The Cane Groves of Narmada River: Erotic Poems from Old India [Paperback]

Andrew Schelling (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 1, 2001

Of the world’s ancient poetry, that of classical India was the most vividly erotic—uninhibited, tender, sad, and joyous by turns. The poems sound as if they might have been written yesterday, although the period covered ranges from roughly 200 CE until about the eleventh century.

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-- Table of Poems from Poem Finder®

Language Notes

Text: English (translation)

Product Details

• Paperback: 908 pages
• Publisher: City Lights Publishers; Revised edition (January 1, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0872863468
• ISBN-13: 978-0872863460
• Product Dimensions: 6.8 x 4.8 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,444,866 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #95 in Books > 4-for-3 Books > History > Asia > General

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16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars beautiful and evocative poetry, June 2, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: The Cane Groves of Narmada River: Erotic Poems from Old India (Paperback)

This is beautiful poetry from ancient India. It is rich and sensual, evocative and erotic, and not always in the overtly sexual way of the Kama Sutra. It engages life, society, and importantly, nature in all its lost beauty in India, the fragrant jasmine vines, the kadamba and ankota tree, the thunderstorm that releases a sudden coolness on a warm summer evening, the white cranes that cross the darkening sky. Then there is the secret rendezvous, the furtive gesture, the passionate love-making, the loss of youth, the immortal desire for fulfillment, the traveller and his betrayals, the gods engaged in their own love-making, Shiva and Parvati as the divine couple. These are timeless themes made more poignant by our desire for them today.

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Poetry from Sanskrit and related Prakrits, October 8, 1998

By 

M. J. Smith (Seattle, WA USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

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This review is from: The Cane Groves of Narmada River: Erotic Poems from Old India (Paperback)

There has been for several years a readily available book of Tamil erotic poetry The Interior Landscape which made the poetry of Southern India accessible. Now Andrew Schelling has provided a readily available text for Northern India. While the vast majority of these lyric poems are written in strictly metered quartrains, Schelling does a marvelous job of rendering the poems in free form - depending upon the images and sounds rather than the meter to translate the poetry into English (as opposed to the early stiff quatrain translations that encouraged no one to read Sanskrit/Prakrit poetry).

The selection of poetry is not "representative" of the anthologies but represent the translator's personal choice around the theme of eroticism. The translator's affinity for the selected poems shows in the excellent translations - faithful to the original text [yes I have read them in their original form] yet solid as English poetry.

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Could have been written yesterday, September 16, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: The Cane Groves of Narmada River: Erotic Poems from Old India (Paperback)

A friend gave me a copy of this book, as I was looking for some poetry to set to music. I was inspired by the Barbara Stoller Miller translation of the Gita Govinda, pub by Columbia Univ., and my friend thought that this book pushed the envelope just a litte bit further.

The forward and introduction are very informative and make this centuries old poetry come alive in a relevant and contemporary way. The poems themselves are very, very old and Schelling's translations make them shimmer with life. If you've ever researched or read other translations of Sanskrit poetry, you will be thrilled with these translations.

As it turns out, I've received permission to use three of the poems in the book to set to music (in their original Sanskrit language).

This book offer a potent and eggshell fragile look at the range of emotions relating to love, romance and romantic longing.

Highly recommended.