The Complete Works of Kalidasa (Volume 1): Poems

Details : 

Publisher : SAHITYA AKADEMI
Author : Chandra Rajan
ISBN-13 : 9788172018245
ISBN-10 : 817201824X
Language : (English Translation)
Pages : 407
Cover: Hardcover
Dimension : 25 x 17 x 3 cm 
Weight : 850 gm

About the Book

Kalidasa's status as a major poet and dramatist in classical Sanskrit Literature is unquestioned. Yet whereas individual works of the poet have been translated, an edition containing an English translation of his collected works does not seem to have been undertaken specially a rendering that combines fidelity to the text with readability using contemporary English. Three volume edition planned by the Sahitya Akademi might well be the Kalidasa corpus in its entirety thereby fulfilling a long felt need and making these classics accessible to a much wider audience than at present.
All seven of the great poet's works that are considered authentically his are being rendered into English verse (verse and prose in the plays) by Chandra Rajan. She has also written a long critical introduction that serves to place the texts in their context and suggests ways of looking at them singly and as part of the oeuvre.
The first volume, Poems opens a window into the rich world of the imagination of a writer of whom it was once said that no second to him has been found. The two volumes to follow will further explore the remarkable world of the art and the profound vision of this writer out of our ancient past whose many splendoured geniuses flowered and fulfilled itself in a many sided achievement.
Kalidasa is a courtly poet but his knowledge of the human heart and his understanding of the complex play of Human motivation are profound. A Keen observer of nature in all its varied aspects he sees with a painter's eye and speaks with a poet's tongue he is at the same time a learned writer who wears his enormous learning lightly and with grace. A mystic awareness of the transcendental combines in his works with a sensuous feeling for beauty in women and nature reflecting as it does the blend of the erotic and spiritual that characterise Siva mythology. Kalidasa's work is instinct with Siva's presence. In all of his works he celebrates the values of the great civilisation that he was heir to but not without questioning as is made amply clear in the introduction.