Author: Jaishankar Prasad
Translator(s)/Editor: Charles S J White
Publisher: Motilal Banarsidass
Year: 2006
Language: multilingual
Pages: 136
ISBN/UPC (if available): 8120831373
Description
In the Garden of Loneliness presents the reader with a translation into English of one of the masterpieces of modern Hindi Literature. This masterpiece is Jayshankar Prasad’s long poem (190 stanzas) is of a desperate love, felt by the poet, for a sweetheart who has somehow left him or deserted him.
The setting is in a beautiful garden, made desolate by the absence of the beloved. As the introduction indicates, the desperation of separation (Viraha) can be mythologized into a universal longing of the Soul for god or of the modern person’s quest for contact with the Spirit beyond the existential loneliness of the materialism of the contemporary world –view.
TRANSLATOR:
PROFESSOR CHARLES S J WHITE has the M A and PhD degrees in the history of religions from the University of Chicago. His PhD dissertation was entitled, Bhakti as a Religious Structure in the Context of Medieval Hinduism in the Hindi-speaking Area of North India. He also received the M A degree in Creative writing from the Universidad de las Americas in Mexico City. His publications include translations from Spanish.
Contents
FOREWORD
PREFACE
INTRODUCTION
Background
Modern Hindi Literature
Ansu As Literature
Poetic Method
Poetic Meaning
Virah in Prasad’s Ansu
Ansu-text with Translation
Glossary
Bibliography
Verse-Index