{"product_id":"9780231521581","title":"Tamil Love Poetry: The Five Hundred Short Poems of the Ainkurunuru","description":"Dating from the early decades of the third century C.E., the Ainkurunuru is believed to be the earliest anthology of classical Tamil love poetry and known to be a work of enduring importance. Commissioned by a Cera-dynasty king and composed by five masterful poets, the anthology renders the five landscapes of reciprocal love distinctive to the genre: jealous quarreling, anxious waiting and lamentation, clandestine love before marriage, elopement and love in separation, and patient waiting after marriage.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eDespite its centrality to literary and intellectual traditions, the Ainkurunuru remains relatively unknown beyond specialists. Martha Ann Selby, well-known translator of Sanskrit poetry and literature, opens the anthology to all readers, presenting crystalline translations of 500 poems dense with natural imagery and early South Indian cultural materials. Because of their poems' short length, the anthology's five authors relied largely on double entendre and sophisticated techniques of suggestion, giving their works an almost haikulike feel. Groups of verse center on one unique figure, whether an object or animal, a line of direct address, or a specific conversational or situational context. Selby introduces each section with a description of the poet and the conventions at work within the landscape. She then incorporates notes throughout the text that explain the shifting contexts.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eExcerpt:\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eHe has gone off all by himself\u003cbr\u003ebeyond the wastes\u003cbr\u003ewhere tigers used to prowl\u003cbr\u003eand the toothbrush trees grow tall,\u003cbr\u003etheir trunks parched,\u003cbr\u003eon the flinty mountains,\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003ewhile the lovely folds of your loins,\u003cbr\u003ewide as a chariot's seat,\u003cbr\u003evanish as your circlet\u003cbr\u003eworked from gold\u003cbr\u003egrows far too large for you.","brand":"Columbia University Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47120210919664,"sku":"9780231521581","price":31.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/9780231521581_p0.jpg?v=1763679103","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/9780231521581","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}