Dropping the Bow: Poems of Ancient India

Book Overview

"Refined, intense, wise, stiring, immediate, subtle, all the charmed qualities gather in Dropping the Bow."--Anne Waldman

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1893996921
• ISBN13: 9781893996922
• Release Date: June 2008
• Publisher: White Pine Press (NY)
• Length: 128 Pages
• Weight: 0.30 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.4" x 5.1" x 7.0"

Customer Reviews

Timeless gems from ancient India

I have owned this book for at least seven years now, and it continues to astonish me. These poems are brief, simple, universal, and beautifully translated. Most notably, Andrew Schelling spotlights Vidya, a poet that should take her rightful place beside Sappho and Japan's Lady Komachi. Although she wrote a thousand or more years ago, you read her and she comes to glorious life with what is, for me, some of the most erotic poetry ever written. Rapturous. Don't miss it.

A gem of an introduction to classical poetry from India

Much of the available poetry translated from Sanskrit is still translations from the colonial period - translations which are accurate but stilted to our ears. Andrew Schelling has produced a translation which reads as poetry - as poetry that can be enjoyed without any cultural introduction - that can be enjoyed even more if one knows something of its context. An example: "Unable to cast / a semblance / of my girl's face, her dark eyes, / no doubt the moon / is reshaping its cold / disc, only / again to dissolve it"Exquisite poetry in Sanskrit, exquisite poetry in English. Translations such as this create an easy bridge across cultures - and a step towards less European artistic norms.

Poetry that transcends time and culture

The translation appears highly contemporized but the beauty of the sentiment comes through. I throughly enjoyed reading all the poems and continue to marvel at the power and transcendability of poetry written 2000 years ago. Have bought extra copies to give as gifts. Well worth the wait.