Book Review #113: ‘India Love Poems’ by Tambimuttu

‘India Love Poems’ by Tambimuttu (C) Aishwary Mehta.

The story behind this photograph – Many of the poems in this book is written by Bhartihari, thus I’ve used the cover of book ‘Three Hundred Verses’ by Bhartihari to compliment this book.

Author – Tambimuttu | Genre – Poetry

Publishing House – Peter Pauper Press

Source – Purchased | ISBN – 358507

Published in – 1967

Format – Hardcover | Pages – 121

Quote from the book I Liked –

‘Seeing the whole of you, I wish, I were Indra with a thousand eyes.’ (Page no.14)

Stars – 4 Stars

Plot Summary –

Collection of Poetry on Love and Beauty Women from his lover’s eyes.

About the Selector –

Meary James Thurairajah Tambimuttu (15 August 1915 – 23 June 1983) was a Tamil poet, editor, critic and publisher, who for many years played a significant part on the literary scenes of London and New York City. He founded in 1939 the respected literary magazine Poetry London, which “soon became the best-known poetry periodical in England, and Tambimuttu became widely known as a skilful editor.”^[1] Four issues of Poetry London–New York were published in the 1950s; the fifth in 1960. In 1955 Tambimuttu was described by The New York Times as “probably the best-known contemporary Sri Lankan Tamil poet”.

My Review –

I went to a book fair where I found this book amongst a boxset of similar Peter Pauper Books. This book though looks small and cute but have a very profound collection of poems. Yes, India love poems and this book have some of the poems from the first and second century by very renowned poets like – Bhartihari, Rama Raja Bhushan, Kalidas and many more. The poems talk of love, the love which to the western or say to the people who take everything literally rather than metaphorically won’t like or even understand. The poems here are mostly on how a lover sees the beauty of his love. The poems are about eroticism, the pleasure and the lovemaking. Here the poet’s aren’t trying to objectify the beauty in humans. Ask a question to yourself and answer it to yourself rather than publically announcing it – What do you feel when you see something very very extraordinary in nature? You just simply don’t have words to define its beauty, you just feel the High of the moment. In the same way, the authors here wrote about the beauty of their lovers, they just simply lack words to express the love and beauty they have for them, thus they use nature and nature’s beauty to define or at least try to define it metaphorically which simply touches one’s soul. I related a lot of poems in this book and tried to understand the hidden meanings behind them. no poet write what they write in simple language it is filled with hidden meaning which is left for the reader to decode and enjoy. That’s the beauty of Poetry I fell in love with. A recommended read from my side.

What I liked – Selection of some poems.

What could’ve been better – Selection of some other poems.

Writing Style – Poems here have a deeper meaning than just empty words.

Conclusion – Some of the very nicely curated poems on the Lover’s view of his partner.

25th BOOK of 2020 (149 books read overall)

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