reading on the merit of its creation alone; of course the fact that the poems themselves are visionary goes without saying.
.
August 2, 2020
This is a powerful landmark book for the feminist literature in India. We see how this particular collection of poems by Malathi Maithri, Salma, Kutti Revathi and Sukitharani took the poetry world by storm. The poems are threadbare and hit the chords of gender discrimination and feminism at once.
The poems penned by these stalwart women is something which cannot be fathomed at one reading. But is something which needs constant revisting, re-reading and reiterating. Lakshmi Holstrom has done a masterful job of translating these flowing proses from Tamil. These poems came out of a need for women to express themselves boldly on a range of topics from sexuality, rape , childbirth to religious upbringing. The author says how Tamil women are perceived and must behave as "accham, madam and naanam (fearfulness, propreity, modesty or shame)". She says the poets have gone for the"" opposite virtues of fearlessness, outspokeness and a ceaselessleness questioning of prescribed rules.""
This collection of anthology, is sometimes hard, sometimes bittersweet but unflinchingly powerful and is a landmark of feminist literature. Each of the poets some through humble beginnings, some through suppressed trauma have voiced how awareness is needed albeit the controversy surrounding it.
The poems penned by these stalwart women is something which cannot be fathomed at one reading. But is something which needs constant revisting, re-reading and reiterating. Lakshmi Holstrom has done a masterful job of translating these flowing proses from Tamil. These poems came out of a need for women to express themselves boldly on a range of topics from sexuality, rape , childbirth to religious upbringing. The author says how Tamil women are perceived and must behave as "accham, madam and naanam (fearfulness, propreity, modesty or shame)". She says the poets have gone for the"" opposite virtues of fearlessness, outspokeness and a ceaselessleness questioning of prescribed rules.""
This collection of anthology, is sometimes hard, sometimes bittersweet but unflinchingly powerful and is a landmark of feminist literature. Each of the poets some through humble beginnings, some through suppressed trauma have voiced how awareness is needed albeit the controversy surrounding it.
May 6, 2020
Excellent!
The anthology celebrates the struggles & defying courage of four Tamil women poets by showcasing a sample of their works over decades. With a strong lens of intersectional feminism, this is exactly what I needed (to get started) in understanding things close to home. Onto the original Tamil versions of the poems next.
The anthology celebrates the struggles & defying courage of four Tamil women poets by showcasing a sample of their works over decades. With a strong lens of intersectional feminism, this is exactly what I needed (to get started) in understanding things close to home. Onto the original Tamil versions of the poems next.
June 15, 2020
Very beautiful poems. There is something in it for everyone.
June 20, 2023
Selected poems by four women Tamil poets (Malathi Maithri, Salma, Kutty Revathi, Sukirtharani) who brought a paradigm shift in Tamil poetry by writing about caste, class, body in the early 2000s. As Lakshmi Holmstrom informs, they received backlash, ridicule and death threats from the literati then especially with kutti Revathis Mulaigal (2002). Coming from variously oppressed backgrounds, from the villages, they realised the importance of critiquing caste and it's social ordering as possible emancipatory act for the women (against the old traditions of elite feminism). With vivid imageries of landscape cross crossing body politics, violence, oppression, freedom and fight, the poems are a world of themselves. Sukirtharani the dalit writer, includes perils of srilankan tamils in her poems. Salma battled religious oppression (writing in pseudonym and publishing anonymously) till she fought her way through. Importantly, they show body politics without critiquing caste or class is an empty exercise in aesthetics.
June 15, 2018
Nice poetry with the variation of poets.
August 1, 2016
In 2003, a group who had set themselves up as guardians of Tamil culture, objected publicly to the language of a new generation of women poets, namely Malathi Maithri, Salma, Kutti Revathi and Sukirtharani, they were charged with obscenity and immodesty. The controversy, outside of abusive letters, came to a head when the film-song writer Snehithan, appeared on television declaring that the women should be lined up on Mount Road in Chennai, doused with kerosene oil and burnt alive. Two filmmakers, Anjali Monteiro and K.P. Jayaasankar brought further publicity to the women writer’s cause by making a documentary SheWrite – bringing to the public’s notice the courageous stand the four women had taken.
The documentary apparently focuses on the controversy, however missing one important element, the poetry itself. As the “Translator’s Note” at the conclusion of this collection points out;
When we look back at the history of Tamil poetry, the marginal status of women in the literary canon and their relative meagre output are evident since classical times, Tamil women have been writing and publishing in various genre, but as far as poetry is concerned, we have seen a gradual change only since 1970….suddenly, in the 1990’s, the contribution of women to Tamil poetry became notable. That was a poetry that had to be noticed, not because it was written by women, but because it was different from what appeared in the mainstream.
This book was first published as a bi-lingual English Tamil work by Kalachuvadu Publications and Sangum House “Wild Girls, Wicked Words” in 2012, with the English only edition “Wild Words” being published by Harper Perennial in 2015. It came to my attention purely because of the controversy surrounding the work and always being one to champion, or at least attempt to understand, marginal writers, this book was marked as a “must read”.
The collection opens with seventeen poems by Malathi Maithri, who grew up in a fishing village community with a strong tradition of independent working women. This upbringing coming immediately to the fore with the poem “Waves”. A poem in five sections all opening with “This is a house whose windows/open out to the sea” detailing the everyday activities. The metre and repetition forming word waves, replicating living by the sea and ordinary events like reading an email, cars screeching, all mingled with food and desire.
For my full review go to http://messybooker.blogspot.com.au/20...
The documentary apparently focuses on the controversy, however missing one important element, the poetry itself. As the “Translator’s Note” at the conclusion of this collection points out;
When we look back at the history of Tamil poetry, the marginal status of women in the literary canon and their relative meagre output are evident since classical times, Tamil women have been writing and publishing in various genre, but as far as poetry is concerned, we have seen a gradual change only since 1970….suddenly, in the 1990’s, the contribution of women to Tamil poetry became notable. That was a poetry that had to be noticed, not because it was written by women, but because it was different from what appeared in the mainstream.
This book was first published as a bi-lingual English Tamil work by Kalachuvadu Publications and Sangum House “Wild Girls, Wicked Words” in 2012, with the English only edition “Wild Words” being published by Harper Perennial in 2015. It came to my attention purely because of the controversy surrounding the work and always being one to champion, or at least attempt to understand, marginal writers, this book was marked as a “must read”.
The collection opens with seventeen poems by Malathi Maithri, who grew up in a fishing village community with a strong tradition of independent working women. This upbringing coming immediately to the fore with the poem “Waves”. A poem in five sections all opening with “This is a house whose windows/open out to the sea” detailing the everyday activities. The metre and repetition forming word waves, replicating living by the sea and ordinary events like reading an email, cars screeching, all mingled with food and desire.
For my full review go to http://messybooker.blogspot.com.au/20...
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews